30 fun facts about Jemima Kirke: How She Landed Her Role on 'Girls'

Jemima Kirke is a beautiful and talented actress and artist. She is best known for her role as Jessa in the hit HBO show "Girls." Here are 30 interesting facts about this actress.

1. Jemima Kirke was born on April 26, 1985 in London, England.

2. She is the daughter of drummer Simon Kirke and Lorraine Kirke.

3. Her mother is the owner of Geminola, a vintage boutique in New York City that supplied a number of outfits for the television series Sex and the City.

4. Jemima's father has English and Scottish ancestry. Jemima's maternal grandfather, Jack Dellal, was of Iraqi Jewish descent. Jemima's maternal grandmother, Zehava Helmer, was an Israeli of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

5. Kirke has two sisters, Lola and Domino Kirke, who are both involved in the music business. She also has a brother.

6. She is a cousin of curator Alexander Dellal and model Alice Dellal.

7. Although born in London, Kirke was raised in New York City.

8. She attended at the prestigious Saint Ann's School in New York.

9. While there, she met Lena Dunham and a friendship was born.

10. She had an abortion while in college. In a new PSA for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Kirke says she became pregnant with her boyfriend's child while at college in Providence, R.I. "My life was just not conducive to raising a healthy, happy child," she says. "I just didn't feel it was fair." Even though she comes from a wealthy family, she didn't want to tell her parents about the pregnancy, so she had to pay for the abortion herself. She scraped together the money with her boyfriend, but they didn't have enough for anesthesia, so she got the abortion without it. "The anesthesia wasn't that much more, but when you're scrounging for however many hundreds of dollars, it is a lot. I just didn't have it."

11. Kirke later went to Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied art and graduated as a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

12. She was a wild child growing up but now says has relaxed a lot. "I think I did a lot of really stupid stuff really quickly in my twenties and that sort of led me to want to sort of just relax a little bit. Relax a lot," she said in an interview.

13. In late 2011, she held an exhibition titled "A Brief History" through Skylight Projects.

14. Her film debut was in the indie short film Smile for the Camera.

15. She made her feature-length debut in the independent film Tiny Furniture, as a favor for friend Lena Dunham because she didn't have enough money to pay professional actors. Although the film turned out to be profitable, Kirke received no payment. ". She didn't have enough to pay anyone, and I guess it was slim pickings, so she asked me to be part of it and it was a success. Afterward she was offered the TV show and invited me to work on it. I never thought it'd go as far as it has," she said in an interview.

16. Lena Dunham and Jemima Kirke have posted footage online which shows them re-enacting MILEY CYRUS' We Can't Stop music video.

17. In 2011, Kirke appeared in the music video "Wring It Out" for the group Rival Schools.

18. She defines herself as a visual artist, which is her top priority, and feels that acting is secondary. "I don't have that drive to be in this field, climbing up, doing bit parts in movies to make a big movie. But I'm lucky I get to also do acting - it's fun. I should probably just take an acting class on the weekends - that would be enough for me."

19. She loves to paint people that she knows or sees on the street.

20. She met her future husband Michael Mosberg in a doctor's office when she had bronchitis. "My husband and I met at the doctor's office and I got a crush on him right away. I liked that he had grey in his hair. He was also such a gentleman - he would hold the door open for everyone and constantly gave his seat up to women on the train. A real old-fashioned guy. I loved his gentility, but his kindness was what struck me. He had this patience and stoicism; I had never met anyone like him."

21. The couple got married in 2009. She wore a gorgeous vintage Jill Stuart dress which she purchased a few days before the wedding for $200, and immediately after the ceremony, the bride and groom jumped into the water. The guests ate "bagels and lox and cereal." Check out a slideshow of photos from their wedding.

22. Her husband Michael is Jewish. "We do Shabbat sometimes. Mike went to Yeshiva law school. He's super-Jew and super-corporate. That's why I was so attracted to him when I met him: the contradiction," she said in an interview.

23. She is 5' 2" (1.57 m) tall.

24. Jemima Kirke and husband Michael have two children. Their daughter Rafaella Israel was born in 2010 and son Memphis Kirke was born 2012.

25. Her character Jessa wore a wedding dress from her mother's store "Geminola" in the season finale of the first season of Girls; also, earlier in her career, she was featured along with her sisters in a fashion piece in Teen Vogue in which they wore clothing from the store.

26. She lives in both Brooklyn and in East Hampton.

27. Wonder what a day is like in the life of Jemima Kirke? Check out this slideshow.

28. Her net worth is $3 million.

29. Her favorite color is orange.

30. She doesn't consider herself to be a good actress. "People are confusing me with a good actor when I'm just a good mimic. When someone asks me to play a nun from the fifteenth century, you'll see what I mean," she said.