Who is Jemima Kirke, the indie actress and painter making a splash in the rock’n’roll series City on Fire?

By Violaine Schütz.

Published on 20 June 2023. Updated on 27 May 2026.

Gen Z discovered Jemima Kirke on Netflix in the third season of Sex Education. She played Hope Haddon, a deceptively cool new principal of Moordale… Others succumbed to her deep gaze in Apple TV+’s new series, City on Fire, a story of murder, mysterious fires and rock concerts led by his sexy, grunge presence. One cannot forget her Bohemian charm and evanescent nonchalance as she portrayed Jessa in the series Girls (2012-2017) written by her friend Lena Dunham. The latter has stated several times in interviews that, in order to create the role of Jessa Johansson, she was inspired by the fierce personality of her BFF, whom she met during her private school years. This young New Yorker, at once globe-trotter, acerbic, exuberant and seductive, is undoubtedly one of the most complex and fascinating characters in the HBO series. A series of rare intelligence that brilliantly translates the indecisiveness of an entire generation. The show is experiencing a revival on social media, where the looks of the actresses are dissected.

Jemima Kirke, the memorable Bohemian heroine from Lena Dunham’s series Girls

Thousands of millennials have identified with the attraction to danger (drugs and frantic bacchanals), the difficulty of settling down, professionally and romantically speaking, as well as Jessa‘s sensitivity. Jemima Kirke‘s atypical, Botticelli-like beauty, magnified by sexy hippie looks, perfectly embodied the spirit of her neighborhood, Brooklyn. Her gaze always seems a little bit evasive. Her eyes are an idealised mirror to the teenage anxieties of the time. Through six seasons, Jessa captivated viewers with her mysterious air and persistent melancholy. She seemed to go through life as a tourist, or a tightrope walker, without any career plan, or projects. A poetic attitude that also seems to inhabit the actress, evolving on the margins of Hollywood.

In real life, Jemima Kirke exudes the same kind of charisma. She is both wild and offbeat, like the character who made her famous. She looks like those girls you meet on the Lower East Side who always seem to be fuelled by a thousand and one exciting projects. Born in 1985 in London, the Brit was raised in New York by her father, Simon Kirke, the drummer of the rock bands Bad Company and Free, and her mother, Lorraine Dellal, who ran a second-hand shop called Geminola. That particular vintage store in the Big Apple provided many of the looks from
Sex and the City, as well as a wedding dress from Jessa in Girls.

At a very young age, Jemima Kirke, quickly took on the features of a West Village version of Bardot and played the role of model by wearing the clothes found by her mother. But the young girl’s first love was art. Despite teenage years marked by rebellion and drugs — she went to rehab at the age of 19 — she studied art after her bachelor’s degree at a design school in Rhode Island. Then, she organized an exhibition entitled A Brief History. The first one of many to come. 

Jemima Kirke, the painter

Today, the New Yorker still paints. She imagines tortured portraits of women with sad eyes wearing wedding dresses and veils. Their lack of smiles questions the meaning of marriage as an outdated institution. The artist also gives birth to melancholic pregnant women. Sometimes she represents herself, other times actress or artist friends. The New Yorker is inspired by her previous long-term relationship with a lawyer that ended in divorce. A man that was very different from her and with whom she had two children with him. Her pregnancies seem to be at the center of her expressive, moving paintings. Haunted by procreation, Jemima Kirke also spoke publicly about the abortion she had at university, for which she could not afford anesthesia. This is a way of raising public awareness about a taboo procedure that is, unfortunately, rather limited, if not forbidden in some states now.

A protagonist in cult series, from Sex Education to Conversations With Friends

If Jemima Kirke defines herself above all as an artist, she is best known in France for her acting career. She seems to approach it as a dilettante, despite her appearances in generational successes, such as the shows Girls and Sex Education, the adaptation of Sally Rooney‘s hit novel Conversations with Friends, and the very rock’n’roll series City on Fire. She made her debut in some of her friends’ productions, such as the brilliant Tiny Furniture (2010), directed by Lena Dunham. She also appeared in dark, trashy features like Ava’s Possessions (2015) or The Good Sisters (2017). 

As the proper daughter of a rocker, Jemima Kirke also starred in music videos, from the punk band Rival Schools to Mick Jagger’s track Gotta Get A Grip (2017) and Zayn Malik’s song Dusk Till Dawn (2017). Her most magnetic and disconcerting performances? Her appearances in Australian crooner Alex Cameron‘s videos, her ex-husband, and in particular Stranger’s Kiss (2017). On their respective Instagram accounts, the couple staged themselves in an artistic, sensual, but strange way, reminiscent of the charisma and passion of the mythical Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. Today, the New Yorker is more free and uninhibited than ever, multiplying nude grunge looks, cutting-edge fashion events and wild parties. Nonconformist, cool, talented and funny, Jemima Kirke appears as any girl’s dream best friend.

Season 1 of City on Fire (2023) by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage with Jemima Kirke is available on Apple TV+.