Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is an English-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance in Lovely and Amazing. She is also known for playing Mackenzie McHale in the HBO series The Newsroom, and as the voice actress of Sophie in the English-language version of Howl's Moving Castle (2004). She also starred in Scream 3 (2000), Match Point (2005), The Pink Panther (2006) and its 2009 sequel, Lars and the Real Girl (2007), Chaos Theory (2008), Harry Brown (2009), Shutter Island (2010), Cars 2 (2011), Hugo (2011), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), and Relic (2020). She created and wrote the series Doll & Em (2014–15) and wrote and directed the miniseries The Pursuit of Love (2021) based on the 1945 novel of the same name. Early life and education Mortimer was born on 6 October 1971 in Hammersmith, London, to dramatist and barrister Sir John Mortimer, and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop). She has a younger sister, Rosie; two older half-siblings, Sally Silverman and Jeremy, from her father's first marriage to author Penelope Fletcher; and a half-brother, Ross Bentley, from her father's relationship with actress Wendy Craig. Mortimer studied at St Paul's Girls' School in west London where she appeared in several pupil productions. She then went on to the University of Oxford, where she read Russian at Lincoln College and performed in several plays. Before becoming an actress, Mortimer wrote a column for The Daily Telegraph and was screenwriter for an adaptation of Lorna Sage's memoir, Bad Blood. Career 1995–2008: Early work and recognition Mortimer performed in several plays while studying at the University of Oxford. While acting in a student production, she was spotted by a producer who later cast her in the lead in a television adaptation of Catherine Cookson's The Glass Virgin (1995). Subsequent television roles included Sharpe's Sword (1995) and Coming Home (1998). She followed this with the 1996 television film Lord of Misrule, directed by Guy Jenkin and filmed in Fowey, Cornwall. In 1996, Mortimer appeared in her first feature film opposite Val Kilmer in The Ghost and the Darkness, and in the coming-of-age story, The Last of the High Kings. In 1998 she appeared as Kat Ashley in Elizabeth, and played Miss Flynn in the television mini series Cider