Betty Gilpin

Betty Gilpin (born 21 July 1986) is an American actress known for her roles in Nurse Jackie (2009–2015), GLOW (2017–2019), The Hunt (2020), Mrs. Davis (2023) and American Primeval (2025). Born Elizabeth Gilpin in New York City, she is the daughter of actors Jack Gilpin and Ann McDonough, both of whom worked extensively in New York theatre. Her father also became an Episcopal priest, serving congregations in Connecticut. Gilpin grew up surrounded by actors, rehearsals and theatrical productions, developing an interest in performing long before beginning her professional career.

Her early childhood was spent in the South Street Seaport district of Lower Manhattan, when the neighbourhood was still dominated by the historic Fulton Fish Market. In the 1970s, her father and a college friend purchased a four-storey nineteenth-century ice factory near the waterfront for approximately $35,000. The building was converted into residential accommodation, and Gilpin grew up in one of the few occupied buildings on the block. She later recalled the wooden machinery from the former ice factory, the cobblestone streets and the smell of fish that followed her to school. The neighbourhood has since undergone extensive redevelopment, with the former industrial waterfront transformed into a commercial and tourist district.

When Gilpin was nine, her family left Manhattan and moved to Roxbury, a rural town in Litchfield County, Connecticut. The transition from the busy streets of Lower Manhattan to a small New England community was a significant change. Her parents continued working in theatre, frequently travelling between Connecticut and New York for productions. Gilpin attended the Loomis Chaffee School, a private boarding school in Windsor, Connecticut, graduating in 2004. She subsequently returned to New York City to study theatre at Fordham University, attending its Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan. Among her teachers was actress Dianne Wiest, who had won two Academy Awards for her work with Woody Allen. Gilpin graduated from Fordham in 2008 with a degree in theatre.

Although her parents had initially discouraged her from following them into acting, Gilpin began appearing in New York theatre productions while still at university. Her early television career followed a familiar path for young New York actors, with appearances in several programmes from the Law & Order franchise, including Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. These series were filmed extensively in New York City, combining studio interiors with locations around Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. She also appeared in Fringe (2008–2013), Elementary (2012–2019) and several independent films, gradually establishing herself in the city’s theatre and television industry.

Gilpin continued working Off-Broadway during the early 2010s, appearing in Heartless (2012) at the Pershing Square Signature Center on West 42nd Street in Manhattan. She later starred in I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard (2015), produced by the Atlantic Theater Company. Her theatre career remained closely connected to New York, where her parents had spent much of their professional lives. Unlike many young actors who relocate permanently to Los Angeles at the beginning of their careers, Gilpin initially established herself through New York theatre and television productions.

Her first substantial television role came when she joined the Showtime comedy-drama Nurse Jackie as Dr. Carrie Roman in 2013. The series, starring Edie Falco, follows the staff of the fictional All Saints Hospital in Manhattan. Production was based at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, where the hospital interiors were constructed. The exterior of All Saints Hospital was represented by Baruch College near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and East 24th Street in Manhattan. Other locations included Kelly’s Bar and Grill on Crescent Street in Astoria, which portrayed the bar operated by Jackie’s husband Kevin. The production’s extensive use of New York locations gave the series a recognisable geographical setting, particularly around Manhattan’s hospitals, streets and residential neighbourhoods.

Gilpin became more widely known through the Netflix comedy-drama GLOW (2017–2019), playing Debbie Eagan, a former soap opera actress who becomes the professional wrestler Liberty Belle. Set in Los Angeles during the 1980s, the series follows a fictionalised version of the women’s wrestling promotion Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Filming took place primarily around Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, using several surviving buildings and businesses to recreate the city during the decade.

One of the most important GLOW locations was the San Fernando Masonic Lodge at 1112 North Maclay Avenue in San Fernando. The building’s exterior and rear parking area were used to represent Chavo’s Boxing Gym, where the women begin their wrestling training. The gym interiors, however, were constructed on a studio set. Another significant location was the Pink Motel at 9457 San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, which represented the Dusty Spur Motel where the wrestlers live during the first season. The adjacent Cadillac Jack’s Café also appeared in the series. Additional filming took place at the Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard, the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles and several businesses around the San Fernando Valley. Before production began, Gilpin and her fellow cast members underwent wrestling training at Riverfront Stages in Atwater Village. Her performance earned three consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

In Isn’t It Romantic (2019), Gilpin returned to New York City, playing Whitney, a colleague of Rebel Wilson’s character Natalie. The romantic comedy was filmed around Manhattan, using recognisable streets and modern office buildings to create an exaggerated version of New York. One of its major musical sequences, featuring Madonna’s Express Yourself, was filmed around 101 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The production transformed familiar New York locations into the colourful and idealised environment of a traditional Hollywood romantic comedy.

Gilpin also appeared in the action comedy Stuber (2019), starring Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani. Although the story takes place in Los Angeles, much of the film was shot in Atlanta, Georgia. Streets and buildings around the city were used to recreate Southern California, with additional filming in Los Angeles itself. The same year, Gilpin appeared in A Dog’s Journey (2019), continuing her move into larger film productions.

Her most prominent leading film role came in Craig Zobel’s satirical action thriller The Hunt (2020), in which she portrayed Crystal Creasey, a former soldier who becomes the target of a group of wealthy hunters. Although the story largely takes place in an unidentified rural landscape, the film was shot in Louisiana, with production based in New Orleans. Filming began in February 2019 and continued until early April, using wooded areas and rural surroundings to create the isolated hunting grounds. Gilpin performed demanding physical action sequences throughout the production, which became one of her most widely recognised film performances.

She also appeared in the supernatural horror film The Grudge (2020), part of the franchise originating with the Japanese Ju-On films. This instalment is primarily set in the fictional town of Cross River, Pennsylvania, but was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Principal photography took place during May and June 2018, with additional filming the following year. The Canadian city and its surrounding residential neighbourhoods provided the American setting for the story, continuing the long tradition of Canadian locations standing in for places in the United States.

In The Tomorrow War (2021), Gilpin played Emmy Forester, the wife of Chris Pratt’s character Dan Forester, in a science fiction action film involving a war against alien creatures. The production was shot primarily in Georgia, where downtown Atlanta and the Buckhead district were transformed into a devastated futuristic Miami. The Graves Mountain area near Lincolnton, Georgia, was used for additional scenes, while Blackhall Studios in Atlanta provided studio facilities. The production also travelled to Iceland, where the Vatnajökull glacier region represented a frozen landscape in Russia during the film’s concluding mission.

Gilpin subsequently appeared in Gaslit (2022), a political drama about the Watergate scandal, portraying Mo Dean, the wife of former White House counsel John Dean. The series dramatises events associated with Washington, D.C., during the Nixon administration. She also starred in Three Women (2024), adapted from Lisa Taddeo’s book, playing Lina, a woman living in Indiana. Filming for the series took place in New York State, including Long Island, Schenectady and locations around New York City. In November 2021, production crews transformed streets in downtown Schenectady for several scenes, using the upstate New York city to represent locations elsewhere in the story.

One of Gilpin’s most geographically varied television productions was Mrs. Davis (2023), created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof. She played Sister Simone, a nun attempting to confront a powerful artificial intelligence system while becoming involved in an increasingly elaborate search for the Holy Grail. The series was produced partly in California, using Warner Bros. studio facilities and desert locations, but several important sequences were filmed in Spain. Girona in Catalonia was used to recreate medieval Paris during the opening sequence, which depicts the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307. Filming took place in Plaça dels Apòstols beside Girona Cathedral, where a large medieval execution scene was staged with approximately 500 extras.

Other Spanish locations used for Mrs. Davis included Sant Ferran Castle in Figueres, which provided a setting for a sword-fighting competition, and the coastal area around Lloret de Mar, including Sa Boadella beach. Additional scenes were filmed at the historic Hospital de Sant Pau complex in Barcelona, which represented an academic institution, and around Valencia. The series consequently brought together locations in California and Catalonia to create a story that moves through several countries and historical periods.

Gilpin returned to the American frontier in the Netflix western miniseries American Primeval (2025), directed by Peter Berg. Set in 1857 during the Utah War, the series follows Sara Rowell, played by Gilpin, and her son as they travel through the dangerous territories of the American West. Although the story centres on Utah and the surrounding frontier, the production was filmed almost entirely in New Mexico. Locations included Cochiti Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Pajarito Mountain Ski Area, Bonanza Creek Ranch and Charles R Ranch near Santa Fe. Of the production’s approximately 130 filming days, only two were spent indoors, with the remainder taking place in forests, mountains and open landscapes.

One of the largest sets constructed for American Primeval was a recreation of Fort Bridger, the historic trading post established in 1842 in what is now southwestern Wyoming. The original fort became an important stopping point for settlers travelling westward, but the production built its own version in New Mexico using timber and construction methods associated with the nineteenth century. Gilpin underwent horseback riding and stunt training for the role and spent much of the production working outdoors in difficult weather conditions. The series also recreated the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a historical event that took place in southern Utah in September 1857, using the New Mexico landscape as its backdrop.

In 2025, Gilpin made her Broadway debut in Cole Escola’s comedy Oh, Mary!, playing a fictionalised version of Mary Todd Lincoln. She performed at the historic Lyceum Theatre at 149 West 45th Street in Manhattan from 21 January until 16 March, succeeding Escola in the title role. The engagement brought her back to the New York theatre world in which she had grown up and begun her professional career.

That same year, Gilpin appeared as Sheila Richards opposite Glen Powell in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man (2025), an adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian novel. Although the story takes place in a fictional future United States, the production was filmed principally in Britain and Bulgaria. Locations included London and Glasgow, where modern buildings, transport infrastructure and residential streets were transformed into parts of the futuristic American setting. In Glasgow, filming took place around the Anderston Centre, the SEC Armadillo and the OVO Hydro, while additional sequences were completed in Sofia, Bulgaria. Production facilities at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire were also used.

Another major 2025 production was the Netflix historical drama Death by Lightning, in which Gilpin portrayed Lucretia Garfield, the wife of American president James A. Garfield, played by Michael Shannon. The series follows Garfield’s rise to the presidency and his assassination in 1881. Although the story takes place in Ohio, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., the series was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Production designers recreated nineteenth-century American architecture using Hungarian buildings, studio interiors and specially constructed sets. For railway sequences, filming took place inside a Budapest railway museum, where large LED screens outside a period train carriage simulated the changing American landscape. The production provided another example of European locations standing in for historically significant places in the United States.

In 2026, Gilpin guest-starred as Sarah Westcott Warren in the Apple TV horror-comedy series Widow’s Bay. Set on a fictional island off the coast of New England, the series was filmed in Massachusetts, including Gloucester, Rockport, Danvers, Worcester and several smaller communities. The coastal towns of Gloucester and Rockport helped establish the isolated New England atmosphere of the fictional island. Gilpin’s performance earned her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in September 2026, her first Emmy win following her three earlier nominations for GLOW.

She also appeared in Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning (2026), a drama inspired by the disclosures made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. The film, which follows the events surrounding Facebook’s internal documents and their publication in 2021, was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, with additional filming in San Francisco, California. Production began in October 2025 and concluded in December, continuing Gilpin’s work in films that use Canadian locations to portray American settings.

Outside acting, Gilpin published the essay collection All the Women in My Brain: And Other Concerns in September 2022, writing about her childhood, education, theatre career and experiences in the entertainment industry. She married actor Cosmo Pfeil in 2016, and the couple have two daughters. Her career has maintained a particularly strong connection to New York, from her childhood near the Fulton Fish Market and studies at Fordham University to her early television work and Broadway debut. Her later productions have taken her to filming locations across the United States, Canada, Spain, Hungary and Britain, frequently involving cities and landscapes used to represent entirely different geographical settings.

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