Jennifer Ehle

Jennifer Anne Ehle (/ˈiːli/; born December 29, 1969) is an actress who has starred in and won numerous awards for her prolific work in stage, film, and television productions. Her accolades include two Tony Awards, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress (TV), and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. She is widely known for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice.

Ehle began her career acting on stage in the United Kingdom, with the Edinburgh Festival, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the National Theatre. She earned a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing. She reunited with Stoppard acting in his play The Coast of Utopia (2007), earning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She appeared on Broadway in the J.T. Rogers play Oslo, earning a second Tony nomination for Best Actress.

Ehle is also known for her film performances, including The King's Speech (2010), Contagion (2011), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), A Little Chaos (2014), Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Little Men (2016), Fifty Shades Darker (2017), Fifty Shades Freed (2018), Saint Maud (2019) and She Said (2022). She has also appeared in various television programs, including NBC's The Blacklist (2014–2015), the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower (2016), the Showtime miniseries The Comey Rule (2020), and the CBS legal drama The Good Fight (2022). She received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice (1995). She starred in the 2023 Amazon Prime miniseries Dead Ringers.

Early life and education

Jennifer Anne Ehle^[1][2] was born on December 29, 1969^[3] in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to English actress Rosemary Harris and American author John Ehle.^{[citation needed]} Her ancestry includes Romanian (from a maternal great-grandmother) and, paternally, German and English.^{[citation needed][4][failed verification]} Ehle appeared as a toddler in a 1973 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which her mother played Blanche DuBois.^{[5][better source needed]}

Ehle spent her childhood in the UK and the US, attending several schools, including Interlochen Arts Academy.^{[when?][citation needed]} She was mainly raised in Asheville, North Carolina.^{[citation needed]} Her drama training was split between the North Carolina School of the Arts,^{[when?][citation needed][6][failed verification]} and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.^{[when?][7][better source needed]}

Career

1990s

Ehle made her professional debut as Calypso in The Camomile Lawn (released in 1992), a television adaptation of Mary Wesley's book of the same name, in which she and her mother played the same character at different ages.^[8] The director, Peter Hall, then cast her as Elmire in his 1991 production of Tartuffe, for which she won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards.^{[9][dead link][10]}

Ehle's most notable role was as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice co-starring Colin Firth, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.^{[citation needed]} The same year, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, and gained her first major feature film role in Paradise Road (1997).^[11] She also appeared in supporting roles in Brian Gilbert's Wilde (1997),^{[citation needed]} and István Szabó's Sunshine (1999).^{[citation needed]}

2000s

In 2000, Ehle made her Broadway debut as Annie in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, winning the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.^[12] That following year, Ehle appeared again on Broadway in the revival of Noël Coward's Design for Living co-starring with Dominic West and Alan Cumming.^[13]

After a hiatus, Ehle returned to the London stage in 2005 in The Philadelphia Story at the Old Vic opposite Kevin Spacey.^{[citation needed]} The following year, she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth with Liev Schreiber, as part of the Shakespeare in the Park.^[13]

Ehle returned to Broadway portraying three characters in Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia triptych, which ran from October 2006 until May 2007, Ehle starring alongside Billy Crudup, Martha Plimpton, and Ethan Hawke.^[14] Theatre critic Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised her performance as "memorable".^[15] For her performance ,she received her second Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.^{[citation needed]}

In August 2009, it was announced that Ehle would play the character of Catelyn Stark in the pilot of HBO's Game of Thrones, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series.^{[citation needed]} Ehle filmed the pilot episode, but decided it was too soon to return to work after the birth of her daughter and she did not return to the production when HBO commissioned a full season.^{[citation needed]} Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley replaced her.^[16][17]

2010s

In 2010, Ehle starred alongside John Lithgow in the production of Mr. & Mrs. Fitch presented by Second Stage Theatre in New York City.^[18] Since 2010, Ehle has appeared in the films The King's Speech (where she reunited with her Pride and Prejudice co-star Colin Firth), Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), George Clooney's The Ides of March (2011), Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos (2015), Terence Davies's A Quiet Passion (2016), and Ira Sachs's Little Men (2016). She also appeared in the television series A Gifted Man (2011–2012).

In 2017, Ehle appeared on stage in Oslo, which won the Tony Award for Best Play. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for her work.^[19] In 2018, she appeared in the Hulu limited series The Looming Tower as Ambassador Barbara Bodine. The series also starred Jeff Daniels, Bill Camp, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

2020s

In 2020, Ehle reunited with Jeff Daniels in the limited series The Comey Rule which premiered on Showtime. Daniels and Ehle portrayed former FBI Director James Comey and his wife Patrice, respectively. In 2022 she also appeared in a variety of television projects including the Apple TV+ series Suspicion as Amy, the Showtime legal drama The Good Fight as Judge Ashley Burnett, and the Paramount+ western series 1923 as Sister Mary.

Also in 2022, Ehle received positive reviews for her supporting role in the MeToo investigative drama She Said, portraying Laura Madden. TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek described her as "superb" and Justin Chang writing for NPR declared her performance "quietly heartbreaking".^[20][21] She also returned to the stage as Gertrude in the Park Avenue Armory production of Hamlet in New York. Ehle received positive reviews as a last minute replacement for Lia Williams.^[22]

Ehle starred as Rebecca Parker in the 2023 Amazon Prime thriller miniseries Dead Ringers.^[23] The series won a Peabody Award "for aptly packaging a bold adaptation of this twinned-body horror classic within the continued nightmarish world of women’s reproductive health care in the United States."^[23]

In 2024, Ehle appeared in four episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime as Meredith Bonner, the Police Chief of Westbrook, Pennsylvania, who assists Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) with the search for a serial killer.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Ehle was married to writer Michael Ryan from 2001^{[24][failed verification]} to 2025.^{[25][failed verification]} As of 2011, they had two children.^[26]

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and recognition

This section includes nominations, as a manner of the artist's recognition.

Tony Awards

BAFTA Awards

Screen Actors Guild Award

Laurence Olivier Award

Outer Critics Circle Award

Other award wins:

• 1991: Ian Charleson Award, Second Prize – as Orgon's wife in Tartuffe with the Peter Hall Company^[10]
• 1992: Radio Times Award Best Newcomer – The Camomile Lawn (TV).^{[citation needed]}
• 2000: Variety Club Award – The Real Thing (play).^{[citation needed]}

Other award nominations:

• 2000: Genie Award nomination – Sunshine.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of American film actresses

References

1. ^ Colby, Vineta & Wilson, H. W. (1991). World Authors, 1980–1985. H.W. Wilson Company. ISBN 9780824207977. Archived February 8, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 1, 2017. – via google.ca.
2. ^ "Performing Arts". google.ca. 1970. Archived February 8, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
3. ^ "Jennifer Ehle". The Guardian. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
4. ^ Rosemary Harris and the Picture: Madonna of the Slaughtered Jews. Nmia.com. Retrieved on February 8, 2013. Archived July 6, 2012 at the Wayback Machine^{[failed verification]}
5. ^ "Jennifer Ehle". TVGuide.com. Archived July 2, 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 20, 2020.^{[better source needed]}
6. ^ "Drama – Home Page". uncsa.edu. Archived January 6, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 31, 2013.^{[failed verification]}
7. ^ "High Profile Alumni". cssd.ac.uk. Archived October 15, 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 31, 2013.^{[better source needed]} The entirety of the relevant content of this source is appearance of the title subject's name, in a list of esteemed alumni.
8. ^ Kehr, Dave (June 16, 2000). "AT THE MOVIES; A Resemblance? It's Only Natural". The New York Times. Archived January 9, 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
9. ^ http://www.geocities.ws.dwan_y/tartuffe.html^{[dead link]}
10. ^ Lees, Caroline. "Classic recipes for success". Sunday Times. 9 February 1992
11. ^ "What Lizzie did next". The Age. April 23, 2005. Archived March 4, 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
12. ^ Doug Feiden (June 5, 2000). "'Kiss Me Kate' is big Tony winner 'Copenhagen' and 'Contact' also honored". Daily News. Archived March 6, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 7, 2009.
13. ^ "Design for Living – Broadway Play – 2001 Revival | IBDB". Archived September 22, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
14. ^ "Coast of Utopia". Playbill. Archived December 4, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
15. ^ Brantley, Ben (February 19, 2007). "Those Storm-Tossed Revolutionaries Reach Port". The New York Times. Archived November 23, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
16. ^ "Fairley to replace Ehle in HBO's 'Thrones'". The Hollywood Reporter. October 14, 2010. Archived April 1, 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
17. ^ Jace Lacob (September 22, 2011). "A Gifted Man's Leading Lady". The Daily Beast. Archived March 17, 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
18. ^ "Tony Winners Lithgow and Ehle Are 'MR. & MRS. FITCH' For Second Stage Theatre" Archived February 8, 2021 at the Wayback Machine August 19, 2009, Broadway World
19. ^ "Oslo, Starring Tony Winners Jefferson Mays and Jennifer Ehle, Begins Broadway Run". Archived March 8, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
20. ^ "She Said Is a Satisfying Journalism Movie About Tireless Reporters Who Are Also Tired Moms". Time Magazine. November 18, 2022. Archived November 18, 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
21. ^ Chang, Justin (November 18, 2022). "'She Said' follows the journalists who set the #MeToo movement in motion". NPR. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
22. ^ Isherwood, Charles (July 7, 2022). "'Hamlet' Review: 21st-Century Danish Modern Shakespeare". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 27, 2022.
23. ^ "Dead Ringers"
24. ^ "Jennifer Ehle – Biography". Yahoo! Movies. 15 January 2014.^{[dead link][failed verification]}
25. ^ "Case 2024-51771 Ryan, Jennifer E. V. Ryan, Michael Scott - Trellis: Legal Intelligence + Judicial Analytics". Trellis^{[failed verification]}
26. ^ Moore, Suzanne (20 December 2011). "Celebrities' Christmas memories". The Guardian. Archived September 24, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
27. ^ "Jennifer Ehle And Alex Hassell Join The Cast Of ITV’s Propulsive Lunar Thriller, First Woman". itv.com/presscentre. 1 May 2026. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
28. ^ "Jennifer Ehle | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com. Retrieved 2025-06-10.

External links

• Jennifer Ehle at IMDb