“Being around loads of other young people who loved acting was the best thing ever. I wanted to do it for the rest of my life.”

Emily Fairn

With roles opposite Martin Freeman and Willem Dafoe under her belt, the 26-year-old Liverpudlian is now starring in House of Guinness

By Victoria Herman

On her 18th birthday, Emily Fairn was given the greatest gift she’d ever received: drama school. To study at one was all she wanted, and her mother offered to help, covering application fees and accompanying her to London for auditions. “My mom was like, ‘You know, your sister wants a car for her 18th. Do you not want some money towards a car?’ And I was like, ‘No!’” she laughs. It takes most applicants five years to gain admission to one of the United Kingdom’s top drama schools, but Fairn only had one shot. “I can’t afford for you to try again,” her mother warned. She needn’t have worried: Fairn got into the Guildhall School of Music and Drama right off the bat.

Since graduating in 2020, Fairn, 26, has landed lead roles in The Responder alongside Martin Freeman; in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, with Willem Dafoe, Gabriel LaBelle, and Rachel Sennott; and, now, in House of Guinness, a new Netflix series premiering September 25.