Jessie Buckley is not exactly an unknown — critics revere her, directors fight for her intensity, and colleagues describe her as a magnetic performer. But curiously, she is not yet called a “star” in the popular sense of the word. That may be about to change. With Hamnet, the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed novel, Buckley plays Agnes Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, in a performance already generating Oscar buzz. The film, praised since its early festival screenings, highlights her ability to transform: from the maternal gaze marked by grief to the silent strength of a woman history pushed to the margins, Buckley gives flesh, voice, and soul to a figure long relegated to a footnote. It feels like a role made for her — one that could earn her a second Academy Award nomination.

This would not be her first time in the race. In 2022, Jessie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Lost Daughter, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, playing the younger version of Olivia Colman’s character — an actress she has worked with more than once, as she has also with Paul Mescal. Before that, she had already made waves in Wild Rose (2018), portraying a Scottish ex-convict dreaming of becoming a country singer in Nashville. The film not only won her universal acclaim but also showcased her as an actress-singer: Buckley recorded the soundtrack herself and turned “Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” into an emotional anthem, winning the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Original Song.

Buckley’s career has always been marked by her embrace of difficult, contradictory, marginal characters. In I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), by Charlie Kaufman, she plunged into a fragmented, cerebral narrative, holding together a film as philosophical as it was disorienting. In Women Talking (2022), she stood out among a powerhouse ensemble, embodying a woman balancing desperation and rage. These are not easy roles, and that seems to be the essence of her career: Jessie Buckley is not interested in safe choices.

Born on 28 December 1989 in Killarney, Ireland, the daughter of two teachers — her mother, also a musician, was the one who first nurtured her singing — Buckley grew up surrounded by art. She sang in choirs, performed in school musicals, and by her teens, her talent was undeniable. In 2008, she finished second on the BBC reality show I’d Do Anything, a competition to find a lead for the musical Oliver! in the West End. Not long after, she was starring in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

On stage, Buckley established herself as an actress of remarkable depth. She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, but two more recent works became milestones. I saw her on stage alongside Jude Law in the 2014 production of Henry V. In Romeo and Juliet (2021), opposite Josh O’Connor, she delivered an intense, passionate, and tragic Juliet in a hybrid production filmed for television during the pandemic. Critics praised their chemistry as overwhelming, revitalizing the classic. And in Cabaret (2021), in the West End, Buckley reimagined Sally Bowles alongside Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee. Her performance, described as raw, devastating, and radically original, redefined the role for a new generation and earned her the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Music, too, remains at the heart of her artistry. In 2022, she released For All Our Days That Tear the Heart, a collaboration with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. The album, nominated for the Mercury Prize, was hailed as one of the year’s most haunting and beautiful, reinforcing her refusal to be confined to a single discipline.

In her personal life, Jessie has always been discreet. She was in a relationship with James Norton from 2015 to 2017, but has otherwise kept her private world away from tabloids. In interviews, she prefers to reflect on her work — on choosing roles that challenge her, that give voice to complex women, and on how each character leaves an imprint on her.

The result is that Jessie Buckley stands on the cusp of a rare transition: from critically acclaimed artist to fully consecrated star. With a film that could bring her back to the Oscars, musicals that have redefined iconic characters, records that showcase her melancholic voice, and performances ranging from the experimental to the historical, Buckley composes a singular mosaic. She is at once a prestige actress, an award-winning singer, and a Shakespearean interpreter. Popular recognition may not yet have fully arrived, but it feels inevitable. And with Hamnet, that moment could very well be now.