Jemima Kirke

Jemima Jo Kirke (born April 26, 1985) is a British-American artist, actress, and director who gained international recognition for her portrayal of the bohemian, free-spirited Jessa Johansson in the HBO series Girls, which ran from 2012 to 2017.

Born in Westminster, London, to rock drummer Simon Kirke of Free and Bad Company and vintage boutique owner Lorraine Kirke (née Dellal), she moved to New York City as a child and was raised in Manhattan.

She attended the progressive Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, where she became close friends with writer-director Lena Dunham, and later studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008 before briefly working in Florida and then returning to New York to pursue both art and acting.​

Jemima Kirke made her film debut in the 2005 short Smile for the Camera and her feature debut as Charlotte in Dunham’s independent film Tiny Furniture (2010), a low-budget project she joined as a favor and for which she was not paid, but which helped lead to her casting as Jessa in Girls. 

Following the critical success of Girls, she appeared in films such as Ava’s Possessions (2015), The Little Hours (2017), and Untogether (2018), the latter co-starring her sister Lola Kirke and premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.

On television, she has taken on prominent roles as Hope Haddon, the strict headmistress in season three of the Netflix series Sex Education (2021), Melissa in the Sally Rooney adaptation Conversations with Friends (2022), and Regan Hamilton Sweeney in the Apple TV+ drama City on Fire (2023).​

Alongside acting, Jemima Kirke maintains a primary identity as a visual artist, working mainly in figurative painting that explores themes of female autonomy, marriage, vulnerability, and psychological tension.

She has exhibited her work in shows such as “A Brief History” with Skylight Projects in 2011 and a 2017–2018 series at Sargent’s Daughters in New York, which featured portraits of women in wedding dresses that interrogated social expectations around matrimony.

Later collaborations with The Untitled Space gallery further cemented her reputation as a serious painter, with critics noting her use of earthy tones, expressive brushwork, and intimate portrayals of family, friends, and herself.​

Jemima Kirke made her directorial debut in 2019 with the music video for “Mama” by her sister Lola Kirke and has since directed additional videos and a short film with musician Alex Cameron, expanding her work behind the camera.

She has also engaged in social activism, notably partnering with the Center for Reproductive Rights in 2015 on a public service announcement where she publicly discussed her own abortion experience in college to advocate for accessible reproductive healthcare.

In her personal life, she married lawyer Michael Mosberg in 2009, with whom she has two children, later separating, and has been linked to musician Alex Cameron, all while speaking candidly in interviews about addiction, rehab at age 19, motherhood, and the balance between her art practice and acting career.​

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