Eve Best

Eve Best
Eve Best at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Benefit, 2009
Born	Emily Best 31 July 1971 (1971-07-31) Ladbroke Grove, London
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1999–present

Emily "Eve" Best (born 31 July 1971) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Dr. O'Hara in the Showtime television series Nurse Jackie, as Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech, and Dolley Madison in the 2011 American Experience television special about that First Lady.

Early life and education

Best grew up in Ladbroke Grove, London and attended Wycombe Abbey Girls’ School before going on to Lincoln College, Oxford, where she read English. Among her earliest public performances were with the W11 Opera children's opera company in London at the age of nine. After graduating from Oxford where she had appeared in OUDS productions, and toured to the Edinburgh Festival, she made her professional debut as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at the Southwark Playhouse.

Career

After a period working on the London fringe, Best trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. After graduating in 1999 she appeared in a revival of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at the Young Vic for which she won both the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle best newcomer awards; she adopted her grandmother's name as a stage name, as an Emily Best was already registered with British Actors' Equity Association.

Best won an Olivier Award for playing the title role in Hedda Gabler and was nominated for the same award the following year for her performance as Josie in Eugene O'Neill's play A Moon For The Misbegotten at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

In early 2007, she starred in a Sheffield Crucible production of As You Like It which played for a short time at the RSC's Swan Theatre in Stratford as part of their Complete Works season. In the same year she performed in the Broadway transfer of A Moon For The Misbegotten for which she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play.

Best appeared in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Cort Theatre in New York, which co-starred Ian McShane, Raúl Esparza and Michael McKean. Daniel Sullivan directed the 20-week limited engagement, which ran through April 13, 2008.

Television appearances include Prime Suspect: The Final Act (2006), Waking the Dead (2004), Shackleton (2002), and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2005).

She appears as Lucrece in the Naxos audiobook version of Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece. She also starred in a 2000 BBC Radio 4 production of Emma.

Best co-stars as Dr. Eleanor O'Hara in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie, that premiered in June 2009. She played the Duchess of Windsor — Wallis Simpson — in The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

Filmography

Best, after performing in A Moon for the Misbegotten in NYC, May 27, 2007

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, TheThe Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells	Ellen McGillvray	TV mini-series
2002	Shackleton	Eleanor Shackleton	TV Movie
2004	Lie With Me	Roselyn Tyler
2004	Lodge, TheThe Lodge	Yuni	(short)
2006	Prime Suspect: The Final Act	Linda Philips	TV Movie
2010	King's Speech, TheThe King's Speech	Wallis Simpson

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Bill, TheThe Bill	Anne	Episode: Beasts
2000	Casualty	Amber Hope	Episode: Seize the Night
2004	Waking the Dead	Natasha Bloom	Episode: Shadowplay: Part 1
2005	Inspector Lynley Mysteries, TheThe Inspector Lynley Mysteries	Amanda Gibson	Episode: In Divine Proportion
2006	Vital Signs	Sarah Cartwright	6 episodes
2009–present	Nurse Jackie	Dr. Eleanor O'Hara	36 episodes
2010	American Experience	Dolley Madison	Episode: Dolley Madison
2010	Shadow Line, TheThe Shadow Line	Petra Mayler	3 episodes

External links

• Eve Best at the Internet Movie Database
• Eve Best at the Internet Broadway Database
• Interview with the Sunday Times
• W11 Opera
• Official The Homecoming on Broadway website