Acting
Nov 19, 1982
Conway, South Carolina, United States of America
Margo Stilley
Acting
Biography
Margo Stilley (born November 20, 1982) is an American actress, having had roles in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008), Marple: Murder Is Easy and Hippie Hippie Shake (2009), The Trip (2010), and The Royals (2016). However, she is most remembered for appearing in her debut film 9 Songs (2004), which has been described as the most sexually explicit mainstream film ever produced in the UK. Stilley was born in Conway, South Carolina, and grew up between there and Swansboro, North Carolina. She was raised in a strict Baptist household in North America's Bible Belt. The day she turned 16 years of age, she moved out of her family home and lived on her own. She put herself through high school working as a telemarketer and a lifeguard until she graduated a year early from Conway High School with honors in art and history. She was voted "The Funniest" in the class of 2000. Stilley has been a long time supporter of hands-on charitable acts. In high school, she volunteered at local nursing homes feeding and reading to the elderly. She left the rural South as a teenager to begin working briefly as a model in Milan with Elite Model Management in February 2001, before moving to London by the end of the year, at the age of 18, to pursue her acting career. Her first acting job was to star as Lisa, the lead actress in the controversial 2004 British film 9 Songs, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Her interest in art as a platform led to her decision to accept the role. According to the Guardian, 9 Songs was the most sexually explicit mainstream film to date, largely because it includes several scenes of real sexual acts between Stilley and her co-star, actor Kieran O'Brien. Her role is highly unusual in that she had unsimulated and very graphic sex with O'Brien, including genital fondling, female masturbation, with and without a vibrator, penetrative vaginal sex, cunnilingus, footjob and fellatio. During a scene in which Stilley stimulates his penis with her hand after performing fellatio on him, he became the only mainstream British actor who has been shown ejaculating in a mainstream UK-produced feature. The film screened in Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival and had a worldwide theatrical release. Stilley asked that director Michael Winterbottom refer to her simply by her character's name in interviews about the film at the beginning to protect the artistic integrity of the film. Her second credit solidified her standing in Great Britain's indie film scene, when she starred in the satirical comedy Nathan Barley directed by Chris Morris for British television. Stilley has since appeared in 19 American and British productions, including How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, with Simon Pegg and Jeff Bridges, and Agatha Christie's Marple (Murder Is Easy), with Benedict Cumberbatch, and has worked again with Winterbottom on a BBC Two comedy The Trip, with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. She appeared as a model in feature articles in Vogue, In Style UK, The Face, Harper's Bazaar, Black Book Magazine and Elle. She has been a presenter at award shows, handing a Fashion Awards to Giles Deacon at the 2006 Elle Style Awards and presenting the New Designer Award to Christopher Kane at the 2007 British Fashion Awards. In 2010, she signed on to play Lady Furness in Madonna's film WE, but renounced the role because of artistic differences.
Feature Films (10)
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.
9 Songs
A rock musician, in need for a hit album, locks himself and his band up overnight inside a recording studio. While sampling an old recording with a spooky voice inside, a life and death struggle against the ultimate evil ensues.
Reverb
When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.
The Trip
Sidney Young is a down-on-his-luck journalist. Thanks to a stint involving a pig and a glitzy awards ceremony, Sidney turns his fortunes around, attracting the attention of Clayton Harding, editor of New York-based glossy magazine 'Sharps', and landing the holy grail of journalism jobs. The Brit jets off to the Big Apple and moves from one blunder to the next.
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Television & Series (5)
The adventures of Miss Jane Marple, an elderly spinster living in the quiet little village of St Mary Mead. During her many visits to friends and relatives in other villages, Miss Marple often stumbles upon mysterious murders which she helps solve. Although the police are sometimes reluctant to accept Miss Marple's help, her reputation and unparalleled powers of observation eventually win them over.
Agatha Christie's Marple
Charismatic detective Gil Mayo wise-cracks his way through a variety of murder mysteries alongside his sexy colleague, Alex Jones. Matters aren't simple between the old flames as flirtation could become something more - but who will make the first move? Life is further complicated by Gil's precocious teenage daughter Julie, who he's bringing up by himself after the disappearance of his wife. The detective does come up with a novel way to deal with the piles of bills he keeps receiving though - hiding them in the cupboard!
Mayo
A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.
Patrick Melrose
A new wave of British blue bloods, ambitious American expats and glamorous international socialites light up London’s elite social scene. As tradition collides with the fast-paced globalized world, these power players redefine what it means to belong to high society in one of the most iconic cities in the world.
