Emma Laird

Emma Laird is an English actress and former model. On television, she is known for her role in the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown (since 2021). Her films include A Haunting in Venice (2023). She was named a 2021 Brit to Watch by Variety.

Early life
Laird is from Chesterfield. She attended Tupton Hall School, completing her A Levels in 2014.

Career
Scouted by Models 1 at Leeds Festival when she was 18, Laird was a model for seven years. In 2019, she became the face of Pandora for the brand's autumn campaign.

Laird has spoken critically of the modelling industry, calling it "very dangerous for young girls" as she was repeatedly told to lose weight. In addition, the lack of creative freedom "bored" her. Fatigued, she enrolled in acting classes at the New York Film Academy.

In April 2021, Laird was cast in her debut television role in the Paramount+ crime thriller Mayor of Kingstown as Iris, "a dancer who uses her charms to her benefit, until those charms are used against her". The series premiered later that year. The Hollywood Reporter described Laird's handling of concurrent offers as "li[ghting] up the town's buzz meter". In October 2021, Variety included Laird in their annual list of 10 Brits to Watch.

In 2023, Laird starred in the Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room and made her feature film debut in Kenneth Branagh's A Haunting in Venice. That April, she joined the cast of the film The Brutalist.