Emma Margaret Marie Tachard-Mackey (born January 4, 1996) is a French-British actress. She portrays Maeve Wiley on Netflix's Sex Education.
Biography[]
Tachard-Mackey was born in Le Mans, the daughter of a French father and an English mother. Her father is a school headmaster. She grew up in Sablé-sur-Sarthe and received her baccalauréat in 2013 with High Honours in l'Académie de Nantes, a French school district, subsequently moving to England to study English Language language and Literature at the University of Leeds. She graduated in 2016. Mackey lives in London as a dual French-British citizen.
Mackey was cast in her first professional role with the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education as Maeve Wiley, an intelligent, quick-witted, business-savvy "bad girl" who convinces fellow student Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) to start an underground sex therapy business at their school. She stated that "For me, this is my first piece of work. ... It was—and still is—a really happy time." Mackey's work on the series has earned her acclaim. The Hindustan Times wrote "Emma Mackey, as Maeve, is a revelation; perhaps the best performance by a young British actress I’ve seen since I discovered Florence Pugh. She’s alluring yet distant, pragmatic yet emotional, whip-smart yet foolishly in love." For the role, she received a British Academy Television Award nomination in 2021, and won a National Comedy Award in 2022.
In 2021, Mackey led the independent romantic drama film Eiffel, which premiered at the Alliance Française French Film Festival and has earned numerous international theatrical releases; it has grossed over $13 million worldwide. Review site DoItInParis stated that Mackey "radiates mischief in the boots of a rebellious and entire provincial bourgeoisie, a bit capricious but madly endearing." The following year, she starred in the mystery thriller film Death on the Nile, a sequel to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express. She was cast in 2019 in the supporting role of Jacqueline de Bellefort. The film earned generally positive reviews, and was one of the highest-grossing films of 2022.
In May 2020, it was announced that Mackey would portray the novelist Emily Brontë in the upcoming biographical film Emily, which will focus on Brontë's early life. Emily was out in late 2022 and it was Mackey's first leading film role.
On February 19, 2023, Mackey won the BAFTA Rising Star Award. After the whole ceremony, she was interviewed about coming back for a potential season 5 of Sex Education. In response, Mackey revealed that she won't return, saying that she'd already said goodbye to Maeve.
Credits[]
Season 1 (8/8)[] |
Season 2 (8/8)[] |
Season 3 (8/8)[] |
Season 4 (8/8)[] |