October 24, 2019. Actress Jenn Murray will receive a “Wilde Card” award at the US-Ireland Alliance’s 15th Annual Oscar Wilde Awards. Murray is the first honoree announced for the casual, pre-Academy Awards party at Bad Robot in Santa Monica on February 6, 2020. The event will be emceed by J.J. Abrams, director of the upcoming STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

Trina Vargo, founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance said that “Wilde Cards” are presented to “young, rising talent, and/or people whose names you may not know yet, but we believe you will.” Previous recipients of the award include Saoirse Ronan, Sarah Bolger, and Barry Keoghan. Upon learning of the honor, Jenn Murray said, “The US-Ireland Alliance champions talent and courage in equal measure honoring who you are, where you are from and where you are going. I am privileged and excited to follow in the footsteps of previous honorees who are doing inspiring, versatile work.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jenn can currently be seen playing ‘Gerda’ in Disney’s MALEFICENT: THE MISTRESS OF EVIL. Devoted servant to Michelle Pfeiffer’s ‘Queen Ingrith’, ‘Gerda’ plays a pivotal role in the Queen’s war against Angelina Jolie’s ‘Maleficent’. Her performance has been singled out as “conventionally “bad-ass”” by Forbes and “marvelously deranged” by the Daily Express. Also starring Elle Fanning, the film is directed by Joachim Rønning.

Jenn first caught the industry’s attention with her award-winning, feature film debut as the title character in Agnès Merlet’s horror DOROTHY MILLS. The independent Irish film is about a disturbed young girl, seemingly with a multiple personality disorder. Also starring Carice van Houten, it premiered at the 2009 Glasgow Film Festival. Screen Daily raved, “one thing is a standout… stage-trained newcomer Jenn Murray. Her tour de force performance as Dorothy…is nearly as impressive as Edward Norton's memorable turn in Primal Fear.”

In 2016, Jenn played ‘Chastity’ in FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. The Warner Bros. film, directed by David Yates and written by J.K. Rowling, and also stars Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton and Ezra Miller. In the same year, Jenn also took on the role of the hysterical ‘Lady Lucy Manwaring’ in Whit Stillman’s LOVE & FRIENDSHIP also starring Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny and Morfydd Clark.

Jenn portrayed ‘Dolores,’ opposite Saoirse Ronan and Julie Walters, in the Academy Award nominated BROOKLYN which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The John Crowley helmed feature, written by Nick Hornby and adapted from the Colm Toibin novel of the same name, is set in the early 1950s and tells the story of a young Irish woman’s immigration to Brooklyn, New York.

Jenn was also seen in the six-episode drama The Fades for BBC Three. Written by Jack Thorne, and also starring Iain De Caestecker, Joe Dempsie and Natalie Dormer, the series won a BAFTA TV Award for ‘Best Drama Series’. Jenn also appeared opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Dougray Scott and Joely Richardson in the BBC’s The Day of the Triffids.