Margaret Qualley
Sarah Margaret Qualley is an American actress and model. Having made her acting debut in 2013, she has since starred in several successful television series and Hollywood productions. Qualley's body of work has earned her nominations for an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award.
The daughter of actress Andie MacDowell, Qualley trained as a ballerina in her youth and briefly pursued a career in modeling. She made her acting debut with a minor role in the 2013 drama film Palo Alto, but later gained recognition for playing a troubled teenager in the HBO mystery series The Leftovers. Qualley then appeared in the dark comedy The Nice Guys and in Netflix's supernatural thriller Death Note.
Qualley gained further acclaim and a nomination at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards for portraying actress and dancer Ann Reinking in the FX biographical drama miniseries Fosse/Verdon. Her biggest commercial success came in 2019 with Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Early life
Margaret Qualley was born on October 23, 1994, in Montana. She is the daughter of actress and model Andie MacDowell, and model, musician, contractor, and rancher Paul Qualley. She has an older brother, Justin, and an older sister, Rainey.The Qualley siblings spent their early years on a ranch in Missoula, Montana, moving to Asheville, North Carolina, when Margaret was four. Qualley's parents separated when she was five years old, and she subsequently split her time equally between each parent. For many years, her parents lived just three miles apart. Her family home with MacDowell is in Biltmore Forest, and they have extended family nearby.
Education and training
She first took interest in ballet and studied it as a toddler. As a teenager growing up in Asheville, North Carolina, she and her sister were both debutantes, and Qualley made her debut at the Bal des débutantes in Paris.She left home at 14 to board at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied dance. She trained as a ballerina, earning an apprenticeship at the American Ballet Theatre and studying at New York's Professional Children's School. However, at the age of 16, following an offer to become an apprentice with the North Carolina Dance Theater company, Qualley decided to quit dance. In order to stay in New York, she began working as a model. Of this period, Qualley says: "I wrote to my mom saying: 'Look, I don't think I want to be a dancer any more so I'm going to quit ballet and stay here. I will have this and this income next week.' I laid it out in a way that she couldn't say no because I was so organized." Qualley later changed her focus to acting and attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art summer program.
Qualley attended New York University but left after a semester for acting roles.
Career
Modeling
In 2011, Qualley made her modeling debut at the age of 16 during New York Fashion Week, walking for Alberta Ferretti. She modelled during Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012 for Valentino and Chanel. She again walked for Chanel during their Fall/Winter 2012 show. Qualley has posed for publications such as Vogue, W, Teen Vogue, Interview, Vanity Fair, and Nylon. Qualley appeared in the Ralph Lauren Fall/Winter 2016 print campaign, shot by Steven Meisel.She is currently signed with IMG Models and Uno Models Barcelona.
Acting
Qualley first appeared on screen in 2013 playing a small part in Gia Coppola's film Palo Alto. She received the part because she happened to be on set visiting her then-boyfriend, Nat Wolff.In June 2013, Qualley was cast as a series regular in the HBO television series The Leftovers. Qualley reprised her role as Jill Garvey for the subsequent second and third seasons of The Leftovers in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
Qualley next appeared in Shane Black's 2016 comedy The Nice Guys. In April 2016, Qualley was announced to have joined the cast of Shawn Christensen's The Vanishing of Sidney Hall. The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, alongside another film of hers, Novitiate. In Novitiate, Qualley stars as Sister Cathleen, a young woman who begins to question her faith as she trains to be a nun. The film was released on October 27, 2017. That same year, Qualley starred in Death Note, directed by Adam Wingard.
In 2018, Qualley appeared in Donnybrook, directed by Tim Sutton and co-starring Jamie Bell and Frank Grillo. The film had its premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2019, Qualley starred in the Netflix science-fiction film IO. The film was directed by Jonathan Helpert and it was released on January 18, 2019. She played Sam Walden, a teenager surviving as one of the last people on an abandoned post-cataclysmic Earth, who is racing to find a cure for her poisoned home world before the last shuttle off the planet to the distant human space colony leaves her stranded.
Also in 2019, Qualley portrayed the role of Mary Dalton in Rashid Johnson's HBO adaption of Native Son. In 2019, Qualley also portrayed actress and dancer Ann Reinking in the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries. She then appeared in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing a member of the Manson Family named Pussycat and in Seberg opposite Kristen Stewart and Jack O'Connell directed by Benedict Andrews. With the cast of the former, she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
In 2020, Qualley starred in Wake Up, a short film directed by Olivia Wilde. She is also set to star in My Salinger Year opposite Sigourney Weaver directed by Philippe Falardeau.
In other media
In 2015, Qualley appeared in the short promotional film L'Américaine for American fashion label Tory Burch. Qualley appears as the central character in a Spike Jonze-directed commercial for KENZO World. The 2016 short film/ad was choreographed by Ryan Heffington. However, much of the dance routine was improvised by Qualley herself, as she is trained in classical ballet. Qualley and her sister Rainey appeared in the music video for Soko's 2017 single "Sweet Sound of Ignorance."On May 29, 2019, it was revealed that Qualley would be playing "Mama" in Hideo Kojima's PlayStation 4 game Death Stranding. She also played the character of Lockne, Mama's twin sister, in the game.
Personal life
As of November 2019, Qualley lives in New York. Qualley formerly lived in Los Angeles with her sister Rainey, with whom she shares a dog named Books. Qualley has described her sister as "my idol, my best friend in the whole world."Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Palo Alto | Raquel | |
| 2016 | The Nice Guys | Amelia Kuttner | |
| 2017 | Novitiate | Sister Cathleen Harris | |
| 2017 | The Vanishing of Sidney Hall | Alexandra | |
| 2017 | Death Note | Mia Sutton / Kira | |
| 2018 | Donnybrook | Delia Angus | |
| 2019 | Io | Sam Walden | |
| 2019 | Native Son | Mary Dalton | |
| 2019 | Adam | Casey Freeman | |
| 2019 | Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | "Pussycat" | |
| 2019 | Strange but True | Melissa Moody | |
| 2019 | Seberg | Linette Solomon | |
| 2020 | Wake Up | Jane Doe | Short film |
| 2020 | My Salinger Year | Joanna |