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Jemima Kirke

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

Jemima Kirke

(1985-04-26) 26 April 1985

London, England
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Rhode Island School of Design (BFA)

  • Actress
  • director
  • artist

2005–present

Michael Mosberg
​
​
(m. 2009, divorced)​
Alex Cameron
​
(divorced)​

2

She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson in the 2012 HBO series Girls.[1] She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short Smile for the Camera and her feature-length debut in Tiny Furniture,[2] as a favour for her childhood friend Lena Dunham. In 2017, she starred in Zayn's music video for the single "Dusk Till Dawn" featuring Sia.

Early life and family[edit]

Born in London on 26 April 1985,[3] Kirke was raised in New York City.[4] She is the daughter of Simon Kirke, the former drummer of the rock bands Bad Company and Free.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]


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)[8][9] and her mother is Jewish.[10] 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.[11][12][13] Kirke has two sisters, actress Lola Kirke and singer and actress Domino Kirke.[14][15][16] She is a cousin of curator Alexander Dellal,[17] shoe designer Charlotte Olympia Dellal and model/photographer Alice Dellal.[17]

Fine art[edit]

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.[18] In late 2011, she held an exhibition titled "A Brief History" through Skylight Projects.[19] In late 2017 to early 2018 she had a show at Sargeant's Daughters, a Lower East Side gallery,[20] 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.[21][22]


In September 2022, Kirke presented for Batsheva Hay's spring collection at Ben's Kosher Deli.[23]

Directing[edit]

Kirke's directorial debut was in 2019 when she spearheaded the video for the track "Mama" by her sister Lola Kirke.[30] She would go onto direct other projects including multiple music videos and a satire short film with Alex Cameron.[31]

Activism[edit]

In 2015, Kirke partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to create a public service announcement to advance the future of reproductive healthcare.[32] 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.[32][33]

Personal life[edit]

Kirke resides in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn[34] and East Hampton. She married lawyer Michael Mosberg in 2009 and they have two children.[35][36] In January 2017, it was announced Kirke and Mosberg had split.[37][38] The couple had reportedly separated in the summer of 2016.[39]


Kirke is close friends with Lena Dunham, the creator of Tiny Furniture and Girls.[1] They became friends while attending Saint Ann's School in New York City.[1]


Kirke began a relationship with Australian musician and singer songwriter Alex Cameron in July 2017. Cameron has said that his 2019 album Miami Memory is primarily influenced by his relationship with Kirke.[40][41] The couple has since separated.[42]

at IMDb

Jemima Kirke