40 Fun Facts About Famous Emilys

Emily Brontë published which 1847 novel of doomed love on the Yorkshire moors under the pen-name Ellis Bell?

Wuthering Heights was not generally admired at first: many critics found its characters coarse and immoral, and Emily died a year after it came out, aged 30.

Emily Blunt broke through in 2006 as Emily Charlton, senior assistant to fashion editor Miranda Priestly, in which film?

The Devil Wears Prada left Meryl Streep so impressed that she called Blunt the best young actress she had worked with in some time, perhaps ever.

In Friends, Ross Geller says which woman's name instead of Emily's during their London wedding vows?

Rachel had flown to London to tell Ross she loved him, and a livid Emily went on with the ceremony, then locked herself in the bathroom at the reception.

Which actress plays Emily Cooper, a Chicago marketing executive posted to France, in the Netflix series Emily in Paris?

Lily Collins is the daughter of the English musician Phil Collins, and she is also a producer of the series, which earned her an Emmy nomination in that role.

Emily Warren Roebling spent a decade steering which New York landmark to completion after her engineer husband fell ill?

Brooklyn Bridge honoured her before it officially opened: Emily was the first to cross it by carriage, carrying a rooster as a sign of victory.

Suffragette Emily Davison died after stepping in front of King George V's horse Anmer at which 1913 race?

Epsom Derby crowds watched her go onto the track mid-race; by then she had been arrested nine times and force-fed in prison on forty-nine occasions.

Emily Post became America's best-known authority on which subject with a bestselling 1922 book?

Etiquette was a late change of course: Post had already published five novels, and in 1950 a magazine ranked her the second most powerful woman in America.

Emily Elizabeth is the eight-year-old owner of which enormous pet in Norman Bridwell's children's books?

Clifford got his name from the imaginary childhood friend of Bridwell's wife, while Emily Elizabeth was named after the author's own daughter.

Emily Osment played Lilly Truscott, best friend of Miley Cyrus's pop star character, in which Disney Channel series?

Hannah Montana made her the second screen star in her family: her older brother is Haley Joel Osment, who was nominated for an Academy Award as a child.

Emily Maitlis grilled which royal about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein in a notorious 2019 BBC Newsnight interview?

Prince Andrew resigned from his royal duties in the fallout, while the hour-long broadcast won Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year at the 2020 RTS awards.

Emily Blunt played a mother hiding from sound-hunting creatures in A Quiet Place, directed by which actor, her husband?

John Krasinski rewrote the script for Blunt but did not ask her to star; she read his draft on a flight and decided she had to do it.

Emily Blunt took over which magical nanny role, made famous by Julie Andrews in 1964, for a 2018 Disney sequel?

Mary Poppins Returns had a cameo written for Julie Andrews, but she turned it down because she felt her presence would take attention away from Blunt.

Emily Ratajkowski shot to global fame in 2013 after appearing in the music video for which Robin Thicke hit?

Blurred Lines was one of three music videos she was cast in around then, along with Taio Cruz's Fast Car and Maroon 5's Love Somebody.

Emily Deschanel played forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan from 2005 to 2017 in which Fox crime series?

Bones drew on the novels and career of real forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, and Emily's younger sister is the actress and singer Zooey Deschanel.

Emily, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, is the title character of which 2005 Tim Burton stop-motion film?

Corpse Bride was the first stop-motion feature Burton directed himself, having only produced The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.

Kelly Bishop played Emily, the wealthy estranged mother of Lorelai, in which series set in Stars Hollow, Connecticut?

Gilmore Girls came long after Bishop's stage breakthrough: she won a Tony Award in 1976 for originating the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line.

Emily Kinney played Beth Greene, a farmer's daughter who sings to lift her group's morale, in which AMC horror drama?

The Walking Dead put Kinney's real singing voice to use: she recorded The Parting Glass with co-star Lauren Cohan for the show's soundtrack album.

Shay Mitchell played swimmer Emily Fields, whose clique falls apart after their leader vanishes, in which teen drama?

Pretty Little Liars began as a series of novels by Sara Shepard, in which Emily is the jock of the group, and the television version ran for 160 episodes.

Paget Brewster plays Emily Prentiss, an ambassador's daughter and former Interpol agent, in which CBS crime drama?

Criminal Minds makes Prentiss a gifted linguist, the product of a childhood spent following her diplomat mother between postings in the Middle East and Europe.

Emily, an often-bossy tender engine, belongs to the Steam Team on the Island of Sodor in which children's series?

Thomas & Friends modelled Emily on a real express locomotive, the Stirling Single, nicknamed the eight-footer for its single pair of huge driving wheels.

Emily Dickinson, who saw only 10 of her nearly 1,800 poems published in her lifetime, lived in which Massachusetts town?

Amherst knew her as a local curiosity: neighbours rarely saw the poet at all, and when they did she was usually dressed in white.

Which actress and singer played the young poet Emily Dickinson across three seasons of an Apple TV+ comedy from 2019?

Hailee Steinfeld played her as an aspiring writer in love with her best friend Sue, who is also engaged to Emily's brother.

Emily VanCamp, Marvel's Sharon Carter, took the lead role of Emily Thorne in which drama that ran from 2011 to 2015?

Revenge brought VanCamp international recognition after years in the casts of the family dramas Everwood and Brothers & Sisters.

Emily Watson earned an Emmy nomination for which 2019 HBO miniseries, playing a composite of several real scientists?

Chernobyl cast her as a nuclear scientist who never existed: the character stands in for several real researchers who worked on the disaster.

Emily Browning won an Australian Film Institute award as Violet Baudelaire in which 2004 film of Lemony Snicket's books?

A Series of Unfortunate Events left the author Neil Gaiman fascinated by Browning, and she went on to star as Laura Moon in the series of his American Gods.

Emily Hampshire played Stevie Budd from 2015 to 2020 in which CBC sitcom about a fallen family living in a motel?

Schitt's Creek signed off in style: its sixth and final season swept all seven major comedy categories at the Primetime Emmy Awards.

Emily Bett Rickards landed her first television credit as hacker Felicity Smoak in which CW superhero series?

Arrow signed her as a guest star for a single episode, but the reaction at preview screenings was so warm that she became a series regular.

Emily Procter played detective Calleigh Duquesne from 2002 to 2012 in which CBS police procedural?

CSI: Miami followed her recurring part as White House lawyer Ainsley Hayes in The West Wing, and in 1995 she played a brief love interest of Joey in Friends.

See Emily Play, a 1967 top 10 single written by frontman Syd Barrett, was an early hit for which English band?

Pink Floyd lost Barrett within a year: his erratic behaviour began to show during the band's Top of the Pops appearances, and he left in early 1968.

For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her appears on the 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme by which duo?

Simon & Garfunkel gave the whole vocal to Art, who sings it alone over a 12-string guitar, and it remains a staple of his live sets.

A Rose for Emily, a 1930 short story about reclusive Southerner Emily Grierson, was written by which American author?

William Faulkner broke new ground with it: the tale, which opens at Emily's funeral, was his first short story published in a national magazine.

Emily Webb marries the boy next door, George Gibbs, in Grover's Corners in which Pulitzer-winning Thornton Wilder play?

Our Town was called the greatest American play ever written by the dramatist Edward Albee, and it follows Emily from girlhood to her death in childbirth.

Emily of New Moon follows orphan Emily Byrd Starr and was written by which Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables?

L. M. Montgomery considered Emily much closer to her own personality than Anne, and some of what happens in the Emily novels had happened to the author herself.

Painter Emily Carr, inspired by First Nations villages and art, spent most of her life in which Canadian province?

British Columbia joined Canada in 1871, the year Carr was born in Victoria, and her first book, Klee Wyck, won a Governor General's Literary Award.

Emily Greene Balch, an economics professor until Wellesley College ended her contract, shared which Nobel Prize in 1946?

Peace was her life's work after Wellesley let her go: she became a central leader of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, based in Switzerland.

Emily Hobhouse exposed the deprived conditions in British concentration camps during which conflict that began in 1899?

Second Boer War officials were forced to respond: after her reports, a formal commission headed by Millicent Fawcett was sent to inspect the camps.

Emily St. John Mandel wrote which 2014 novel about a Shakespeare troupe touring the Great Lakes after a flu pandemic?

Station Eleven won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, although Mandel herself does not believe the book belongs to that genre.

Emily Scarratt scored 16 points in the 2014 World Cup final as England beat Canada to the title in which sport?

Rugby union's governing body named her its women's player of the year in 2019, and she also won Commonwealth Games bronze with England's sevens side.

Emily Litella, an elderly woman with a hearing problem, was a Saturday Night Live character played by which comedian?

Gilda Radner based the character on her own childhood nanny, known as Dibby, who was said to be hard of hearing.

Emily Watson earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her debut film, Breaking the Waves, by which Danish director?

Lars von Trier chose the virtually unknown Watson only after Helena Bonham Carter dropped out of the part.