Lisa Emery

Lisa Emery is an American stage, film, and television actress. Emery is best known for playing Darlene Snell on Netflix series Ozark.

Early life Emery was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of an aspiring actress from Charlottesville, Virginia and an advertising executive who worked in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She attended Hollins College, where she planned to study painting, but became interested in drama classes instead because "they were having way more fun." After graduation she studied at the Circle in the Square Theatre School for a year, then began to audition.

Emery moved to New York with her then-longtime boyfriend. They eventually broke up and she enrolled in the Circle in the Square two-year program. She moved to the East Village in 1982.

Career Emery's theatre credits include The Matchmaker, Dinner with Friends (1999), What the Butler Saw (2000), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (2006), Talley & Son, Burn This (1987), Rumors, Present Laughter, The Women (2001), Marvin's Room (1991), Abigail's Party (2005), and Relatively Speaking (2011). She has been nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play three times.

Emery's film credits include A Map of the World, Unfaithful, and The Night Listener. On television she had a reoccurring role on Ed and has made guest appearances on Law & Order, Sex and the City, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Third Watch, Fringe, Damages and Jessica Jones. She also had a main cast role on Ozark.

Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic at The New York Times, wrote of Emery's performance in Harold Pinter’s A Kind of Alaska, “Lisa Emery gives one of the most affectingly detailed performances now on a New York stage.”

Charles Isherwood, in his review of Relatively Speaking (the one-act "George Is Dead" by Elaine May) for The New York Times, wrote of Emery: "Carla, a thankless straight-woman role played with skill by the fine Lisa Emery..."

In a July 2020 interview for The Natural Aristocrat, Emery spoke about enjoying the unpredictable nature of her Ozark character Darlene Snell. "Every time I get a script, I'm surprised, which is great. It's not like, 'Oh, there she goes again!' I think it's unpredictable what a great mother she is in her own way."

Personal life Emery was married to actor Josh Pais; their son, Zane, appeared with his mother in Margot at the Wedding.

Emery did not seek a film or television career and did not think of career strategies. "I take it as it comes... Perhaps I'd regret it if I were less happy now. I live perfectly well and love what I do."

Awards and nominations Drama Desk Award 2011, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play - The Collection & A Kind of Alaska (nominee) Drama Desk Award 2006, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play - Abigail's Party (nominee) Drama Desk Award 1992, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play - Marvin's Room (nominee) Lucille Lortel Award 2009, Outstanding Featured Actress - Distracted (nominee) Lucille Lortel Award 2006, Outstanding Featured Actress - Abigail's Party (nominee) Lucille Lortel Award 2004, Outstanding Lead Actress - Iron (nominee) Obie Awards 2003–2004, Outstanding Performance - Iron (winner)

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre +YearTitleRoleNotes 1981 In Connecticut Irene Call Circle Theatre, Off-Broadway 1983 Passion Kate (Understudy) Longacre Theatre, Broadway 1987 Burn This Anna Mann (Understudy) Plymouth Theatre, Broadway 1988 Rumors Cassie Cooper (Replacement) Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway 1991 The Matchmaker Irene Molloy Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 1992 Marvin's Room Lee Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway 1995 Watbanaland Flo WPA Theater, Off-Broadway 1995 The Monogamist Susan Barry Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway 1996 Present Laughter Monica Reed Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway 1997 Jackie Betty Fretz/Eunice Kennedy Belasco Theatre, Broadway 1999 Far East Julia Lincoln Center, Off-Broadway 1999 Dinner With Friends Karen Variety Arts Theater, Off-Broadway 2000 What The Butler Saw Mrs. Prentice The New Group, Off-Broadway 2001 The Women Nancy Blake American Airlines Theatre, Broadway 2002 The Smell of the Kill Nicky Helen Hayes Theater, Broadway 2003 Iron Fay Manhattan Theatre Club, Off-Broadway 2005 Hot 'N Throbbing Charlene Signature Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 2005 Abigail's Party Susan Acorn Theatre, Off-Broadway 2006 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Miss Mackay The New Group, Off-Broadway 2008 Mouth to Mouth Laura The New Group, Off-Broadway 2009 Distracted Vera Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 2010 A Kind of Alaska Deborah Atlantic Theater Company, Off-Broadway 2011 George is Dead Carla Brooks Atkinson Theatre, Broadway 2012 Lonely, I'm Not Mother Second Stage Theater, Off-Broadway 2013 The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin Karen Roundabout Theatre Company, Off-Broadway 2014 Casa Valentina Eleanor Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway 2015 Marjorie Prime Tess Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway 2016 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City Marcie Lucille Lortel Theatre, Off-Broadway 2017 Six Degrees of Separation Kitty Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway 2017 For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday Wendy Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway 2018 I Was Most Alive With You Pleasant Playwrights Horizons, Off-Broadway 2025 Lunar Eclipse Em Second Stage Theater, Off-Broadway