Emily Kinney

**Emily Kinney** is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is known for her role as Beth Greene on AMC's horror drama television series *The Walking Dead*. Kinney has also appeared on several other television series including Showtime's critically acclaimed *Masters of Sex,* The CW's *The Flash*, and later *Arrow*. In 2016, she began co-starring on the ABC's series *Conviction*, alongside Hayley Atwell.

## Early life

Kinney was born in Wayne, Nebraska to Vaughn and Jean Kinney. She and her family frequently moved during her youth, including to Nevada, Oregon, and other parts of Nebraska. Kinney attended New York University for a semester. In 2006, she graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre. Kinney then moved to New York, where she pursued a Broadway and acting career.

## Career

Kinney worked in coffee shops where she began to meet people from the acting and music industries. She appeared in 20 plays during her four years of college and began her professional acting career at age 21, when she was cast in the play *Spring Awakening* as Anna, a smart and carefree resident in a tough city. The following year, Kinney costarred as Jean Fordham in the play *August: Osage County*. She was then cast as Emily onShowtime's *The Big C*. Later, Kinney appeared on NBC's *Law & Order: Criminal Intent*, where she guest starred as Jeannie Richmonds. Kinney made her film debut with *Aunt Tigress* playing Aunt Gina. Kinney continued acting in a variety of recurring guest and cameo roles in various films and television shows.

In 2011, Kinney was cast as the recurring character Beth Greene on *The Walking Dead*, an AMC television horror drama. Although she was actually 25 at the start of production, her character Beth was the 16-year-old sister of Maggie in Season 2. After two years on the program, Kinney received a promotion to series regular. Greene is one of a small group who must find a way to not only survive a zombie apocalypse, but who must also cope with other survivors who are even more dangerous than the undead. She contributed to*The Walking Dead: AMC Original Soundtrack, Vol. 1*, in which she collaborated with Lauren Cohan on the single, "The Parting Glass". Kinney finished her role on *The Walking Dead* as Beth in 2014, but made one final appearance in 2015 in the ninth episode of the fifth season.

Kinney returned to the *Law & Order* franchise in *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, in the role of Haley Cole. She released her second EP *Expired Love* in 2013. It was re-released in 2014 with two additional tracks. In an interview with AMC, Kinney talks about the story of the album: "'Expired Love' is about my story. But I do think that with my acting career, my style seeps into my career a lot. My songs are similar to Tom Waits' in that they're little stories. Sometimes I write songs based on one word or feeling that keeps popping up for me. And I do feel like, because I've never played a character for so long, that it can't help but seep its way into things. It's like, maybe this is why a particular idea keeps coming up for me, because this is something that we keep dealing with on the show!"

Kinney's new single, *Rockstar*, was released December 9, 2014. After her departure from *The Walking Dead*, she made guest appearances on several television shows, including a starring role in the sixteenth episode of ABC's *Forever* titled "Memories of Murder" and a co-starring spot in the eighteenth episode of The CW's *The Flash* titled "All-Star Team-Up". She also landed recurring television roles on Cinemax's *The Knick* and Showtime's critically acclaimed *Masters of Sex* for four episodes. Kinney starred in Train's music video "Bulletproof Picasso". Kinney released her new studio album, *This Is War*, on October 2, 2015. As well as *This Is War*, the album featured another single, *Birthday Cake*.

In 2016, Kinney played as the main character for Hallmark Channel's *Love On The Sidelines*. On February 12, 2016, it was announced that Kinney will be joining the main cast of ABC's *Conviction* alongside Hayley Atwell. Kinney will play as the character Tess Larson, "the paralegal for the Unit team who is extremely bright, but a bit naive and occasionally, an underlying dark sadness emerges." On March 30, 2016, Kinney made a guest appearance as Brie Larvan/Bug-Eyed Bandit on Arrow, a role she previously played on *The Flash*. On October 28, 2016, her new single, *Back on Love*, will be released.