Emily Hampshire is a popular Canadian actress who started acting at a young age. However, she spent a lot of time doing small/supporting roles and couldn’t establish herself as a leading actress. However, Emily Hampshire kept at it and started getting leading roles after turning 30. The directors finally started appreciating her talent for its worth and giving her leading roles. Let’s find out more about her.

Emily Hampshire: All You Need To Know

When was Emily Hampshire born?

Emily Hampshire was born on August 29, 1981, in Montreal, Quebec in southeastern Canada. She spoke both French and English growing up.

How did Emily Hampshire start acting?

A young Emily Hampshire became interested in acting after attending the musical Les Miserables, dreaming of playing Eponine, and later tried her hand at a school theater production. Emily’s performance was warmly greeted by the audience, which finally convinced the 11-year-old actress of her choice of profession.

After graduating from high school, the teenager moved to Toronto and entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. However, at that time Emily Hampshire was already actively acting on television and in films, so due to lack of time she dropped out of school.

Emily Hampshire has jokingly said that her best acting could be seen by the teachers of the private school for girls where she studied. When she wanted to skip classes and pretended to be sick, this happened almost every week.

Emily Hampshire: Acting Career

The Canadian actress began her television career in the mid-90s, starring in the TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark? In her youth, Hampshire often appeared in episodic roles in local full-length films and TV series, the most famous of which in Russia was the spy action film “Her Name was Nikita” based on the French film of the same name by Luc Besson.

In the early 2000s, Emily began collaborating with American film producers. For example, she appeared in the science fiction series “Mutants X” by Marvel and the dramatic detective story “The Mysteries of Nero Wolfe.”

In 2007, Emily moved to Los Angeles and 7 years later received United States citizenship. Alan Rickman, whom the Canadian met on the set of “Snow Pie,” helped her with this. Later, the actor took Hampshire under his wing, introduced him to the right people, and took care of his Canadian friend until his death.

Awards and Accolades

At home, things were also going well. Emily Hampshire appeared in three Canadian-produced films in different years. Her acting chops were noticed by film critics for the Genie Award, the highest national award. Emily’s acting skills were personally noted: the performer was nominated three times as best supporting actress for her roles in the films The Problem with Fear, Blood, and Snow Pie.

Later, the actress’s talents were recognized by the Academy of Film and Television, presenting Hampshire with the Gemini Television Award—analogous to the American Emmy—for her supporting role in the series Made in Canada.

From supporting to lead roles

In 2006, Emily starred in a small role in the comedy “Boy in a Girl” about two neighbors who switch bodies.

Later she played a prominent character in the Canadian feature film “Trotsky” about a teenager who imagines himself as a Russian revolutionary. The film received positive reviews from viewers and critics, who especially praised the well-chosen team, and became a laureate at international film festivals in Bulgaria, Japan, and Canada.

After such success, the actress finally began to be invited to lead roles: in the thriller Good Neighbors about a serial killer and the comedy Sex and Nothing Extra about the relationship of a Canadian couple, Emily played the leading characters. In the second of these films, the Montreal native played a stripper, for which she actually had to learn pole dancing.

The 12 Monkeys Incident

Hampshire then landed a cameo role in the series 12 Monkeys, a television adaptation of the 1995 dystopian film of the same name. In the first season, the Canadian actress briefly portrayed the female version of the character played by Brad Pitt in the original film. Starting from the second season, the role was assigned to Emily Hampshire full time and she became the lead in the series. There is a scene in one episode that involves a rat. The actress admitted that during the next take the rodent became so nervous that it defecated directly into her mouth, which the entire crew recalled with horror.

Hampshire got another major serial role in the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek, in which Emily considers her work a great success: at that time, the actress had $800 in her pocket and she was seriously thinking about moving into her friend’s dressing room.

Things have gotten better since then: in the thriller Mom, with Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem in the lead roles, the actress portrayed a jester, and in the drama The Death and Life of John F. Donovan with Kit Harington and Natalie Portman, the character of Amy Bosworth was specially written for Hampshire.

In 2021, Emily Hampshire landed another leading role – a governess in the American horror series Chapelwaite. Hampshire’s on-screen partner was Hollywood star Adrien Brody.

In the story, a widower and father of many children, Charles Boone, moves with his children to Maine, where he settles in the family mansion. However, dark forces live in the cursed house, which the governess played by Emily will help the head of the family deal with. The script is based on the story of the king of horrors, Stephen King, The Settlement of Jerusalem.

Who is Emily Hampshire’s husband?

In the mid-2000s, the actress married Matthew Smith, a former football player who, after finishing his sports career, began searching for young talents at a Hollywood agency. After being married for 8 years, Emily and Matthew divorced.

Is Emily Hampshire pansexual?

4 years after separating from her husband, Hampshire began dating American singer and actress Teddy Guyger, who a year earlier had come out as a transgender woman, turning from a man to a woman, but leaving her name given at birth. In the fall of 2018, Emily and Teddy got engaged, but by the summer of the following year, they called off the engagement. Emily Hampshire said that she learned about her pansexuality during a scene of Schitt’s Creek. A pansexual is a person who is attracted to a person regardless of their gender or sexuality.

Hampshire talks about her personal life and career on her own Instagram account, where she actively publishes photos and videos from red carpets, footage from film sets, pictures with animals, friends, and famous colleagues: Elton John, Iain Glen, Nicole Kidman, and others. But Emily doesn’t like to be naked in front of her fans: she extremely rarely shares intriguing photos in a swimsuit and underwear.