Gemma Whelan

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“Game of Thrones really did change things in terms of how women are written and represented. Obviously, it was a fantasy, but the women were painted very realistically nonetheless. Maybe not the murdering side of things, but they were independent and capable of running the show.”

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ALSO KNOWN FOR

Gentleman Jack (2022)

Chastity Butterworth (2014)

Emma. (2020)

Upstart Crow (2016)

Gemma Elizabeth Whelan is an English actress and comedian, born on the 23rd of April 1981 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. She grew up in the Midlands and attended The King's High School for Girls in Warwick, as well as the London Studio Centre. In addition to being an actor and comedian, Whelan is also a professional dancer who specialized in the tap and jazz dance styles, and is a member of the dance troupe the Beaux Belles, based in London. She is also trained in musical theatre and has a mezzo-soprano singing voice. Whelan is best known for portraying Yara Greyjoy in the HBO fantasy-drama series Game of Thrones. She also plays Kate in all seasons of the BBC Two comedy Upstart Crow, Detective Eunice Noon in the first season of Channel 4’s The End of the F***ing World, and Geraldine Martens in the third season of BBC America’s spy thriller Killing Eve.

Whelan has extensive stage experience, which began in 2005 with Newsrevue for the Edinburgh Festival. Other stage credits include the role of Chanel in Trafalgar Studios’ 2010 production of Stephen & the Sexy Partridge, Rachel Crabbe in the Royal National Theatre’s 2013 production of One Man, Two Guvnors, and Andrea in Pleasance Theatre’s 2013 production of Dark Vanilla Jungle. Most recently, in 2020, she reprised her role as Kate for Gielgud Theatre’s The Upstart Crow, an adapted stage play of her BBC series Upstart Crow. As a stand-up comedian, Whelan won the 2010 Funny Women Variety Award, and also performed at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe with her show Chastity Butterworth & The Spanish Hamster. In 2014, she recorded a pilot chat show as her character Chastity Butterworth for BBC Radio 4.

On screen, Whelan has played roles in several films and TV shows, including in the 2010 films Gulliver's Travels and The Wolfman. In August 2011, she was cast as Yara Greyjoy in the HBO fantasy-drama television series Game of Thrones, and appeared as a recurring cast member from the second season onward, until it’s eighth and final season. During her run on Thrones, Whelan also played Kate in every episode of Ben Elton's BBC Two comedy Upstart Crow (2016), and also played roles in the comedies Uncle (2015) and The Agency (2016). In 2017, she was a series regular during the first season of Channel 4’s The End of the F***ing World, and also portrayed Karen Matthews in the two-part TV drama The Moorside, based on the disappearance of 9-year-old Shannon Matthews. Whelan’s most recent credits include the BBC period drama Gentleman Jack (2019), the crime drama White House Farm (2020), the spy thriller Killing Eve (2020), the 2020 period film Emma, and ITV’s procedural The Tower (2021).