Catching up with Emmy Award Winner Luke Kirby

Posted in Amazon Prime, Apple TV +, Interviews, Movies, TV by - August 20, 2020
Catching up with Emmy Award Winner Luke Kirby

Luke Kirby has certainly made a name for himself over the last decade. 

The Hamilton born actor spent most of his younger life in Canada. He has been performing since his teens. While working professionally, the National Theatre School of Canada accepted him as one of their students.  He graduated in May 2000 and after two auditions he began working on two separate projects. Those projects were the mini-series Haven and director Léa Pool’s feature Lost and Delirious.

It was all forward from there when Kirby performed in numerous live theatre projects. But he had the determination to make a name for himself on the large and small screens.  It didn’t take long to book his  his first feature film lead role in Halloween: Resurrection. And then other film credits soon followed including leads in Luck and Mambo Italiano.   

Mambo Italiano premiered as a Gala at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival to a standing ovation. His role there earned Kirby a Canadian Comedy Award Nomination.

Kirby has booked several more roles under his belt (including a memorable turn in, Take This Waltz opposite Michelle Williams). He instantly won the hearts of TV viewers. He did that when he appeared in the hit series, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel opposite Rachel Brosnahan. There, he played comedian Lenny Bruce.

Not only did fans take to Kirby’s portrayal of Bruce. But the voters within the Television Academy nominated him Primetime Emmy Award last year. His category was Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, where he competed against actors like Robert de Niro. He won, beating out others in his category. The Academy nominated him for that role in the same category again this year.

Kirby says getting to play Lenny Bruce has been a real gift but was a bit scary at first. He initially didn’t know how many episodes the character would appear on the show. However, he wanted to get Bruce’s characteristics and mannerisms as close to the real life comedian as possible. Kirby says he didn’t have a lot of vintage video to go on. But Dustin Hoffman’s performance in the film Lenny has always riveted him.

Currently you can catch Luke Kirby on the new AppleTV+ series, Little Voice. There, he plays a record producer who sets out to guide the lead character with her music career.   He is not in many episodes, but he truly leaves his mark.

In this exclusive interview, Bonnie Laufer caught up with Luke Kirby. They talked via zoom from his home in New York to discuss his career. He also talked about his Emmy Award and his upcoming film project, Percy directed by Clark Johnson.

This post was written by
Bonnie is a 25-year broadcast entertainment reporter currently on CH Morning Live and on her YouTube channel. She's heard weekly on Sirius XM as on the Ward & Al Show. She's interviewed more than 20,000 celebs, including Angelina Jolie, Barbra Streisand, George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey,
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