If the name Emerald Fennell isn’t yet familiar to you, it’s about time you took note.
Earlier this week, the director of Promising Young Woman was nominated for an Academy Award – making history alongside Chloé Zhao as the first time two women have ever been up for the best director nod (Zhao separately made history as the first woman of colour to be nominated).
If London-born Fennell looks vaguely familiar, this is because she starred as Camilla in the latest season of The Crown (yep, the season we raged-watched thanks largely to Charles’ treatment of Diana).
If this wasn’t enough, Fennell is a modern-day triple threat having written and produced Promising Young Woman as well as being the head writer and executive producer for season 2 of Killing Eve. Talk about an impressive IMDB page.
Who is Emerald Fennell?
Born in Hammersmith in London, the 35-year-old went to the exclusive Marlborough College (the very same one the Duchess of Cambridge attended) before studying at Oxford University. During university she acted in plays where she was spotted by an acting agent.
Fennell is also from a family of creatives – her sister is fashion designer Coco Fennell, father jewellery designer Theo Fennell and her mother, Louise Fennell, is an author.
She is married to film and advertising director Chris Vernon and the pair welcomed a son in May 2019.
What has she starred in?
As well as starring as Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown, Fennell played Vanessa in Vita & Victoria, nurse Patsy Mount in Call the Midwife and she has also appeared in films The Danish Girl and Anna Karenina.
What has she directed and written?
Promising Young Woman is Fennel’s first feature-length film (which makes her Oscar nod even more impressive). Before this she directed the darkly comic three-part short film, Careful How You Go in 2018 which starred Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
As well as writing Promising Young Woman and Careful How You Go, Fennell was head writer and executive producer for Killing Eve’s second season (for which she was nominated for an Emmy) and she was also a writer on the TV series, Drifters.
What is she working on next?
In January last year, it was reported that Fennell had been working on the script for a musical adaptation of Cinderella with Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was set to debut in London’s Gillian Lynne theatre last summer but has been pushed back due to the pandemic.
Lloyd Webber hinted that the opening could be soon, tweeting on March 3 that “the set is coming in, the cast have started rehearsing, and the songs are being released. This is what I’ve been dreaming about for a year!”
While she’s not on Instagram, Fennell is active on Twitter. When she found out about Promising Young Woman’s slew of Oscar nominations (it has five) she wrote: “So proud and grateful to every amazing person who worked on this film. Never going to stop crying.”
She also proved to be a floral dream when ‘attending’ the Critics’ Choice Awards.
And she served up ‘Baroness fiancée’ looks at the Golden Globes.
We think we’ve found our new girl crush.