Emerald Fennell’s 10 Best Movies & TV Shows, Ranked By IMDb

Following her superb feature film debut, Promising Young Woman, writer/director Emerald Fennell made history by becoming the first British woman to be nominated for Best Director by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition to Best Director, Fennell also drew nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

Prior to becoming a writer/director, Fennell spent the first decade of her career as an actress working in European film and television. She made her on-screen debut via the crime series Trial & Retribution in 2006 and now stars as Camilla Parker Bowles on the original Netflix hit drama, The Crown.

10 Anna Karenina (2012) 6.6

In Joe Wright’s sweeping adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Fennell plays the supporting role of Princess Merkalova. Set in 1874 Russia, the drama centers on Anna’s (Keira Knightley) romantic infidelity as she tries to save her brother’s failing marriage.

While attempting to preserve her brother’s matrimony, Anna begins to fall in love with Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a man set to marry her sister-in-law’s younger sister.

9 Albert Nobbs (2011) 6.7

Fennell’s second feature film as an actress came via the 2011 period-piece Albert Noobs, in which Glenn Close plays the title character, a woman who poses as a man to skirt the patriarchal prejudices of 19th-century Ireland and gain employment as a butler in one of Dublin’s most esteemed hotels.

In order to keep up appearances and maintain her gainful employment, Albert chooses the young and mischievous Helen Dawes (Mia Wasikowska) to be his wife.

8 Murder On The Home Front (2013) 6.8

Murder on the Home Front is a two-part television movie that revolves around a mysterious serial killer exacting a string of murders during the height of the German attack on Britain in 1940. Fennell plays Issy Quennell in the film.

When multiple young women are found killed, inexperienced pathologist Lennox Collins (Patrick Kennedy) teams up with his secretary, Molly (Tamzin Merchant), to investigate. Using a slew of trailblazing techniques, the two uncover the Nazi Strangler, a deranged psycho who continues to put pressure on the two.

7 The Danish Girl (2015) 7.1

Fennell played the supporting role of Elsa in The Danish Girl, for which Alicia Vikander won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The story tells of Danish painter Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), a Danish artist who undergoes one of the first known cases of gender reassignment surgery.

Upon posing for his painterly wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander), Einar reveals her life-long gender identity as a woman named Lili Elbe. As Lili and Gerda work through their marriage while becoming successful artists, Lili opts for a radically new form of surgery.

6 Promising Young Woman (2020) 7.5

Although she is uncredited, Fennell directs, writes, as well as makes a brief cameo appearance in her irreverent revenge tale Promising Young Woman.

Carey Mulligan earned an Oscar nod for Best Leading Actress for her performance as Cassandra, a med-school dropout who finds new purpose in her dead-end existence by avenging the misogynistic sexual abuse women experience every day. Fed up, Cassandra feigns inebriation at local bars as a way to fool lecherous men and lure them into eating their just desserts.

5 Any Human Heart (2010) 7.9

Any Human Heart was a four-part British romantic drama series that follows the globetrotting life of novelist Logan Mountstuart (Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfayden, Conor Nealon) over the course of six decades. Fennell appeared in three of the four episodes.

Mounstuart’s incredible journey includes attending Oxford, traveling to Paris, meeting the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Ian Fleming, hobnobbing with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and much more.

4 Victoria (2016 – ) 8.2

While the acclaimed British drama Victoria continues to run for a fourth season, Fennell made a single appearance on the show in 2017 as Lady Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter and wife of computer pioneer, Charles Babbage.

In the second episode of season 2, “The Green-Eyed Monster,” Victoria becomes jealous when Albert shows affection toward Lovelace. But when Victoria learns she is pregnant with her second child, she uses the news to reconcile with Albert, despite her growing suspicions of his potential infidelity.

3 Killing Eve (2018 – ) 8.3

Although she has yet to appear in front of the camera on the series, Fennell served as showrunner and head-writer of Killing Eve season 2. In addition to writing six episodes, Fennell also executive produced eight episodes in the series so far.

The crux of the show centers on Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a skilled British agent assigned to capture Villanelle (Jodie Comer), a ruthless and insane assassin. However, the closer Eve gets to arresting her mark, the fonder the two become of each other.

2 Call The Midwife (2012 – ) 8.4

The longest-running TV character Fennell has played thus far in her career is Nurse Patsy Mount, appearing in 27 episodes of Call the Midwife from 2013 to 2017.

Based on the memoir of Jennifer Worth, the historical drama centers on a group of midwives and nuns in 1950s and 1960s East London. The story starts when 22-year-old Jennifer Lee (Jessica Raine) takes a job at Nonnatus House, a nursing convent where several others work to assist the downtrodden in London.

1 The Crown (2016 – ) 8.7

According to IMDb, the highest-rated movie or television program that Fennell has appeared in so far is The Crown, Netflix’s royal smash hit.

Created by Peter Morgan, The Crown follows the palace intrigue surrounding Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy, Olivia Coleman)) and her influential reign of power in the mid-to-late 1900s. In seven episodes thus far, Fennell plays Camilla Parker Bowles aka the Duchess of Cornwall, and wife of Prince Charles of Wales.