Merritt Wever facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Merritt Wever
Wever in 2010
Born	Merritt Carmen Wever (1980-08-11) August 11, 1980 (age 44) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Sarah Lawrence College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1995–present

Merritt Carmen Wever (born August 11, 1980) is an American actress. She played perennially upbeat young nurse Zoey in Nurse Jackie (2009–2015), an intrepid widow in the Netflix period miniseries Godless (2017) and a detective in the Netflix crime miniseries Unbelievable (2019).

For Nurse Jackie, Wever won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2013, for Godless she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie in 2018 and for Unbelievable she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film in 2020.

Wever has also had supporting roles in other television series, including Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007), New Girl (2013) and The Walking Dead (2015–2016). She had supporting roles in films, such as Michael Clayton (2007), Birdman (2014), and Marriage Story (2019).

Personal life

Wever was born in Manhattan. She was raised by her mother, Georgia. Her mother is from Texas, and is a feminist and political activist.

Wever graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Sarah Lawrence College.

Career

Wever in 2010

Wever began her career starring in low budget, independent short and feature films. She has performed in theater productions, including Brooke Berman's play Smashing and Cavedweller with Deidre O'Connell, both off-Broadway. Wever appeared in numerous feature films, including Into the Wild, Neal Cassady, Michael Clayton, Series 7: The Contenders, Signs, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Bringing Rain, Tiny Furniture and All I Wanna Do.

She has guest-starred on a number of television series, including New Girl, The Good Wife, Conviction, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Wire. She also starred in Ed Zwick's ill-fated pilot Quarterlife, with Rachel Blanchard, Austin Nichols and Shiri Appleby. She also had a recurring role on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as Suzanne.

Wever is perhaps best known for her role as Zoey Barkow in the television series Nurse Jackie, which premiered on Showtime in June 2009. Zoey is described on the official Nurse Jackie website as "an irrepressibly bubbly trauma nurse, who serves as a comic foil to Edie Falco's hard-bitten titular character". Wever received widespread critical acclaim for her role on the show.

Wever was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012 and 2013 for her role in Nurse Jackie, winning the award in 2013 and delivering a memorable speech that consisted only of her stunned reaction: "Thanks so much. Thank you so much. I gotta go. Bye."

In 2016, Wever had a recurring role on AMC's The Walking Dead as Denise Cloyd. Her character's death toward the end of the sixth season of the series was controversial and sparked outrage on social media with many fans, most notably members of the LGBT community.

Wever played a lead role in the miniseries Godless (2017) as Mary Agnes McNue, a tough leader of a female-dominated town. She said in interviews that she had been intimidated by the role: "I spent so much of this shoot thinking I would come off as a fool, that nobody would buy me as this and it wouldn't be believable." Many critics nonetheless noted her character as a highlight of the show. Entertainment Weekly titled its review of Godless "Merritt Wever rides tall in Netflix's Godless" and wrote that "no one is more electric than the always extraordinary Merritt Wever". In 2018, she won an Emmy for the role.

In 2019, Wever starred in another Netflix miniseries Unbelievable, opposite Toni Collette and Kaitlyn Dever released on September 13, 2019. The series received critical acclaim, with Wever receiving her first Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film.

In 2020, Wever began starring in the HBO black comedy thriller series Run opposite Domhnall Gleeson. It was cancelled after one season.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Alaska	April	Short film
1998	All I Wanna Do	Maureen 'Momo' Haines
1998	Arresting Gena	Tammy
1999	Adventures of Sebastian Cole, TheThe Adventures of Sebastian Cole	Susan
2001	Series 7: The Contenders	Lindsay Berns
2002	Signs	Tracey Abernathy
2003	Season of Youth	Anna
2003	Bringing Rain	Monica Greenfield
2004	Hole in One, AA Hole in One	Betty
2005	12 and Holding	Debbie Poole
2007	Michael Clayton	Anna Kaiserson
2007	Into the Wild	Lori
2007	Neal Cassady	Mountain Girl
2008	Righteous Kill
2009	Mr. Softie	Gail
2009	Missing Person, TheThe Missing Person	Mabel Page
2009	Messenger, TheThe Messenger	Lara
2010	Greenberg	Gina
2010	Tiny Furniture	Frankie
2011	Strange Ones, TheThe Strange Ones	Hotel Girl	Short film
2014	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)	Annie
2015	Meadowland	Kelly
2016	The Last Face	Marlee
2018	Irreplaceable You	Mindy
2018	Charlie Says	Karlene Faith
2018	Welcome to Marwen	Roberta
2019	Marriage Story	Cassie
2022	Midday Black Midnight Blue	Beth
2023	Memory	Olivia
TBA	Untitled Christy Martin film	TBA

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Television

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Merritt Wever para niños