Jemima Kirke (born 26 April 1985) is a British-born American artist and actress best known for her role as Jessa Johansson on the television series Girls. She made her feature-length debut in the independent film Tiny Furniture, as a favor for friend Lena Dunham, although her actual film debut was in the indie short film Smile for the Camera.

Biography

Born in London to English parents, Kirke was raised in New York City. She is the daughter of Simon Kirke, the former drummer of the rock bands Bad Company and Free. Her mother is Lorraine (née Dellal) Kirke, the owner of Geminola, a vintage boutique in New York City that supplied a number of outfits for the television series Sex and the City. Her character Jessa wore a wedding dress from Geminola in the season finale of the first season of Girls; also, earlier in her career, she was featured along with her sisters in a fashion piece in Teen Vogue in which they wore clothing from the store.

Her father is of English and Scottish descent and her mother is Jewish. Her maternal grandfather, Jack Dellal, was a British businessman of Iraqi Jewish descent, and Kirke's maternal grandmother was Israeli. Kirke has two sisters, Lola Kirke and Domino Kirke, the first of whom is also an actress. She is a cousin of curator Alexander Dellal and model Alice Dellal.

Kirke is close friends with Lena Dunham, who created Tiny Furniture and Girls. They became friends while attending Saint Ann's School in New York City. In an interview with Esquire, Kirke discussed how the characters she portrays in both were inspired somewhat by her personality.

Kirke resides in Brooklyn and East Hampton with her husband, Michael Mosberg, a lawyer. They have two children: daughter Rafaella Israel (born 2010) and son Memphis Kirke (born 2012).