Emily Davis

Davis was born and raised in Oak Cliff, Texas,[1] a neighborhood in South Dallas. She attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Downtown Dallas. After high school, she moved to New York City and attended New York University, where she studied acting and neurolinguistics.[2] She graduated with a BFA in Theater.

In 2009, Davis began collaborating with Half Straddle, an Obie Award-winning New York City based ensemble of performers and designers, led by Tina Satter.[3] Half Straddle has premiered 10 full-length shows, plus a number of shorter works and video projects. Their work has been seen in theaters and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia.[4] Davis has originated roles in multiple Half Straddle productions, including Nurses in New England, Away Uniform, and Seagull (Thinking of you), a reimagining of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Davis has also frequently collaborated with artists Erin Markey, Becca Blackwell, and Jess Barbagallo.

Davis is best known for her portrayal of American whistleblower Reality Winner in Half Straddle's Is This A Room, a verbatim staging of the FBI transcription of Winner's interrogation in June 2017. The piece premiered in January 2019 at The Kitchen in New York City,[5] where Davis was described as "one of the most gifted realists in town" by Helen Shaw in Artforum.[6] The piece went on to an extended, critically acclaimed off-Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre in the fall of 2019.[7] Ben Brantley of the New York Times called Davis's portrayal of Winner "one of the most trenchantly observed performances of the year."[8]

Davis went on to reprise the role in the Broadway production of Is This A Room at the Lyceum Theatre in 2021, which marked her Broadway debut.[9] She, again, received critical acclaim for her performance, being described as "sensational...[in a] career-making performance."[10]

Davis has also been seen in various television roles,[11] including Tulsa King on Paramount+, Servant on Apple TV+, and High Maintenance on HBO. She has also appeared in films such as The Plagiarists, The Harbinger, and the short film Gwen in Corpus, which she also wrote and directed.[12]

For her portrayal of Reality Winner in Is This A Room off-Broadway, Davis received the Obie Award for Performance and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, both in 2020. She was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Lead Actress.[13]