She rose to fame on BBC talent show I’d Do Anything and is a hot favourite to win Best Actress at this year’s Oscars.
But despite being a fixture on big and small screen for two decades, Hamnet star Jessie Buckley certainly didn’t learn her craft from watching television.
The Irish actress, 36, who grew up in Killarney, Co Kerry, only got a TV when she was a teenager.
And, her family said, a childhood without a TV in the house helped to cultivate her talent for music and creativity.
She played the Irish harp, the clarinet and the piano as a youngster – as her mother Marina Cassidy was a harpist and teacher while her father Tom was a musician, poet and historian.
‘Having no television allowed them to experiment creatively and spend time in nature as a family,’ her uncle Sean and his wife, Carol Dempsey, told the Sunday Times. ‘Music really was her first love, long before acting took over.’
In 2008, Ms Buckley was a contestant on I’d Do Anything, overseen by Andrew Lloyd Webber, in which she competed against 11 others to star in a revival of the musical Oliver! playing the role of Nancy.
Jessie Buckley (pictured at the Golden Globes), who grew up in Killarney, Co Kerry, only got a TV when she was a teenager
The Hamnet star rose to fame on BBC talent show I’d Do Anything and is a hot favourite to win Best Actress at this year’s Oscars
She lost out to Coronation Street actress Jodie Prenger, 46, and was offered a role as her understudy by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, which she turned down.
But she later garnered critical acclaim for the 2017 thriller Beast, and went on to star in The Lost Daughter – for which she received an Oscar nomination in 2022.
‘She always challenges herself in each new role, and also because she wants to make a difference,’ said Mrs Dempsey.
Ms Buckley’s turn as Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in Hamnet has so far won her the Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award.
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The secret to Hamnet star Jessie Buckley’s success… she grew up in a house with no TV!