Jessie Buckley, the remarkable lead in Hamnet, acclaimed at the 2026 Oscars

By Chloé Bergeret, 

and Violaine Schütz.

Jessie Buckley wins the Oscar for Best Actress for Hamnet

With hair that shifts between red and blonde, her sharp sense of style, her discreet smile and great humility, Jessie Buckley, 36, exudes a sincere kindness that makes her irresistible. Is it her accent straight from her native Kerry in southwest Ireland? Or is it her eclectic career, spanning a British talent show — she finished runner-up on the BBC reality program I’d Do Anything in 2008 — and American blockbusters? The fact of the matter is that she worked her way up to Hollywood thanks to her originality and without any scandal…

With a mother who was a vocal coach and former opera singer, she studied piano, saxophone, clarinet and harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. As a child, her only dream was to become a singer, since music was an art form that allowed her to feel completely free.

At the 98th Academy Awards ceremony held in Los Angeles on March 15th, 2026, the actress won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Hamnet (2026), directed by Chloé Zhao. She thus becomes the first Irish actress to receive this prestigious award.

A discreet, yet major actress

The Irish actress and singer, a true star back home, like the many British fan accounts and hundreds of articles devoted to her in the local press suggest, is now considered one of the major Anglo-Saxon actresses. Her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Dolittle (2020), starring Robert Downey Jr. and Emma Thompson, stands as one of the most striking examples.

Before that, Jessie Buckley had repeatedly shown she was comfortable both on stage and on film sets. A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2013, she went on to perform in numerous musicals and even won an award for her performance in Carousel in 2008.

In 2017, she got her first role in cinema in the thriller Beast. She portrayed an ambivalent young woman with an apparently innocent demeanor, who becomes involved in a dangerous relationship with a mysterious man accused of murder.

A standout appearance in the series Chernobyl

But it was above all the feel-good movie Wild Rose (2018), in which she plays a country singer, that established her as a confirmed actress. Having grown up singing with her mother and siblings, she proves herself an exceptional musical performer, singing all the songs in the film and even co-writing some of them. She also took up country music and came to appreciate it, despite the fact that she would only swear by Celtic sounds in the past. She even took on a Scottish accent to embody her character.

In stark contrast to her previous vibrant role as a singer, she also appeared in the HBO series Chernobyl (2019), which received major critical and public acclaim. Its final episodes were watched by more than six million viewers. That show made Jessie Buckley’s face instantly recognizable. Audiences discovered a deeply moving actress portraying Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the partner of one of the firefighters irradiated, while trying to extinguish the blaze at the infamous nuclear plant.

In an unforgettable scene based on real events, Jessie Buckley defies quarantine rules and risks contagion to kiss her fiancé as he dies from radiation poisoning. A role that left a lasting mark on her and led her to reflect on the sometimes destructive power of love. She herself went through tough times when, in 2017, her breakup with former co-star James Norton made the headlines of the tabloids.

A breathtaking performance in The Lost Daughter

In 2022, she earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Netflix film The Lost Daughter (2021). A true honour for someone who admitted feeling deeply impressed to be competing alongside prestigious actresses, such as Judi Dench in Belfast and Kirsten Dunst in The Power of the Dog.

As the only actress from The Lost Daughter to be nominated at the Oscars, she was immensely proud, describing it as a “very special” film that allowed her to work with women she deeply admires and supports. Far from the Hollywood grand entertainment show, the film explores the complexities of motherhood and challenges the expectations placed upon it.

Describing herself as “too wild” for Hollywood in an interview with the French newspaper Le Parisien, she captivated audiences worldwide with her performance in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel on Netflix. The Lost Daughter, starring Olivia Colman, is an intimate and deeply moving film about women. Buckley plays the younger version of Colman’s character, grappling with doubts about motherhood and struggling to reconcile motherhood with the workplace.

Films impervious to the male gaze

The film could easily be described as feminist, as it breaks free from the male gaze that keeps dominating many transatlantic productions. Jessie Buckley is among those actresses who take a stand. Deeply committed to defending women’s rights within the film industry, she openly supports movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up. Yet, she prefers to keep her distance from the circus of major American studios, favouring instead her native Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Shunning social media, she left the big city to settle in an old Gothic house in Norfolk, in the north of England. Rather than blockbuster productions, she gravitates towards smaller-budget films and original projects.

An actress crowned at the 2026 Golden Globes for Hamnet

One could see the actress starring next to Benedict Cumberbatch in the spy thriller The Courier (2021), in Alex Garland’s horror film Men (2022), and in Sarah Polley’s feature Women Talking (2023), alongside Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand. Then, came Wicked Little Letters in 2024.

2025 marked a major turning point for Jessie Buckley. The actress joined director Chloé Zhao in the historical drama Hamnet, which revisits the origins of the play Hamlet. She plays Agnes Shakespeare, the wife of playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). Her intense, heart-wrenching performance as a grieving mother losing her child earns her a Critics Choice Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. It also led to her winning the Oscar for Best Actress…

A first Oscar for the star of The Bride!

The story behind this ambitious project? “England, 1580. A penniless Latin teacher meets Agnes, a free-spirited young woman. Fascinated by one another, they embark on a passionate affair before marrying and having three children. While Will tries his luck as a playwright in London, Agnes shoulders the domestic responsibilities alone. When tragedy strikes, the once deeply united couple begins to falter. Yet, from their shared ordeal will emerge the inspiration for a universal masterpiece.”

And that’s not all. On Wednesday, March 4th, Jessie Buckley reunited with Maggie Gyllenhaal in the highly anticipated project The Bride!, a reinterpretation of the myth of Frankenstein. The premise of this horror project, starring Christian Bale? “Consumed by loneliness, Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago and asks Dr. Euphronious, a visionary scientist, to create him a companion. Together, they resurrect a murdered woman as the Bride. But what follows exceeds anything they could have imagined: murders, possessions, and an outlaw couple at the heart of a radical, unhinged social movement, as well as a passionate and tumultuous love story.”

Hamnet (2026) by Chloé Zhao, out in theatres now.
The Bride! (2026) by Maggie Gyllenhaal, out in theatres now.