Eve Best

Emily "Eve" Frances Finlay Best (born 31 July 1971) is an English actress and director. She is known for her television roles as Dr Eleanor O'Hara in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–2015), First Lady Dolley Madison in the American Experience television special, Monica Chatwin in the BBC miniseries The Honourable Woman (2014) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen in HBO's House of the Dragon (2022–2024). She also played Wallis Simpson in the 2010 film The King's Speech.

Best won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best Actress for playing the title role in Hedda Gabler. She made her Broadway debut in the 2007 revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, and receiving the first of two nominations for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play; the second was for the revival of The Homecoming in 2008. She returned to Broadway in the 2015 revival of Old Times.

Early life Best was born in Hammersmith, London, and grew up in Ladbroke Grove, London. She is the daughter of Alastair Finlay Best, a design journalist, and Susanna Joan Best (née Pulford), a theatre director; her mother founded a theatre company called Shakespeare Link, which aimed to spread Shakespeare’s word. Her parents married in Chelsea, London, in 1968. She also has a younger sister, Joscelyn Elizabeth, born in 1973.

Career After working on the London fringe, Best trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. she adopted her grandmother's name as a stage name, as an Emily Best was already registered with British Actors' Equity Association.

Best won a Laurence Olivier Award for playing the title role in Hedda Gabler and was nominated for the same award the following year for her performance as Josie in Eugene O'Neill's play A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

In early 2007, she starred in a Sheffield Crucible production of As You Like It which played for a short time at the RSC's Swan Theatre in Stratford as part of their Complete Works season. In the same year she performed in the Broadway transfer of A Moon for the Misbegotten for which she was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play.

Best appeared in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Cort Theatre in New York, which co-starred Ian McShane, Raúl Esparza and Michael McKean. Daniel Sullivan directed the 20-week limited engagement, which ran until 13 April 2008. She once again appeared as Beatrice in a critically acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 2011, playing opposite Charles Edwards as Benedick and starred in the Old Vic production of The Duchess of Malfi in 2012. She made her directorial debut with a production of Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 2013.

Television appearances include Prime Suspect: The Final Act (2006), Waking the Dead (2004), Shackleton (2002), and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2005).

She appeared as Lucrece in the Naxos audiobook version of Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece. She also starred in a 2000 BBC Radio 4 production of Emma.

Best co-starred as Dr Eleanor O'Hara in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie, that premiered in June 2009. She played the Duchess of Windsor – Wallis Simpson – in The King's Speech, starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

Best also co-starred as Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, alongside William Hurt in The Challenger Disaster, a British made for TV dramatization of the Rogers Commission set up to investigate the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

In summer 2014 Best played Cleopatra, the leading role in the Shakespeare's Globe version of Antony and Cleopatra. She returned to Broadway in the 2015 revival of the Pinter play Old Times, opposite Clive Owen and Kelly Reilly.

The TV series Maryland aired in May 2023 on ITV1, with Best playing Rosaline, who is reuniting with her sister Becca (Suranne Jones) after their mother's body is found dead on the Isle of Man.

Wild Cherry by Nicôle Leckey presents Best as Juliet Londsdale, Lord's daughter, mother to a teenage daughter and author of a parenting guide, alongside Carmen Ejogo as Lorna Gibbons, mother of her daughter's best friend. Their privileged lifes fall apart when their daughters are embroiled in a scandal at a private school in the Home Counties.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2001 Brilliant! Nina (short) 2002 Shackleton Eleanor Shackleton TV movie 2004 The Lodge Yuni (short) 2010 The King's Speech Wallis Simpson 2014 Someone You Love Kate 2014 Unity Narrator Documentary 2023 Such A Lovely Day Auntie Annie (short)

Television

Stage

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result 1999 Evening Standard Award The Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer 'Tis Pity She's a Whore 1999 Critics' Circle Theatre Award The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer (other than a playwright) 'Tis Pity She's a Whore 2003 Critics' Circle Theatre Award Best Actress Mourning Becomes Electra 2005 Critics' Circle Theatre Award Best Actress Hedda Gabler 2006 Laurence Olivier Award Best Actress Hedda Gabler 2007 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play A Moon for the Misbegotten 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actress in a Play A Moon for the Misbegotten 2007 Laurence Olivier Award Best Actress A Moon for the Misbegotten 2007 Tony Award Best Actress A Moon for the Misbegotten 2008 Tony Award Best Actress The Homecoming 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actress in a Play The Homecoming