Lily Gladstone

The daughter of a journalist father of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu descent and a white education specialist mother, Gladstone grew up with a strong connection to her Indian roots. She lived on the Blackfeet National Reservation until, at age eleven, she moved to Montana. She later studied Acting and Theatre at the local university and graduated with a degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Native American Studies. In her early career, she focused on theater. In 2012, she made her film debut with the short film Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, in which Benicio Del Toro played a Blackfeet veteran. In 2016, she had a role in Certain Women, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to work in theater while taking on smaller roles in series, but found that her hopes for an acting career were waning, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic underway. Just as she was about to give up, she received an invitation to a virtual meeting with Martin Scorsese, who offered her the role of Mollie Kyle Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon. This role catapulted Gladstone to the fame she deserved, making her the first indigenous actress to win a Golden Globe.