Emma Mackey is a star on the rise, with her role in comedy series Sex Education – one of the best Netflix series on offer – now joined by a selection of new movie roles.
While fans of the TV series that made her name eagerly await the Sex Education season 4 release date, Mackey has been starring in the likes of thriller movie Death on the Nile, romance movie Eiffel, and Emily – a movie based on a true story built around Mackey’s take on author Emily Bronte.
Many of those who praise Mackey’s performances draw attention to her wide, expressive eyes, which are a real asset in allowing her to craft her likeable, complex characters. In fact, as Mackey admits to The Telegraph, her eyes have been a source of fascination for her co-workers too.
“I think I just have a lot of eye,” she says. “When I was working with Russell Brand on Death on the Nile, he called me ‘Eye-Face’. I was like: ‘well, thanks for that’.”
Mackey made a big impression in the 2022 mystery – one of many movies based on books by Agatha Christie – in which she played the protagonist’s scorned ex-lover Jacqueline de Bellefort.
The ensemble around her was a starry affair including Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening and Rose Leslie, but it wasn’t any of those Hollywood A-listers who left Mackey starstruck. In fact, Mackey says that “The Vicar of Dibley was on constantly in my childhood English bubble”, which made working alongside Dawn French very daunting.
Mackey will return for Sex Education season 4 and then awaits the Barbie movie release date, in which she will play a secretive role alongside her Sex Education co-star Ncuti Gatwa. Gatwa, of course, is set to become the 15th Doctor in the upcoming Doctor Who season 14.