Comedy queen! Emily Hampshire landed her first acting role in 1994 when she was just a teenager. Four years later, the Canada native, now 39, got her big TV break with a role on The Industry, which she followed up by voicing Diana Barry on Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series.
Hampshire’s career as a voice actress continued to flourish with roles on Braceface, Carl2 and 6Teen. She also appeared on Ruby Gloom, Busytown Mysteries and Rookie Blue before rising to superstardom for her role as Stevie Budd on Schitt’s Creek. The comedy premiered in 2015 in both Canada and the United States — and took home nine Emmys over the course of six seasons.
The same year, the actress began portraying Jennifer Goines on 12 Monkeys. Hampshire later wrote and produced her own series, Humpday with Hampshire, and is currently filming The Rig.
Outside of her acting roles, however, how much do Hampshire’s fans really know about her? The Chapelwaite star opened up to Us Weekly exclusively about herself — including why she received a giant hat cake for her birthday and what item she bought an “industrial size bucket” of amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Read on to learn more about Hampshire:
1. I reupholstered a couch on my own.
2. I once had to sing “99 Red Balloons” in the original German version (“99 Luft-Balloons”). Now I have a pretty impressive karaoke party trick.
3. It had always been my dream to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret, so I couldn’t believe it when I got the script for [the episode of] Schitt’s Creek where [my character] Stevie was cast as Sally in Moira’s production of Cabaret.
4. I go to sleep listening to murder podcasts.
5. I always wear a giant hat because I’m terrified of getting sunburn. The last movie I did, they made me a birthday cake in the shape of said giant hat.
6. I love the movie The Never-Ending Story.
7. I’m good at making things. I once built a 10-foot-long floating desk.
8. I’m originally from Montreal, so I can speak French.
9. I bought an industrial size bucket of Nutella when we first went into lockdown. I got to the bottom of it, using only a spoon, by the end.
10. My first acting job was on Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?
11. I hosted my own pandemic talk show called Humpday with Hampshire to raise money for the Actors Fund and had the best guests. Check it out on YouTube!
12. I am on wikiFeet. I only recently learned what that is.
13. I love the smell of a dog’s paws.
14. I still have the first thing I bought with my own money — a dress circa the first wave of grunge in the ‘90s.
15. I didn’t want to stop wearing my Invisalign, but my dentist made me.
16. I’m a Virgo.
17. If I never had to leave my house, I wouldn’t!
18. I love songwriting.
19. I was so nervous during my Schitt’s Creek audition that I put my shirt over my head and hid during the scene.
20. The first time I Marie Kondo’d my belongings, I ended up going to Goodwill to buy back a pair of my own shoes.
21. I’m obsessed with Jellycat toys.
22. I just fall in love with a person. Wherever they are on the gender spectrum doesn’t really matter to me.
23. California Pizza Kitchen is my favorite restaurant. I like their tomato bisque soup.
24. I love interior design, furniture and fonts. Basically, all things design.
25. I have misophonia. If you eat with your mouth open, I might have to murder you!
Hampshire stars in the horror series Chapelwaite on EPIX.
