Kelly Reilly

Kelly Reilly

Kelly Reilly
Reilly in Paris at the French premiere of Flight, January 2013
Born	Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly 18 July 1977[1] Chessington, London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Kyle Baugher (m. 2012)

Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born 18 July 1977) is an English actress. She first appeared on screen in 1995 on the series The Biz. Her other television work includes starring roles in the British crime drama Above Suspicion (2009–2012), the American psychological medical drama Black Box (2014), the American anthology crime drama True Detective (2015) and the historical fantasy drama Britannia (2018). Since 2018, she has played Beth Dutton on the neo-Western drama series Yellowstone, opposite Kevin Costner.

Reilly’s film work began in 2000 in the English comedy film Maybe Baby. She went on to have a supporting role in the romantic drama Pride & Prejudice (2005), a leading role in the horror thriller film Eden Lake (2008), the role of Mary Morstan in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and its 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, a leading role in Flight with Denzel Washington (2012), and the thriller 10×10 with Luke Evans (2018).

She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse (2003–2004).

Early life[edit]

Reilly was born and brought up in Chessington, the daughter of a hospital receptionist mother and Jack Reilly, a police officer.[2] She attended Tolworth Girls’ School in Tolworth, where she studied drama to obtain a GCSE.[3][4] Her grandparents are Irish.[5]

Career[edit]

Reilly wrote to the producers of the television drama Prime Suspect, starring Helen Mirren, to ask for work. Six months later she auditioned for a role in “Prime Suspect 4: Inner Circle”, which was broadcast on ITV on 7 May 1995. The following year, she appeared in an episode of the Carlton UK television period drama series Bramwell playing a disturbed young woman. Six years later, she appeared alongside Mirren in the film Last Orders.[6]

Her first professional role was followed by a series of parts on the English stage. She worked with Terry Johnson in four productions: Elton John’s Glasses (1997), The London Cuckolds (1998), The Graduate (2000) and Piano/Forte (2006).[7] Johnson wrote Piano/Forte for her and said, “Kelly is possibly the most natural, dyed-in-the-wool, deep-in-the-bone actress I’ve ever worked with.”[1] Reilly has stated that she learned the most as an actor from Karel Reisz, who directed her in The Yalta Game in Dublin in 2001. She said, “He was my masterclass. There is no way I would have been able to do Miss Julie if I hadn’t done that play.”[8]

By 2000, Reilly felt she was being typecast in comedy roles, and actively sought out a role as the young Amy in Last Orders, directed by Fred Schepisi.[6] This was followed by a role in the Royal Court’s 2001 rerun of Sarah Kane’s Blasted. The Times called her “theatrical Viagra”.[9] In 2002, Reilly starred alongside Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris as Wendy, an English Erasmus student, in the French comedy L’Auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment). She reprised her role in the 2005 sequel, Les Poupées russes (Russian Dolls) and the 2013 follow-up, Casse-tête chinois (Chinese Puzzle). Also in 2005, Reilly had roles in such films as Mrs Henderson Presents and Pride & Prejudice.

Reilly’s first lead role came in 2008 in the horror film Eden Lake and, in 2009, she had a high-profile role on prime-time British television in Above Suspicion. Reilly also appeared in three major films: Sherlock Holmes, Triage, and Me and Orson Welles.

In 2011, Reilly reprised her role as Mary Watson in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. In 2012, Reilly appeared opposite Sam Rockwell in A Single Shot and had a leading role in Robert Zemeckis’ Flight opposite Denzel Washington. In 2014, Reilly starred with Greg Kinnear in the film Heaven is for Real and in the John Michael McDonagh film Calvary. The same year, Reilly starred in the short-lived ABC series, Black Box, as Catherine Black, a famed neuroscientist who explores and solves the mysteries of the brain (the black box) while hiding her own bipolar disorder from the world.

In 2015, Reilly starred in the second season of the television series True Detective as Jordan Semyon, the wife of Vince Vaughn’s character, Frank Semyon. The same year, Reilly made her Broadway debut opposite Clive Owen and Eve Best in Harold Pinter’s play Old Times at the American Airlines Theatre.[10][11]

In 2016, she had a supporting role in Bastille Day. In 2017, Reilly played the Celtic Queen Kerra, confronting the Roman invasion of Britain in Sky TV’s Britannia.

She was cast in the leading female role in the Western-style U.S. series Yellowstone, a Paramount Network drama that debuted on 20 June 2018. Reilly plays Beth Dutton, the daughter of John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner. Reilly’s and Costner’s characters are constantly at war with several outside parties who want to gain control of the Duttons’ family land.[12]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Reilly’s performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse made her a star of the London stage and earned her a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress of 2003. Aged 26, she was the youngest person ever nominated for that award.[1] In 2005, she won Best Newcomer Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as Wendy in Russian Dolls (Les Poupées Russes).[1] In 2006, Reilly won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer for her role in the British comedy film, Mrs Henderson Presents. She was nominated once again for an Olivier Award for her performance as Desdemona in the acclaimed production of Othello at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009. Reilly was nominated for Best Actress at the British Independent Film Awards for Eden Lake in 2010. She won the Spotlight Award at the 2012 Hollywood Film Festival for her performance as Nicole in Flight.

Personal life[edit]

Reilly was engaged to actor Jonah Lotan from 2007 to 2009.[13] In 2010, Kelly met Kyle Baugher, a financier, in Marfa, Texas. They married in Somerset, England in 2012.[14]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Maybe Baby	Nimnh
2000	Peaches	Cherry
2001	Last Orders	Young Amy
2001	Starched	Maid	Short film
2002	The Spanish Apartment	Wendy	Credited as Keilly Reilly
2003	Dead Bodies	Viv McCormack
2004	The Libertine	Jane
2005	Russian Dolls	Wendy
2005	Pride & Prejudice	Caroline Bingley
2005	Mrs Henderson Presents	Maureen
2007	Puffball	Liffey
2008	Eden Lake	Jenny
2008	Me and Orson Welles	Muriel Brassler
2009	Sherlock Holmes	Mary Morstan
2009	Triage	Diane
2010	Meant to Be	Amanda
2010	Ti presento un amico	Sarah
2011	Citizen Gangster	Doreen Boyd
2011	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	Mary Watson
2012	Flight	Nicole
2013	A Single Shot	Jess
2013	Chinese Puzzle	Wendy
2013	Innocence	Pamela Hamilton
2014	Calvary	Fiona Lavelle
2014	Heaven Is for Real	Sonja Burpo
2014	Set Fire to the Stars	Caitlin
2016	Bastille Day	Karen Dacre	Aka The Take
2018	10×10	Cathy
2019	Eli	Rose
2021	The Cursed	Isabelle Laurent
2021	Promises	Laura
2023	A Haunting in Venice	Filming
2023	Here	Filming

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television[edit]

Awards and nominations[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Chloe Fox (, 20 October 2007). “Kelly Reilly: from the heart”, Telegraph (London). Retrieved 3 October 2009.
2. ^ Top 10 Facts – Kelly Reilly // Top Facts, archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 6 September 2021
3. ^ “Kelly Reilly From The Heart”, Interview Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 13 July 2013.
4. ^ “Kelly Reilly stars in ITV’s Above Suspicion”. This is Nottingham (29 December 2008). Retrieved on 2013-07-13.
5. ^ “The life of Reilly”, undated, The Scotsman. Retrieved on 13 July 2013.
6. ^ a b Stephen Applebaum (2002). Interview with Kelly Reilly, Netribution.co.uk. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
7. ^ Review of Piano/Forte, theguardian.com, 21 September 2006.
8. ^ Kate Kellaway (3 September 2006). “It’s good days and bad days, no rules”. The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
9. ^ Kate Whiting (5 January 2009). “Kelly Reilly stars in Above Suspicion”, Chester Chronicle. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
10. ^ “Old Times”. roundabouttheatre.org. 13 July 2016. Archived from the original on 13 July 2016.
11. ^ Fadal, Tamsen; Pestalozzi, Kim (8 October 2015). “Backstage on Broadway: Clive Owen, Kelly Reilly make debut in Old Times alongside Eve Best”. pix11.com.
12. ^ “‘Yellowstone’: Kelly Reilly’s Shattering Take on the Unbreakable Beth Dutton”. Vanity Fair. 27 June 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
13. ^ Halutz, Doron (13 November 2008). “A Whale of a Time”. Haaretz. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
14. ^ Tracy, Nancy (19 November 2012). “Five Things You Should Know About ‘Flight’s’ Kelly Reilly”. omg!. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on 24 November 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.

External links[edit]

• Kelly Reilly at IMDb

• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• Actresses from London
• English film actresses
• English people of Irish descent
• English radio actresses
• English Shakespearean actresses
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• Living people
• People educated at Tolworth Girls’ School
• 1977 births
• Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation winners