Biography

Kelly Reilly was most recently seen in Flight, directed by Robert Zemeckis in which she co-starred with Denzel Washington and John Goodman. The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 2012 Academy Awards and Reilly won a Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Film Festival. Reilly recently completed work on the feature film Heaven is For Real, a film based on a New York Times bestselling book by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent. The movie is scheduled for release in April, 2014.

Last year, Reilly finished filming multiple projects including Innocence, an adaptation of the Matthew F. Jones novel, and A Single Shot directed by David M. Rosenthal, starring Sam Rockwell and William H. Macy. Next, she will be seen in Cédric Klapisch’s Chinese Puzzle, starring opposite Audrey Tautou and Romain Duris, the third and final film in the trilogy, followed by the new film Calvary, starring alongside Chris O’Dowd and Brendan Gleeson, due for
release in early 2014.

In 2011, Reilly was reunited with director Guy Ritchie for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows reprising the role she played in the 2009 hit Sherlock Holmes, opposite Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Also in 2011, she was seen in the World War II drama Edwin Boyd, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. For her previous film work Kelly has received both critical and international acclaim. She garnered a ‘Best Actress’ nomination at the British Independent Film Awards for her riveting performance in James Watkins debut thriller, Eden Lake, opposite Michael Fassbender.

She also gained international acclaim playing a supporting lead role in the film Mrs. Henderson Presents, a role for which she won ‘Best Newcomer’ at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards and a nomination as ‘Best Supporting Actress’ at the British Independent Film Awards in 2005. That same year, Reilly also won the award for ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Empire Film Awards, which also recognized her performance as the haughty and manipulative ‘Miss Bingley’ in the successful Working Title re-make of Pride and Prejudice. She also appeared alongside Johnny Depp in The Libertine. It was for her roles in these three films that she was awarded the Steinmetz Award for ‘Best Breakthrough’ at the 2006 pre-BAFTA London Party. Additionally, Reilly won the Chopard Award as the ‘Female Revelation’ at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, as well as a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ nomination at the prestigious Cesar Award as ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her performance in the internationally successful French film Les Poupees Russes (Russian Dolls), a sequel to the award-winning Auberge Espanol. Among her other film credits are a wide range of international releases including Meant to Be, Ti presento un amico, Me and Orson Welles, Triage, with Colin Farrell and Last Orders.

Reilly is also well known for her stage work. She became the youngest-ever Olivier Award nominee in the category of ‘Best Actress’ when she was nominated in 2004 for her performance in After Miss Julie, presented at London’s Donmar Warehouse Theatre. She was also nominated as ‘Best Actress’ at the Evening Standard Theatre awards for the same role. In 2008, she received another Olivier Award nomination in the same category for the role of ‘Desdemona’ in the Donmar Warehouse production of Othello. She also received praise for her role in Look Back in Anger, opposite David Tennant at the Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre and The Comedy Theatre production of Sexual Perversity in Chicago. Other theatre credits include parts in Piano/Forte (Royal Court), A Prayer for Owen Meany (Royal National Theatre), Blasted (Royal Court), The Graduate (Gielgud Theatre), Three Sisters (for which she was nominated as Actress in a Supporting Role for the Barclays TMA Awards) and The London Cuckolds (Royal National Theatre) for which she was a finalist for an Ian Charleson Award.

Last year Kelly was seen revisiting her lead role of ‘DC Anna Travis’ in Silent Scream, the third series of Above Suspicion, ITV’s hugely successful adaptation of Lynda La Plante’s bestselling novels. She has also starred on the small screen in He Kills Coppers, and Joe’s Palace, co-starring Rupert Penry-Jones and Michael Gambon.

Biography courtesy of ABC.