From TV talent show runner-up to Golden Globes winner: Who is Jessie Buckley?

The Kerry-born actress has also been tipped as a leading contender for the Oscars, with nominations yet to be announced

Jessie Buckley. Picture: Sthanlee Mirador/PA Wire

Jessie Buckley has won the best actress in a motion picture drama at the Golden Globes for her role in Hamnet.

The Kerry-born actress, 36, portrays William Shakespeare's wife Agnes - historically known as Anne - in the film adaptation of Maggie O Farrell's Hamnet, which follows the pair as they deal with the grief of losing their son.

Her emotional performance has placed her at the heart of this year's award season, which kicked off with her best actress win at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, followed by nominations for the Actor Awards, formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Baftas.

She has also been tipped as a leading contender for the Oscars, with nominations yet to be announced.

Jessie Buckley poses in the press room with the award for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture for 'Hamnet'. Picture: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Born in Killarney, Buckley spent five years studying at an all-girls convent school and attended Fiona Crowley Stage School, along with Killarney Musical Society, where she won an AIMS award for Best Actress.

She went on to join the BBC talent show I'd Do Anything in 2008, aged 17.

The show documented the search for a new lead to play Nancy in the West End revival of the musical Oliver!, with Buckley ending as runner-up, losing out to Coronation Street star Jodie Prenger.

She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (Rada) in London and graduated with a BA in acting in 2013.

Her stage career kicked off that same year with the star performing at Shakespeare's Globe in a production of The Tempest before starring alongside The Holiday actor, Jude Law, in a West End production of Henry V.

Buckley later starred in the TV series adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace in 2016, portraying Marya Bolkonskaya, and made her film debut a year later in Michael Pearce's psychological thriller Beast alongside Emma actor Johnny Flynn.

She later starred in Wild Rose (2018), a coming-of-age musical drama about a troubled single mother of two and former convict, Rose-Lynn from Glasgow, who tries to follow her dream of becoming a country singer - a role which won her the 2019 Scottish Bafta for best actress.

In 2020, Buckley starred alongside Jesse Plemons in the psychological thriller I'm Thinking Of Ending Things where a visit to her boyfriend's secluded family farm changes everything she thought she knew about him.

Jessie Buckley through the years.

She also has a string of TV credits, including playing Lyudmilla Ignatenko in the 2019 HBO drama Chernobyl and later starring in the hit series Fargo as Oraetta Mayflower.

Her film credits include starring in The Lost Daughter (2021) alongside Olivia Coleman, a role which scored her first Oscar nod for best supporting actress, and the period drama Women Talking (2022) alongside The Crown actress Claire Foy about the true story of a group of women who begin to realise the extent of the sexual abuse they have endured by the men in their religious community after they start sharing their experiences.

More recently, Buckley reunited with Coleman in 2023's Wicked Little Letters and starred alongside Four Lions star Riz Ahmed and The Bear's Jeremy Allen White in the sci-fi romance Fingernails about a woman who begins to question her relationship despite a controversial test result certifying them as a perfect match.

In 2022, Buckley won the Laurence Olivier Award for best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in Cabaret.