Jemima Jo M Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a

British-American British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...

artist, actress and director. She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson on the HBO series ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...

''. She made her film debut in the 2005

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

short '' Smile for the Camera'' and her feature-length debut in ''

Tiny Furniture ''Tiny Furniture'' is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written, directed by, and starring Lena Dunham. The film premiered at South by Southwest, where it won the award for Best Narrative Feature, screened at such festivals as Maryland Film Fes ...

'', as a favour for her childhood friend

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls (TV series), Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy ...

. In 2017, she starred in Zayn's music video for the single " Dusk Till Dawn" featuring

Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

Early life

Born in Westminster,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to British parents, Kirke was raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She is the daughter of

Simon Kirke Simon Frederick St George Kirke (born 28 July 1949) is an English rock drummer best known as a member of Free and Bad Company. He has been the only continuous member of Bad Company since their inception. Life and career Kirke was born in L ...

, the former drummer of the rock bands

Bad Company Bad Company are an English rock supergroup that was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Bad Company ''AllMusic'' Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, a ...

and Free. Her mother is Lorraine Kirke (née Dellal), the owner of

Geminola Geminola was a New York vintage clothing store located at 41 Perry Street in the West Village. It was founded in 2004 by Lorraine Kirke, the ex of Free and Bad Company musician Simon Kirke. The store's name was a combination of the names of three o ...

, a vintage boutique in New York City that supplied a number of outfits for the television series ''

Sex and the City ''Sex and the City'' is an American romantic comedy, romantic comedy-drama television series created by Darren Star for HBO. An adaptation of Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City (newspaper column), newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the ...

''. Her character Jessa wore a wedding dress from Geminola in the season finale of the first season of ''Girls''; also, earlier in her career, she was featured along with her sisters in a fashion piece in '' Teen Vogue'' in which they wore clothing from the store. Her father is of English and Scottish descent (the Kirkes being a junior branch of a family of

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

landed gentry and descending also from the Gibson-Craig baronets) and her mother is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Kirke's maternal grandfather,

Jack Dellal Jack Dellal (2 October 1923 – 28 October 2012) was a British property investor, nicknamed "Black Jack". His company, the property group Allied Commercial Holdings, financed the purchase of Shell Mex House in 2002 and sold it in 2007. Dellal h ...

, was a British businessman of

Iraqi-Jewish The history of the Jews in Iraq ( he, יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים, ', ; ar, اليهود العراقيون, ) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BC. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and mo ...

descent and her maternal grandmother, Zehava Helmer, was an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i former stewardess. Kirke has two sisters, actress

Lola Kirke Lola Clementine Kirke (born 27 September 1990) is a British-American actress and singer-songwriter. She starred in the 2015 film ''Mistress America'' and the Amazon Studios television series ''Mozart in the Jungle.'' She appeared in '' Gone Girl ...

and singer and actress

Domino Kirke Domino Suzy Kirke-Badgley (born 17 December 1983) is a British-American singer, doula, and actress. Life and career Kirke is of English and Iraqi-Jewish heritage. She was named after Domino Harvey, whom her mother met when Harvey was a young g ...

. She is a cousin of curator Alexander Dellal, shoe designer

Charlotte Olympia Dellal ''Charlotte Olympia'' is a British luxury shoe and accessories brand founded by Charlotte Olympia Dellal in 2008. History Dellal launched her eponymous label after graduating from London College of Fashion's Cordwainer's footwear design co ...

and model/photographer

Alice Dellal Alice Olivia Dellal (born 29 July 1987) is a British-Brazilian model and photographer. Biography Daughter of Brazilian model mother, Andrea, and Iraqi-British father, Guy Dellal, Alice is an heiress and granddaughter to the property tycoon, ...

Fine art

Kirke majored in art as a student and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in 2008. In late 2011, she held an exhibition titled "A Brief History" through Skylight Projects. In late 2017 to early 2018 she had a show a
Sargeant's Daughters
a Lower East Side Gallery, where she exhibited portrait-style paintings, some of them neck-up, others full-figure, of women in their wedding dresses. Kirke was inspired by her own divorce and the exhibition also contained a self-portrait of Kirke in her wedding dress and veil. In September 2022, Kirke and husband Alex Cameron modeled for

Batsheva Hay Batsheva Hay is an American fashion designer. Early life and education Hay grew up in Queens, New York, in a secular Jewish household. She graduated from Stuyvesant High School. She was educated at Stanford and Georgetown. She has a B.A. fro ...

's spring collection at Ben's Kosher Deli.

Acting

Growing up in West Village, Kirke found herself accepting a number of roles on her friends' projects. Dunham asked Kirke to take on a supporting role in her debut film ''

''. Kirke and a number of other friends were called upon as a favour to Dunham since there was not enough money to pay professional actors. Although the film turned out to be profitable, Kirke received no payment. Kirke reunited with Dunham in the HBO series ''Girls'', appearing in all six seasons from 2011 to 2017 as the character Jessa Johansson. Kirke next had supporting roles in the dark comedy films ''

Ava's Possessions ''Ava's Possessions'' is a 2015 American supernatural comedy horror film written and directed by Jordan Galland. Louisa Krause stars as the titular Ava, a young woman that must learn how to put her life together after a demon is exorcised from h ...

'' and '' The Little Hours''. In 2018, Kirke starred alongside her real-life sister

Emma Forrest Emma Forrest (born 26 December 1976) is a British-American film director, screenwriter and novelist. Early life Forrest was born in London, England, to a Jewish family. Her American mother, Judy Raines, was also a writer, mainly for British tel ...

's film ''

Untogether ''Untogether'' is an American drama film directed by Emma Forrest. Her directorial debut, it stars Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, Lola Kirke and Jemima Kirke. The film centers on a recovering addict who attempts to get her writing career back on tr ...

''. The film premiered at the 2018

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. In 2011, Kirke appeared in the music video "Wring It Out" for the group

Rival Schools ''Rival Schools: United by Fate'', known in Japan as is a fighting game produced by Capcom originally released as an arcade game in 1997 and ported to the PlayStation in 1998. On February 23, 2012, Capcom released ''United by Fate'' on the ...

. Both this music video and '' Smile for the Camera'' were directed by her friend

Jordan Galland Jordan Galland (born 1980) is an American filmmaker and musician based in New York City, and operates Slush Puppy Music, a record label, as well as his own film production company, Ravenous Films. Early life Born in Farmington, Connecticut, Ga ...

. In 2017, she appeared in the music video for " Gotta Get a Grip" by

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

, directed by

Saam Farahmand Saam Farahmand (born 1979 in London) is an Iranian-British film and music video director. A fine arts graduate of Goldsmiths, Farahmand is considered, according to ''The Guardian'', "one of the most talented music video directors of his generat ...

and appeared opposite Alex Cameron in his music video for the song "Stranger's Kiss". In September 2017, Kirke appeared opposite

Zayn Malik Zain Javadd Malik ( ; born 12 January 1993), known mononymously as Zayn, is an English pop and R&B singer. Zayn auditioned as a solo contestant for the British music competition television series ''The X Factor'' in 2010. After being eliminate ...

in his music video for the song " Dusk Till Dawn". In 2021, Kirke appeared in the Netflix series ''Sex Education'' in the role of Hope, headmistress of Moordale Secondary School. In 2021, it was announced that Kirke had accepted a role in '' Conversations with Friends'', a series based on the book of the same name by

Sally Rooney Sally Rooney (born 20 February 1991) is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published three novels: ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017), '' Normal People'' (2018), and ''Beautiful World, Where Are You'' (2021). ''Normal People'' was adap ...

, in which she plays Melissa, an older, experienced writer fascinated by a younger couple.

Directing

Kirke's directorial debut was in 2019 when she spearheaded the video for the track "Mama" by her sister

. She would go onto direct other projects including a satire short film with fiancé Alex Cameron.

Activism

In 2015, Kirke partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to create a

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. In the UK, they are generally called a public information film (PIF); in Hong Kong, ...

to advance the future of reproductive healthcare. In the PSA, Kirke discusses the abortion she received in college where she could not afford the anesthesia in addition to the procedure and went without.

Personal life

Kirke resides in

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Carroll Gardens is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Taking up around 40 city blocks, it is bounded by Degraw and Warren Streets (north), Hoyt and Smith Streets (east), Ninth Street or the Gowan ...

and East Hampton. She married lawyer Michael Mosberg in 2009 and they have two children. In January 2017, it was announced Kirke and Mosberg had split. The couple had reportedly separated in the summer of 2016. Kirke is close friends with

, the creator of ''Tiny Furniture'' and ''Girls''. They became friends while attending Saint Ann's School in New York City. Since July 2017, Kirke has been in a relationship with Australian musician and singer songwriter Alex Cameron. Cameron has said that his 2019 album ''

Miami Memory ''Miami Memory'' is the third studio album by Australian musician Alex Cameron, released by record label Secretly Canadian on 13 September 2019. Cameron announced the album on 18 June 2019 by releasing the song "Divorce". It was produced by Jona ...

'' is primarily influenced by his relationship with Kirke. She married Cameron in November 2020 in a private ceremony.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirke, Jemima 1985 births Living people Free (band) 21st-century British actresses Actresses from London Actresses from New York City American film actresses American television actresses American people of Iraqi-Jewish descent American people of Israeli descent American people of Scottish descent Artists from London British expatriate actresses in the United States British women painters English film actresses English people of Iraqi-Jewish descent English people of Israeli descent English people of Scottish descent British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent British people of Israeli descent English television actresses Jewish English actresses Rhode Island School of Design alumni Saint Ann's School (Brooklyn) alumni People from East Hampton (town), New York People from Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn English Ashkenazi Jews American Sephardic Jews American Mizrahi Jews