Emily Davis is an American actress. She is best known for portraying American whistleblower

Reality Winner Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991) is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media af ...

in the documentary play ''Is This A Room,'' directed by Davis's frequent collaborator

Tina Satter Kristina "Tina" Satter is an American filmmaker, playwright, and director based in New York City. She is the founder and artistic director of the theater company Half Straddle, which formed in 2008 and received an Obie Award grant in 2013. Sat ...

Early life and education

Davis was born and raised in

Oak Cliff, Texas Oak Cliff is an area of Dallas, Texas, United States that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; established in 1887 and annexed by Dallas in 1903, Oak Cliff has retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older establ ...

, a neighborhood in South Dallas. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Downtown Dallas. After high school, she moved to New York City and attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where she studied acting and neurolinguistics. She graduated with a BFA in Theater.

Career

In 2009, Davis began collaborating with Half Straddle, an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

-winning New York City based ensemble of performers and designers, led by Tina Satter. Half Straddle has premiered 10 full-length shows, plus a number of shorter works and video projects. Their work has been seen in theaters and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Davis has originated roles in multiple Half Straddle productions, including ''Nurses in New England, Away Uniform,'' and ''Seagull (Thinking of you),'' a reimagining of

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

's ''

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 ...

''. Davis has also frequently collaborated with artists

Erin Markey Erin Markey (born 1981) is an American writer, comedian, and performance artist based in New York City. Markey's work combines elements of cabaret theater and comedy and often incorporates stories of their childhood in the Midwest. ''The New York ...

Becca Blackwell Becca Blackwell (born 1973/1974) is an American trans actor, performer, and playwright based in New York City. Blackwell's pronoun is the singular they. Their play "They, Themself and Schmerm," has been presented by a number of venues including The ...

, and Jess Barbagallo. Davis is best known for her portrayal of American whistleblower Reality Winner in Half Straddle's ''Is This A Room,'' a verbatim staging of the FBI transcription of Winner's interrogation in June 2017. The piece premiered in January 2019 at The Kitchen in New York City, where Davis was described as "one of the most gifted realists in town" by Helen Shaw in ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

''. The piece went on to an extended, critically acclaimed off-Broadway run at the

Vineyard Theatre The Vineyard Theatre is a 120-seat Off-Broadway non-profit theatre company, located at 108 East 15th Street in Manhattan, New York City, near Union Square. Founded in 1981 by Barbara Zinn Krieger, the Vineyard states that its goal is "to give ...

in the fall of 2019.

Ben Brantley Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher, and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 t ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called Davis's portrayal of Winner "one of the most trenchantly observed performances of the year." Davis went on to reprise the role in the Broadway production of ''Is This A Room'' at the Lyceum Theatre in 2021, which marked her Broadway debut. She, again, received critical acclaim for her performance, being described as "sensational...

n a N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

career-making performance." Davis has also been seen in various television roles, including ''

Tulsa King ''Tulsa King'' is an American crime drama television series created by Taylor Sheridan for the streaming platform Paramount+. The series stars Sylvester Stallone as Dwight "the General" Manfredi, an American Mafia caporegime who has been rece ...

'' on

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

, '' Servant'' on

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ is an American subscription over-the-top streaming service owned by Apple. The service launched on November 1, 2019, and it offers a selection of original production film and television series called Apple Originals. The service w ...

, and ''

High Maintenance ''High Maintenance'' is an American anthology comedy-drama television and web series created by ex-husband and wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The show follows The Guy, a cannabis courier (played by Sinclair), as he delivers his p ...

'' on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. She has also appeared in films such as ''The Plagiarists, The Harbinger,'' and the short film ''Gwen in Corpus,'' which she also wrote and directed.

Awards

For her portrayal of Reality Winner in ''Is This A Room'' off-Broadway, Davis received the Obie Award for Performance and the

Lucille Lortel Award The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres ...

for Outstanding Lead Actress, both in 2020. She was also nominated for the

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

for Lead Actress.

Works

Theatre

Film/TV

References

Actresses from Dallas American actresses Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Oak Cliff, Texas

External links

*{{IMDb name, 4223018