Educating Emma
Overnight stardom’ is, like all clichés, egregiously overused. But it’s undeniably apt for Emma Mackey, coinciding with all eight episodes of Sex Education Season 1 dropping on Netflix on 11 January 2019. The show was an enormous hit, and Mackey – as Maeve Wiley, the feisty, street-smart high-schooler who helps Otis (Asa Butterfield) establish a sex-therapy clinic for their fellow students in need – instantly became a star.
A standout among a cast destined to dominate screens for years, Mackey had attitude, acting chops, and screen presence to spare. This was, somewhat unbelievably, her first professional acting role (she’d dabbled with drama while studying English Language and Literature at the University of Leeds). She’s since starred in a further two seasons, and when catches up with her via Zoom in August, she’s about to start shooting the fourth. While that show has been keeping her busy, her film career is also off to an enviable start, and her highest-profile lead role to date arrives in cinemas shortly. sees Mackey star as the middle Brontë sister author, who published that industry-shaking classic aged just 29.
