Emily Mortimer
| Emily Mortimer | |
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 Mortimer at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival Vanity Fair party |
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| Born | Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer 1 December 1971 Finsbury Park, London, England, UK |
| Alma mater | Lincoln College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse(s) | Alessandro Nivola (m. 2003) |
| Children |
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| Parents |
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Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer[1] (born 1 December 1971) is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including 30 Rock, Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, Hugo, Cars 2, Shutter Island, Harry Brown and The Newsroom.[2] She is recognised for her ability to play a wide range of characters, from drama to comedy, in successful independent and studio productions.
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Early life [edit]
Mortimer was born in Finsbury Park, London[3] England, a daughter of Sir John Mortimer, QC (a lawyer and writer who created Rumpole of the Bailey) and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop).[4] She has a younger sister, Rosie; two older half-siblings, Sally Silverman and Jeremy, by her father's first marriage, to author Penelope Fletcher; and a half-brother, Ross Bentley, by her father's liaison with actress Wendy Craig.[5]
Mortimer studied at St Paul's Girls' School in west London (she was in the year below actress Rachel Weisz),[6] where she appeared in several pupil productions. She then went on to Oxford University, where she read Russian at Lincoln College and performed in several plays. Before becoming an actress, Mortimer wrote a column for the Daily Telegraph, and was also screenwriter for an adaptation of Lorna Sage's memoir, Bad Blood.
Career [edit]
Mortimer performed in several plays while studying at Oxford University, and while acting in a student production she was spotted by a producer who later cast her in the lead in a television adaptation of Dame Catherine Cookson's The Glass Virgin (1995).[7] Subsequent television roles included Sharpe's Sword and Coming Home. Her first film role was opposite Val Kilmer in 1996's The Ghost and the Darkness. Mortimer was then in the Irish coming-of-age story The Last of the High Kings, released later the same year.
In the 1997 Midsomer Murders pilot episode The Killings at Badger's Drift, she appeared as Katherine Lacey.
In 1998 she appeared as Kat Ashley in Elizabeth, and played Miss Flynn in the TV mini-series Cider with Rosie, which was adapted for television by her father.
In 1999, she played three roles that raised her profile outside the UK: She was the "Perfect Girl" dropped by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, appeared as Esther in the American TV mini-series Noah's Ark, and was Angelina, the star of the film-within-a-film, in the upscale slasher flick Scream 3.
In 2000, Mortimer was cast as Katherine in Kenneth Branagh's musical adaptation of Love's Labour's Lost, where she met actor and future husband Alessandro Nivola. She took on her biggest role in an American film to date, playing opposite Bruce Willis in Disney's The Kid. In 2002, she had a major role in The 51st State (also known as Formula 51), starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle.[7]
In 2003, Mortimer appeared in Stephen Fry's film Bright Young Things. In 2004, Mortimer appeared in the film Dear Frankie. In 2005, she played a major role as the oblivious spouse of an adulterous Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Woody Allen's Match Point, as well as voicing young Sophie in the English-dubbed version of Howl's Moving Castle. In 2007 she played a supporting role in Lars and the Real Girl as the supportive sister-in-law of Ryan Gosling's title character. She also appeared in The Pink Panther in 2006 and in its 2009 sequel, as the love interest of Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin). In the last three episodes of 30 Rock's first season, she played Phoebe, a love interest of Alec Baldwin's character, Jack Donaghy.
Mortimer played an aspiring actress opposite Andy García in City Island (2009) and as Rachel Solando in Martin Scorsese's 2010 film Shutter Island. She played Leonie Gilmour in the film Leonie, released in the autumn of 2010. In 2011, she started work with the acclaimed screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin as Mackenzie McHale in HBO's The Newsroom.
In January 2013 it was announced that Mortimer would be co-creating and starring in the comedy series Doll & Em for Sky Living, along with her long-term friend, actress and comedian Dolly Wells.
Personal life [edit]
In 2000, Mortimer met American actor Alessandro Nivola, while both were starring in Love's Labour's Lost. The couple married in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire,[8] on 3 January 2003. A Mexican punk band performed at their wedding. Mortimer gave birth to their son, Samuel John, in Westminster, London,[8] on 23 September 2003. Their second child, May Rose, was born on 15 January 2010.[9] During the same year, Mortimer naturalised as an American citizen for "cynical reasons" in order to avoid paying inheritance tax in the event of anything happening to her husband.[10] Mortimer is an atheist.[10]
Filmography [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.
- ^ Merritt, Stephanie (20 January 2005). "Woman on the verge". Guardian (London). Retrieved 4 October 2010.
- ^ "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Interview with Jay Leno. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
- ^ Rumpole creator Sir John Mortimer dies, aged 85" Daily Mail, 16 January 2009] says her maiden name is Gallop. In this Guardian obituary for the first wife, the maiden name of the second wife is Gollop. The Daily Mail article mentions that Sir John Mortimer had two children by his first marriage, which ended in 1972 (1971 per his Wikipedia article), and two by his second marriage.
- ^ Walker, Tim; Eden, Richard (13 September 2004). "Mortimer's joy at son with Wendy Craig". Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 23 May 2009.
- ^ GQ magazine, September 2005, p212
- ^ a b Woman on the verge The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2012
- ^ a b Marriages and Births England and Wales 1837–2006
- ^ "Emily Mortimer Says Son 'Mocks' Her English Accent". Celebrity-babies.com. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
- ^ a b Barkham, Patrick (8 July 2010). "Emily Mortimer: 'Secrets are a part of all of our lives'". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 1 August 2010.
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emily Mortimer |
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- Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford
- English emigrants to the United States
- English film actresses
- English television actresses
- English stage actresses
- English atheists
- American film actresses
- American television actresses
- American stage actresses
- American atheists
- Independent Spirit Award winners
- People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
- Actresses from London
- People from Finsbury Park
- 1971 births
- Living people
- Daily Telegraph journalists
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- 20th-century English actresses
- 21st-century English actresses
