Juliet Rylance is an English actress and producer, known for her roles in The Knick and McMafia.
Early life
Rylance was born as Juliet van Kampen in Hammersmith, London, to Claire van Kampen, a composer, and Chris van Kampen, an architect. Her younger sister, Nataasha, became a filmmaker. Her parents divorced when she was seven, and her mother subsequently married actor Mark Rylance, whose stage surname of Rylance, she adopted. She has a great relationship with both of her fathers. She was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Career
Her first major role upon leaving RADA was as Medea in Neil LaBute's at the Union Theatre in London. She then went on to play Perdita in The Winter's Tale and Cressida in Troilus and Cressida at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. She portrayed British writerMary Sidney in I Am Shakespeare, written by her step-father Mark Rylance and directed by Matthew Warchus at the Chichester Festival Theatre and its UK tour. That same year, along with two of her contemporaries, David Sturzaker and director Tamara Harvey, she started her own production company, Theater of Memory. She subsequently starred in the Theater of Memory's productions of Romeo and Juliet and Bash: Latter-Day Plays, portraying Juliet and Medea respectively. In 2009, Rylance played Desdemona at the theater in New York City, in Othello, for which she was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. She next appeared in the Sam Mendes-directed Bridge Project, a joint venture between the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn and The Old Vic in London. She appeared as Rosalind and Miranda, respectively, with her husband appearing alongside her as Orlando and Ariel. Rylance was awarded a 2010 Obie Award for her performance as Rosalind. In 2012, Rylance co-starred in the horror filmSinister. In 2013 she appeared in and produced the film Days and Nights, based on the Anton Chekov play The Seagull, and written and directed by her husband. From 2014 to 2015, she starred in the Cinemaxmedical dramaThe Knick. She is currently appearing as Della Street in the HBO seriesPerry Mason, based on the hard-boiled main character in the eponymous detective stories by Erle Stanley Gardner.
