The Best Jessie Buckley Performances, Ranked and Where To Watch Them
The original version of this article was written by Jess Bacon and published in 2024.
Since making her on-screen debut in the BBC talent series I’d Do Anything in 2008, Jessie Buckley has gone on to feature in some of the biggest films and TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, building a reputation as one of the best actors of her generation in the process. From Fargo to Fingernails to and now The Bride, the Kerry woman has continuously proven her ability to excel in a wide variety of genres.
For her most celebrated roles, Buckley has already garnered a remarkable number of accolades, including an Olivier award in 2022 for her performance in the West End production of Cabaret and nominations at both the Baftas and Oscars. In 2026, the 36-year-old began to turn those nominations into wins with her enormously acclaimed performance as Agnes in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet—which has so far seen her land the Best Actress prize at the Golden Globes, Bafta and SAG. At time of writing, the Oscar is her's to lose.
In the list below, you'll find 11 of Jessie Buckley best performances—which I've ranked in ascending order based on a combination of Buckley’s performance and the project’s importance in her career. You can read on to discover more or simply use the guide below to find out where to stream each title on services like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
For all of her incredible work in the last 10 years, it’s Buckley’s part in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, that has always stuck with me. The film itself is the kind of thoughtfully-written, psychological drama that anyone who appreciated the likes of Aftersun or May December will adore, but if there's one reason to see it it's the unusual chemistry that Gyllenhaal locates between Buckley and Olivia Coleman—both of whom recieved Oscar nominations for their performances.
The story follows Leda (Olivia Coleman) on a seaside vacation where she becomes fixated on a mother and daughter duo who are staying nearby. Buckley’s Hamnet co-star Paul Mescal rounds out the impressive cast.
Ever since premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet looks like a safe bet for plenty of nominations at the Academy Awards—and not least for Buckley’s performance which, at time of writing, looks dead set to win the biggest acting prize of all. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller, this is the kind of heart-wrenching period romance that only comes around every once in a while—think films like The Remains of the Day, Little Women and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
Zhao’s movie reunites Jessie Buckley with Paul Mescal as Agnes and William Shakespeare, respectively, in a story that focuses on the tragic death of their son and the many things that inspire great art.
Shortly after Wild Rose’s success, Buckley joined the fourth season of the award-winning crime drama, Fargo, giving one of the best performances of her career as the sadistic nurse Oraetta Mayflower—and if you happen to appreciate slightly unhinged and quite psychotic characters (like Annie Wilkes in Misery or nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) you’ll know exactly what kind of things to expect here.
The fourth season of the anthology show, of course based on the Coen brothers’ '90s classic, takes place in 1950s Kansas and focuses on the rivalry between two warring crime families.
Early in her career, the Irish actress became known for her roles in television series such as War & Peace, as well as independent films like Beast and Taboo. She really made her name, however, with the 2019 film Wild Rose, a story which allowed Buckley to use her wonderful singing voice—and if you like slightly rough-edged stories about musicians (think Crazy Heart or The Commitments) I highly recommend seeking this one out.
For her performance as Rose-Lyn Harlan, a single mother who dreams of becomming a country music star, Buckley received rave reviews and went on to land her first nomination for Best Actress at the Baftas.
Regardless on how you might measure the size of a performance, Buckley's biggest so far is surely her most recent in Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride, a film that takes the classic, campy tale of James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein and puts it into a blender with movies like Nightmare Alley and Joker: Folie à Deux.
That second movie feels like a particularly interesting comparison—in many ways it feels like the kind of joyous romp of a film that the Joker sequel should have been. Buckley gives a performance turned to 11 in the title role, but Cristian Bale is just as good as her partner in crime.
After the success of her performance in Wild Rose, 2020 proved to be a landmark year for Buckley. Along with being cast in Fargo, she landed the lead role in Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a lockdown hit for Netflix that introduced her to a much wider audience. The movie is very much in Kaufman’s unique style, so if you’re a fan of his screenplays for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, you’ll have more than an idea of what to expect.
The psychological thriller stars Buckley as an unnamed woman who appears to be breaking up with her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) while on a snowy drive to meet his parents. Of course, far weirder things are in store.
After achieving recognition for her acclaimed early performances, Buckley was cast in the star-studded 2019 series Chernobyl alongside Jared Harris, Paul Ritter and Stellan Skarsgård. The five-part series details the horrific 1986 disaster at Chernobyl and the years that followed—a world that appears so unnatural that it almost seems to have more in common with shows like Dark or director Craig Mazin’s followup, The Last of Us, than any other works of historical drama.
Upon release, the show received wide-spread critical acclaim for the way it approached the difficult subject matter. It went on to receive nineteen (yes, 19!) Primetime Emmy nominations and took home three awards, while also winning the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Television Film.
Over the years, as we mentioned above, Buckley has proven her ability to work in various different genres. In 2020, she appeared in the Robert Downey Jr-led fantasy adventure, Dolittle, a year after playing one of the leads in the Garland biopic Judy, and more recently appeared in Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, an austere but fascinating adaptation of Miriam Toew’s novel of the same name. The story explores themes of sexual assault in a religious colony, so needless to say it’s not always the easiest watch—but if you're a fan of thought-provoking, issue-driven and subtly-written drama (She Said and The Assistant come to mind), we highly recommend it.
Despite its humble box office success, the film received rave reviews after its debut at the Telluride Film Festival in 2022 and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—where Buckley was very unlucky not to be nominated.
Buckley has often shown an interest in working with up-and-coming directors. In 2023, she starred in the science-fiction romantic drama, Fingernails, alongside Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White, from the Greek director Christos Nikou—and if you’re a fan of Black Mirror as well as Nikou’s fellow countryman Yorgos Lanthimos (especially his movie The Lobster), this might really be up your street.
The movie, which uses a slightly grizzly central conceit and touches on themes that will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever used a dating app, explores an interesting concept about whether love can ever be quantified.
The actress has collaborated with the great Olivia Coleman on two occasions already, most recently with the outrageously funny Wicked Little Letters, a black comedy that takes its rural English setting and gives it a splash of playful profanity. It’s a movie in the lineage of British indie comedies like The Full Monty and Kinky Boots, so if you’re a fan of those you’ll probably vibe with it.
The story centres on Coleman’s prudish Edith, who is convinced that Buckley’s more free-spirited Rose is writing nasty letters to her. Detectives step in to attempt to solve the mystery but of course, things get worse before they get better.
