Chloe Pirrie: Everything you need to know about the Scottish star of Netflix's Dept. Q
Born and raised in Edinburgh, Dept. Q marks Chloe Pirrie’s first time working in her hometown.
While her work in streaming hits such as The Queen’s Gambit has taken her around the world, Chloe Pirrie’s most recent role saw her returning to her hometown.
Fans may recognise the Scottish actress from projects such as The Crown or Under the Banner of Heaven but her love of the craft first started in Edinburgh, where she was born and raised.
Now starring in Netflix’s new detective series Dept. Q as high-flying lawyer Merritt Lingard, here we take a look at everything you need to know about the actress.
Who is Chloe Pirrie?
The daughter of a physiotherapist and a lawyer, Chloe Pirrie was born in Edinburgh on August 25, 1987.
Raised in Stockbridge, Pirrie began acting while she was a pupil at the Mary Erskine School and it wasn’t until after she played Anja in a school production of The Cherry Orchard that she first considered it as a potential career. In a 2016 interview with The Scotsman, Pirrie described her path into acting as “a sort of weird, troubled road” after being less than focused on school.
She said: “I decided to actually do some work and I did really get into academic stuff, but got very anxious at the same time because I’m a real perfectionist so academic study became synonymous with anxiety and pressure and a kind of depression. That was very telling for me so I knew that this might play into something that wasn’t very healthy.
“At the same time I was in The Cherry Orchard and just loved it and thought I should do that. I applied to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and didn’t get in the first year, so I worked at Costa and the Dean Gallery Café then applied again and got in the next year when I was 18. I was so excited.”
After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2009, Pirrie’s first acting roles came in 2010.
What TV shows and films has Chloe Pirrie been in?
Starting her career in a 2010 Royal National Theatre production of Men Should Weep, Pirrie then appeared in short film Solstice as well as TV soap Doctors.
Her first prominent role came in Scottish film Shell in 2012, which saw her win the award for Most Promising Newcomer at the 2013 British Independent Film Awards.
Also in 2013, she appeared in Black Mirror episode The Waldo Moment where she played a politician. As well as acting, during this period, Pirrie continued to make ends meet by working part time jobs at bars and restaurants in London.
She said: “When I left Guildhall I was in that wilderness of all actors, ‘Oh God, what am I doing?’ It’s difficult. I was working in bars when I did the play Men Should Weep and Shell, and it took a long time to let go of the need to have a job that pays something every week. There was a time when I had nothing looming and things weren’t going well, but in that time I also made amazing friends and experienced life,” she says.
“Obviously it would be great to leave drama school and get an amazing gig then another, then another, but I’m really grateful I had a time when I just had to get on with life and really struggle with money and everything because it’s made me grateful for everything I’ve got now.
“It’s healthy to spend your early twenties not knowing what the hell’s going on and making terrible choices and not knowing why. It’s the best part of life, and I’m glad I had it. I cherish it.”
In 2014, the Scottish actress then starred in BBC spy thriller The Game as an MI5 secretary alongside Brian Cox. In 2015, further roles then came in television film An Inspector Calls with David Thewliss, Sky Atlantic crime series The Last Panthers with Samatha Morton and John Hurt, Oscar-nominated comedy drama Youth and black comedy film Burn, Burn Burn, as well as the BBC’s big budget adaptation of War and Peace in 2016.
That same year, she appeared on television in The Living and the Dead, Brief Encounters, and made-for-TV film To Walk Invisible, in which she starred as Emily Brontë. After playing Brontë, Pirrie then went on to play Eileen Parker in The Crown.
Between 2018 and 2019, Pirrie’s notable roles include in miniseries Troy: Fall of a City, thriller series The Victim and Sky crime drama Temple. She also had a recurring role in Amazon Prime Video’s Carnival Row alongside Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne.
In 2020, Pirrie then starred alongside Anya Taylor-Joy twice, playing her older sister in the film adaptation of Emma, then her biological mother in Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit. She then starred in horror film Kindred alongside Jack Lowden and Fiona Shaw, followed by a role in Prime Video drama series Hanna in 2021.
In 2022, she starred alongside Andrew Garfield, Gil Birmingham and Daisy Edgar-Jones in true crime miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven as Matilda Lafferty, the Scottish woman who married into a fundamentalist Mormon family, whose husband was played by Wyatt Russell.
Most recently, she starred in 2024 horror thriller film Kryptic which earned her praise from critics for her performance.
Who does Chloe Pirrie play in Dept. Q?
As for her role in Dept. Q, Pirrie stars as prosecutor Merritt Lingard.
With a cast lead by English actor Matthew Goode, Pirrie is one of several Scottish stars including Jamie Sives, Mark Bonnar, Shirley Henderson and more.
Written and directed by Scott Frank, the Netflix drama not only sees Pirrie reuniting with The Queen’s Gambit creator but also Kelly Macdonald, who she starred in The Victim alongside.
As for what’s next for the Scottish actress, fans can expect to see her in the upcoming series of Industry.
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