Who Is Emma D’Arcy? 5 Things to Know About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Star Who Was Nominated for a Golden Globe

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Who Is Emma D'Arcy? 5 Things to Know About the 'House of the Dragon' Star Who Was Nominated for a Golden Globe

A Game of Thrones princess! Emma D’Arcy earned their first Golden Globe nomination for portraying Rhaenyra Targaryen on the GoT spinoff, House of the Dragon.

“Hahahahahhahaha cripes ...what a normal thing to be happening,” the 30-year-old England native — who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns — wrote via Instagram in December 2022 after learning that they had been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama.

D’Arcy — who costarred in House of the Dragon with Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and Paddy Considine — was the only prequel performer to score an individual acting nod at the 2023 Golden Globes, which is broadcast live on Tuesday, January 10. The show overall also scored a nomination for Best Television Series — Drama. “Get in there dragons,” they continued via Instagram about the honor.

House of the Dragon — which premiered on HBO in August 2022 — serves as a prequel series to GoT, where the ancestors of Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen are ruling Westeros. House of the Dragon explains how a civil war started and divided the Targaryen brood. D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra was named late king’s direct heir, a role that catapulted the Wanderlust actor to widespread acclaim.

“Suddenly there's like an avatar of you that exists in the world and it's separate from you, and yet maybe it still requires you as an energy source somehow,” D’Arcy told Entertainment Weekly in October 2022 of navigating fame. “I'm learning about that relationship and learning to admire the avatar and allow the avatar a separate life and its own profession. And it's got its own occupation. I would like to read something on that, as well, actually.”

They continued at the time: “I probably have a complicated relationship, I'm sure as most people do, with having a public profile, but I suppose being able to help the broad spectrum of gender identities sounds like a good reason to have one. So I feel very lucky to just continue what for me is a very exciting plane of discussion — and nice to be able to do that both to an extent onscreen and separately offscreen.”

The Mothering Sunday star, who came out as nonbinary shortly after landing their House of the Dragon role, has found a kinship in Rhaenyra.

“I was drawn to Rhaenyra because I saw a person who, from a young age, was sort of obsessed with masculinity,” they recalled to British GQ in November 2022. “Part of that is an appreciation for the space afforded to men. As a child, my hyper-awareness of gender presentation was the same as Rhaenyra’s. I craved the right to take up space in the way that I saw men doing naturally.”

Scroll below to learn more about the Golden Globe nominee:

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Who Does Emma D’Arcy Play in ‘House of the Dragon’?

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen was affectionately nicknamed the “Realms’ Delight” growing up due to her esteemed beauty. In the first season, Rhaenyra is named heir to the throne after her mother’s death leaves the king believing he’ll never have a son. He remarries Rhaenyra’s best friend, Alicent, who has multiple sons. After the king dies, Alicent is determined for her son to be king while Rhaenyra and her supporters believe she is queen. By the end of the first series, the former best friends are starting a civil war known as the Dance of Dragons.

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Where Is Emma D’Arcy From?

The Misbehavior actor hails from London, before going on to study Fine Art at the University of Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art.

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What Is Emma D’Arcy’s Favorite Cocktail?

D’Arcy went viral in October 2022 during an HBO Max interview, revealing their “drink of choice” was a Negroni Sbagliato — with prosecco in it. “Oh, stunning,” Cooke replied.

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What Has Emma D’Arcy Said About Becoming a Viral Meme?

D’Arcy and Cooke’s conversation went viral on TikTok, with social media users replicating the actor’s intonation and accent in a series of follow-ups.

“I keep thinking I should tell my mum that I've become a meme in the hope that she'll be happy for me,” the Hanna alum quipped to The New York Times that October. “But I'd have to explain what a meme is, and I've decided it's too much effort. I feel so embarrassed. Because in those interviews, when we've been at it for six hours, I'm honestly only trying to make Olivia laugh.”

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What Had Emma D’Arcy Said About Auditioning for ‘House of the Dragon’?

“It was about three months of self-taping in my living room in the middle of the pandemic, so it was amazing,” D’Arcy recalled to The Hollywood Reporter last month of their audition process. “Actually, it felt like living on an island and trying to make cinema or something, because I didn’t see anyone or really do anything, but supposedly I was in conversation with one of the biggest TV shows in the world.”

They added: “My partner and I cobbled together a wig out of literally a bag of hair and then after three months of doing that, I was invited for a 4- or 5-hour in-person audition, did that, and then after that, I was told, 'You’ll hear something next week.’ And then I didn’t. Then I was told it was probably not going my way. And I thought, 'Wow, it’s a real shame.' I went to the countryside, just for the weekend, to start metabolizing, and at the end of that weekend, I had about 14 missed calls from my agent. I spoke to him the next morning to hear, 'They changed their mind! Do you want to do it?' So weird, honestly. A very solitary process that went on seemingly half a year.