##Lily Gladstone is an Academy Award-nominated actor who is known for her roles in Killers of the Flower Moon and Certain Women.
1986-present
***Latest News: Lily Gladstone Makes History With 2024 Emmy Nomination.
Lily Gladstone not only received her first Emmy nomination, but she also became one of the first Indigenous women to be recognized for acting. The 38-year-old will find out whether she has a new trophy to add to her increasing collection during the 76th annual awards event on September 15, when she will be both a presenter and a candidate.
Gladstone was recognized for her role as Officer Cam Bentland in the Hulu true-crime series Under the Bridge, which follows Canadian teenager Reena Virk. The actor is up against fellow Indigenous actress Kali Reis in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, Movie, or Anthology. Gladstone and Reis are the first two Indigenous actors to be acknowledged by the Emmys since August Schellenberg was nominated for his work in HBO’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee back in 2007.
Gladstone’s portrayal in the true-crime thriller “Killers of the Flower Moon” was praised, but “Under the Bridge” is his first role as a police officer. He had previously avoided playing Native cops. Gladstone told Variety that the show’s ambition, which—spoiler alert—ends with Cam quitting the police and discarding her “cop persona,” made her feel at ease playing the part.
“That’s kind of the exclusive way that I was going to play a cop: a cop who eventually ditches the badge,” said Gladstone. “Perhaps the Indigenous woman cop is an intriguing figure because she represents a paradox. It’s having the urge to defend your community but yet realizing that you’re being mobilized against your own people.
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Who Is Lily Gladstone?
Lily Gladstone is an American performer of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu descent. She is most recognized for her role in Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon, in which she portrays an Osage lady living on an Oklahoma reservation during a true sequence of killings in the 1920s. Gladstone’s performance has been hailed as her mainstream breakthrough role, earning her first Oscar nomination and Golden Globe award.
Prior to this role, Gladstone acted in various indie films and television programs, notably Reservation Dogs. She received special attention for her work in 2016’s Certain Women, which won her an Independent Spirit Award nomination among other honors. She is nominated at the 2024 Emmys for her work in the Hulu series “Under the Bridge.”
Lily Gladstone’s Quick Summary
| Attribute | Details |
| Full Name | Lily Gladstone (@lilygladstone) |
| Born | 2-Aug-86 |
| Birthplace | Kalispell, Montana |
| Astrological Sign | Leo |
Lily Gladstone’s Early Life
Lily Gladstone was born on August 2, 1986, and grew up in Browning, Montana. Her father, a broadcast journalist, is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu origin, while her mother, an early childhood education expert, is white. Gladstone resided on the Blackfeet Nation reserve until the age of eleven. For her first few years, the family lived in a log cabin with a wood-burning stove.
Gladstone described Browning as follows: “Poverty, violence, drug addiction, and unemployment are rampant. But there’s a lot of affection in that group. What brings individuals together is a love of family and a love of land.”
According to Gladstone, she was “an energetic and performative kid who got made fun of a lot—just that chubby mixed girl on the rez who had a little bit too much creative energy and not enough outlets.” Her father and grandparents were avid moviegoers, and she grew up watching numerous movies on cable television that they had taped.
Her family relocated away from Browning owing to a lack of economic possibilities, so she graduated from high school in a Seattle suburb before attending the University of Montana. She studied acting and theater before earning a bachelor’s degree in visual arts with a minor in Native American studies in 2008. While in college, she appeared in Montana Repertory Theatre shows, where instructor and director Greg Johnson praised her: “There are a lot of brilliant students at UM, but she’s always stood out. She’s an excellent actress. “We were lucky to have her.”
Gladstone said one piece of advise she took away from UM was to “keep yourself interested and invested in the world, and you will remain an interesting performer.” “You’ll be flat the moment you disconnect from the human experience.”
Lily Gladstone’s Filmography
Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, Lily Gladstone, and Kristin Stewart, co-stars of Certain Women, attended the 2016 New York Film Festival.
Gladstone worked with Living Voices from 2009 to 2013, an educational traveling theater group that presented plays on neglected histories. She made her cinematic debut with Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2012), a film about a Blackfeet World War II veteran played by Benicio Del Toro.
She then starred in the hallucinogenic film Winter in the Blood (2013), which follows a Native American man in a tiny Montana hamlet. Gladstone described it as a “labor of love” for Montanans, stating that “Winter in the Blood relied so heavily on the Montana community, so many locals, and so many people who have a strong connection with the legacy of the novel.” She also appears in the movie Buster’s Mal Heart (2016).
Independent director Kelly Reichardt appreciated Gladstone’s depiction of a rancher in Certain Women (2016). The Guardian labeled it her “big break,” while Rolling Stone wrote: “Gladstone gives a performance of such piercing honesty and yearning, you almost can’t look at her.” Gladstone stars with actresses Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, and Kristen Stewart. The emerging actor went on to get several honors and nominations. This includes receiving the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. Gladstone was also considered for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female.
In 2017, Gladstone played at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and collaborated with Red Eagle Soaring, a Native American student theatrical group. She appeared in HBO’s Room 104 (2017-2020), Showtime’s Billions (2019-2023), and FX’s Reservation Dogs (2022), as well as a brief part in Kelly Reichardt’s indie feature First Cow 2019. In 2020, she performed in the Yale Repertory Theatre production of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s Manahatta.
***Historic Oscar Nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon….
Lily Gladstone and Martin Scorsese in a scene from Killers of the Flower Moon, which hits cinemas in October.
In August 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic, Gladstone started to wonder whether she could continue to support herself via acting and pondered a career shift, intending to apply for seasonal employment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture monitoring killer bees. During this period, however, she got a Zoom meeting request from film director Martin Scorsese, who was intrigued with her performance in Certain Women. This led to her getting cast in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which will be published in October 2023.
Killers of the Flower Moon is based on David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, and it describes a sequence of killings on the Osage Nation Reservation in Oklahoma during the 1920s. Gladstone plays Mollie Kyle Burkhart, a real-life Osage lady whose friends and family are inexplicably killed. Gladstone spent months researching Burkhart, including visiting with her real-life granddaughter, and attending hundreds of meetings with Osage elders to learn about the community’s heritage and ensuring their voice was heard and incorporated.
Lily Gladstone said that she took inspiration for the performance from her own life and upbringing, despite the fact that she and Burkhart were from different tribes and time periods. “I consider it a true gift and great responsibility to be trusted with Mollie Burkhart and will hold her preciously with both arms, close to my heart,” Gladstone stated when asked about the choice. “My most profound thanks to Osage Nation, it is a remarkable gift to be welcomed by you and to be able to tell this story.”
Scorsese said of Gladstone: “I could see she believed in simplicity. She saw her own onscreen appearance as an expressive tool that could speak for itself. That’s extremely unusual. Her silences, as Mollie, were often more impactful than her words. Castmate Leonardo DiCaprio praised Lily’s presence and power. As a Native performer, she became a source of inspiration for all of us, even Scorsese, in terms of storytelling.”
Killers of the Flower Moon has been hailed as Gladstone’s mainstream breakthrough performance, and Town & Country said that she got the “biggest Oscar buzz” at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. According to Deadline, Gladstone is the “real star” of the picture, despite co-starring alongside prominent performers like DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Lily Gladstone made Academy Awards history by being the first Native American nominated for Actress in a Leading Role, however she lost to Emma Stone in Poor Things. “[The nomination] belongs to so many people: the Osage Nation, the Blackfeet Nation, the Nez Perce Nation, every Indigenous actor whose shoulders I stand on,” Gladstone told the newspaper. “It is circumstantial that I am the first, and I am quite thankful. I simply know I won’t be the last, by a long way.
Her performance garnered her unprecedented prizes at the 2024 Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is the first Indigenous person to win both Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.
Lily Gladstone’s Old and Newer Movies
Following the success of Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone returned with another true crime project, this time for television. She featured with Riley Keough in Under the Bridge, a Hulu limited series that premiered in April 2024. The drama is based on the actual tale of Reena Virk, a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was killed by her friends. Gladstone plays Cam Bentland, one of the few women of color on the police department in Victoria, British Columbia, while Keough’s character investigates the case as a writer.
Gladstone’s performance in Under the Bridge garnered her an unprecedented Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series, Movie, or Anthology. She and fellow contender Kali Reis from “True Detective: Night Country” are the first Indigenous women to get Emmy nominations for acting.
The Gladstone-led drama Fancy Dance, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023, was released to a larger audience in June 2024 via Apple TV+. Gladstone stars as Jax, a mother who is caring for her niece after her sister goes missing.
Her first new film since Killers of the Flower Moon was a sequel to 2022’s The Unknown Country. Gladstone played Tana, a lady who travels throughout the United States while grieving. The actor had a minor part in the upcoming sequel, Jazzy, which follows the eponymous Oglala Lakota girl growing up in South Dakota. Jazzy, played by Jasmine Bearkiller-Shangreaux, previously appeared with Tana in The Unknown Country. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in June, and no broader distribution has been announced.
Gladstone is set to feature in sci-fi film “The Memory Police” and a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 rom-com “The Wedding Banquet,” with actor Bowen Yang.
Lily Gladstone’s Personal Life
Lily Gladstone often wears Native-designed clothing and jewelry on the red carpet. She has a puppy called Birdy who often features in her Instagram postings.
According to Lily Gladstone’s X (formerly Twitter) biography, the actor uses the pronouns she/they. This was inspired by her Indigenous heritage. “I remember being 9 years old and just being a little disheartened seeing how often a lot of my boy cousins were misgendered because they wore their hair long,” Gladstone recently told People. “I recall thinking that everyone should simply be themselves. Most Native languages, including Blackfeet, do not use gendered pronouns. There is no he/she; just them.”
