Gretchen Mol

Gretchen Mol is an American actress born on November 8, 1972. She is best known for her television role as Gillian Darmody in the HBO drama series Boardwalk Empire, as well as her roles in feature films such as Rounders, Celebrity, The Thirteenth Floor, The Notorious Bettie Page, 3:10 to Yuma, and Manchester by the Sea.

Mol was raised in Deep River, Connecticut. Her mother, Janet, worked as an artist and teacher, while her father, James, taught at RHAM High School. She attended high school alongside actor Peter Lockyer, performing with him in school plays and musicals, and her brother, Jim Mol, became a film director and editor. She went on to attend The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and graduated from the William Esper Studio, later working as an usher at the Angelika Film Center in New York City.

Her acting career began in Vermont summer stock theatre with productions like Godspell and 110 in the Shade. Mol made her feature film debut in Spike Lee's 1996 movie Girl 6, which led to roles in Abel Ferrara's The Funeral and New Rose Hotel. In 1998, she appeared in several notable feature films, including Rounders opposite Matt Damon, Woody Allen's Celebrity, and Music from Another Room. That same year, she achieved wider public prominence when she was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Mol balanced film and theatrical work. She played Jenny in Neil LaBute's stage play The Shape of Things in London and New York in 2001, reprising the role in the 2003 film adaptation. On Broadway, she performed as Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2004 and played Emily in Disgraced from 2014 to 2015. Her film credits during this era included portraying the title character in The Notorious Bettie Page, along with appearances in Puccini for Beginners, 3:10 to Yuma, An American Affair, Tenure, and Manchester by the Sea.

On television, Mol began her career appearing in a commercial for Coca-Cola, followed by television films and series such as Dead Man's Walk, Picnic, The Magnificent Ambersons, girls club, The Valley of Light, and Life on Mars. From 2010 to 2014, she starred in Boardwalk Empire, sharing two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series with her cast members in 2010 and 2011. In 2018, she played attorney Sam Henessy in the Netflix series Seven Seconds.

Mol married film director Tod Williams on June 1, 2004. The couple has two children, a son born in September 2007 and a daughter born in February 2011. In addition to her acting career, Mol serves as the United States national spokesperson for the PMD Foundation, an organization funding research and awareness for Pelizaeus–Merzbacher disease.