Rachel Brosnahan Biography

Rachel Brosnahan made her big screen debut in the year 2009, while she was still in her high school. The movie was a supernatural horror film The Unborn and she played the role of Lisa. Her other film in the year was The Truth About Average Guys wherein she played Molly. The year 2009 also saw her making her professional stage debut playing Maria in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production Up. Her performance bagged her a place in the Chris Jones' (Tribune critic) 2009 list of up-and-comers to watch.

In 2010, she made her television debut and appeared in single episodes of several television series. These include the medical drama Mercy; teen drama,Gossip Girl; legal and political drama, The Good Wife, drama series In Treatment and the police procedural series CSI: Miami (2011). The year 2011 and 2012 saw her playing supporting roles in films Coming Up Roses and Nor'easter as well as in a short film Adrift.

In 2013 her first major big budgeted Hollywood role came with Beautiful Creatures. The same year she made her Broadway debut with Roundabout Theatre Company’s production The Big Knife. The same year again, she began starring in the critically acclaimed Netflix political drama House of Cards. Her role, which was initially supposed to be only of five lines, ended up continuing for 19 episodes due to her impressive performance. Her portrayal of a call girl Rachel Posner earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

In 2014, she was roped in to play Abby Isaacs in WGN America’s period drama series Manhattan. Rachel Brosnahan acted in 23 episodes (2014-2015) of the series which overall earned tremendous critical appreciation. In 2014 again, she acted in six episodes of NBC’s critically acclaimed crime thriller series The Blacklist and played the lead role in the comedy drama film I'm Obsessed with You.

Her other television work in 2013-2014 include single episode appearances in Grey's Anatomy, Orange Is the New Black and Olive Kitteridge and 5 episodes role in the psychological medical drama series Black Box. In addition, she was seen in the film A New York Heartbeat and short films Care, Munchausen, Basically and The Smut Locker.

In 2015, Rachel Brosnahan essayed the role of Erin in the family drama film Louder Than Bombs and the next year followed it up by playing Bea Hansen, the widow of a former Guardsman in the action thriller film The Finest Hours and the real life survivor Jessica Kensky in another action thriller movie Patriots Day. Her television work during the two year include a couple of episodes in historical miniseries The Dovekeepers and four episodes in another miniseries Crisis in Six Scenes. In 2016, she once again became part of a theatre production and played Desdemona in New York Theatre Workshop’s Othello.

In 2017, Rachel Brosnahan landed the role that really catapulted her to stardom. In The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, her role was that of a 1950s Jewish housewife Miriam “Midge” Maisel who realises her own comic talent and pursues a career as a stand-up comedian. The Amazon period comedy series was inspired by the lives of comediennes Joan Rivers and Totie Fields and earned Brosnahan several awards including a Primetime Emmy Award and two each of Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Since 2017, she has acted in number of other films and television series. These include movies like Boomtown, Change in the Air, Spies in Disguise, The Courier and I'm Your Woman as well as television series Elena of Avalor and 50 States of Fright.

Rachel Brosnahan was born on 12th July 1990 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States to a British mother Carol and American father (of Irish descent) Earl Brosnahan. Her father was employed in the publishing industry. She is the eldest of the couple’s three children. She grew up in Highland Park, Illinois where she first attended the Wayne Thomas Elementary School and then joined Northwood Junior High School. In Northwood, she began performing in the musical theatre. Later she went to Highland Park High School where, other than theatre, she was involved in wrestling for a couple of years and also turned snowboarding trainer.

Rachel Brosnahan’s interest in acting saw her saving her baby-sitting money to attend Broadway Bootcamp, an acting camp. Later, at the age of 16, Brosnahan attended the class of Carole Dibo, director of Wilmette's Actors Training Center. Still later, she further honed her acting skills by enrolling herself in Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She graduated from there in 2012.

She is married to actor and theatre producer Jason Ralph.