Jemima Kirke

Jemima Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a British-American artist, actress and director.

Born in London on 26 April 1985, Kirke was raised in New York City.

She is the daughter of Simon Kirke, the former drummer of the rock bands Bad Company and Free.

Her mother is Lorraine Kirke (née Dellal), the owner of Geminola, a vintage boutique in New York City that supplied a number of outfits for the television series Sex and the City.

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

Kirke's maternal grandfather, Jack Dellal, was a British businessman of Iraqi-Jewish descent and her maternal grandmother, Zehava Helmer, was an Israeli flight attendant.

Kirke has two sisters, actress Lola Kirke and singer and actress Domino Kirke.

She is a cousin of curator Alexander Dellal, shoe designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal and model/photographer Alice Dellal.

She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short Smile for the Camera and her feature-length debut in Tiny Furniture, as a favour for her childhood friend Lena Dunham.

Kirke majored in art as a student and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2008.

She married lawyer Michael Mosberg in 2009 and they have two children.

In late 2011, she held an exhibition titled "A Brief History" through Skylight Projects.

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 and The Little Hours.

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

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

She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson in the 2012 HBO series Girls.

In 2015, Kirke partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to create a public service announcement 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.

Kirke resides in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn and East Hampton.

The couple had reportedly separated in the summer of 2016.

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

In late 2017 to early 2018 she had a show at 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 presented for Batsheva Hay's spring collection at Ben's Kosher Deli.

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 Tiny Furniture.

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.

In 2017, she appeared in the music video for "Gotta Get a Grip" by Mick Jagger, directed By Saam Farahmand and appeared opposite Alex Cameron in his music video for the song "Stranger's Kiss".

In September 2017, Kirke appeared opposite Zayn Malik 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, in which she plays Melissa, an older, experienced writer fascinated by a younger couple.

In 2023, Kirke starred in the Apple TV+ series City on Fire, based on the book of the same name.

In January 2017, it was announced Kirke and Mosberg had split.

In 2018, Kirke starred alongside her real-life sister Lola Kirke in Emma Forrest's film Untogether.

The film premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.

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

She would go onto direct other projects including multiple music videos and a satire short film with Alex Cameron.