Emily Barclay Ward (born 24 October 1984) is a British-born New Zealand and Australian AFI award winning actress.

Career

Emily Barclay was born in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

to a

General practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

and a landscape designer, and raised in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, where she went to an all-girls school and attended Saturday morning drama classes. At the age of nine, Barclay played

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in a school production and decided to become an actress. At the age of 13, she got herself an agent and supported herself between TV movies by working in a video store. Diana Rowan (the same casting agent who discovered Anna Paquin and Keisha Castle-Hughes) discovered Barclay in a school play and cast her as Celia in 2004's '' In My Father's Den'', that raised the actress to prominence. For that film, Barclay won Most Promising Newcomer at the 2005

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early Nov ...

. She followed by moving to Australia – while continuing part-time with her degree in English and gender studies at the University of Auckland – for a role in the critically acclaimed 2006

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

'' Suburban Mayhem'' directed by Paul Goldman, for which she collected an AFI Award for Best Actress. Barclay's performance also lead to an invitation to her first stage performance, on Neil Armfield's 2009 production of '' Gethsemane'' in Sydney. Armfield later indicated Barclay to Lee Lewis, who cast her in the play '' That Face''. In 2011, she performed in another Belvoir production, ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...

'', and acted opposite Geoffrey Rush in the Melbourne Theatre Company's '' The Importance of Being Earnest''. In 2012, Barclay performed opposite Hollywood actors Michael Cera and

Kieran Culkin Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

in '' This Is Our Youth'', returned to Belvoir with '' Strange Interlude'' and debuted at London's Young Vic performing on '' Three Sisters''. Barclay is currently represented by United Agents. Barclay also starred in the music video "Big Jet Plane" by Angus & Julia Stone which was directed by Kiku Ohe in 2010. She has cited her favourite actor as being Ewen Leslie.

Animal rights

The actress has had an active involvement in

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

, working with the organisation Save Animals From Exploitation in anti-cruelty campaigns, including having posters put in her room in ''In My Fathers Den''; she is a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

. In 2006, Barclay became an ambassador for Australian animal rights group Voiceless, the animal protection institute. "I'm not against people who eat meat but I'd like them to know what happens in factory farms where highly intelligent animals live horrific lives."

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

References

External links

*
Filmography at Karen Kay ManagementEmily Barclay in the SAFE 2007 Calendar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, Emily 1984 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand actresses 21st-century New Zealand actresses New Zealand child actresses New Zealand film actresses English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand television actresses Actresses from Auckland Actresses from Plymouth, Devon New Zealand expatriates in England Best Actress AACTA Award winners