Britt Lower

Brittney Leigh Lower (/laʊər/; born August 2, 1985) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the crime drama series Unforgettable (2011–2014), the romantic comedy series Man Seeking Woman (2015–2017), and the sci-fi series Severance (2022–present).

Britt Lower
Lower in January 2023
Born	Brittney Leigh Lower (1985-08-02) August 2, 1985 (age 39) Bloomington, Illinois, U.S. Heyworth, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	Northwestern University (BSc)
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2010–present

Early life

Lower was born in Bloomington, Illinois,^[1] the daughter of Mickey and Steve Lower.^[1] Lower lived in Heyworth, Illinois and graduated from Heyworth High School. Her mother was a home economics teacher at Clinton Junior High School in Clinton, Illinois. She now runs a face painting business, known throughout Central Illinois as "the Zoo Lady,"^[2][3][4] which Britt occasionally joined, and Britt later cited it as where she "first encountered circus performers and artists who live on the road and work on the road as a living [and] just became totally enamored by the tightrope walkers and jugglers".^[5] She has an older brother named Brugh, who is a lawyer.^[1] After graduating as the valedictorian from Heyworth High School in 2004,^[6] she earned a BSc in Communication from Northwestern University in 2008.^[7] She also worked with the Upright Citizens Brigade and ImprovOlympic.^[8]

Career

Lower had a recurring role as technology expert Tanya Sitkowsky in the 2011 series Unforgettable.^[9] In 2015, she had her breakout role as Liz Greenberg in the FXX comedy series Man Seeking Woman.^[10] In 2016, she had a recurring role as Sarah Finn in the second season of the Hulu series Casual.^[11] She later appeared in the second season of American Horror Stories and portrayed the main character in the music video for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song "Wolf".^[12] She also starred in commercials for Verizon^[13] and was a guest on The George Lucas Talk Show.

Lower has starred as Helena Eagan / Helly R. in the Apple TV+ sci-fi psychological thriller series Severance since 2022.^[14] With an interest in the circus world stemming from her mother's face painting career and her own research for the 2020 short film Circus Person, which she wrote and directed, Lower spent a month playing a character in Circus Flora's Quest for the Innkeeper's Cask show in St. Louis during the three-year hiatus between the first and second seasons of Severance.^[5]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Imogen	Natalie	Short film
2010	Benny to Benny	May	Short film
	Spark	Suze	Short film
2012	Revenge for Jolly!	Mary Ann
	The Letter	Kathleen
	The Worst	Ryan	Short film
	Roomie	Sarah	Short film
2013	Beside Still Waters	Olivia
	Mutual Friends	Trish
	One Trick Dieter	Ellen	Short film
2014	Re: Jess	Jess	Short film
2015	The Shells	Alex
	Those People	Ursula
	Sisters	Mrs. Geernt
	Don't Worry Baby	Anna
2016	How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps	Rachael	Short film
	Swell	Ana	Short film
	Domain	Phoenix / Kimberley Miller
	The Shadow Hours	Dorothy	Short film
2017	Mr. Roosevelt	Celeste Jones
2018	Faith	Padma	Short film
	Staycation	Jill	Short film
	A Civilized Life	Jack	Short film
2020	Circus Person	Ava	Also director, writer, and executive producer
	Holly Slept Over	Audra
2022	Show Pony	Kate	Short film
2023	Until the Wedding	Naomi
2024	Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer	Suzie
	Darkest Miriam	Miriam Gordon

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Big Lake	Meg	7 episodes
2011–2014	Unforgettable	Tanya Sitkowsky	13 episodes
2012	A Gifted Man	Nina	Episode: "In Case of (Re)Birth"
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Jess Hardwick	Episode: "Strange Beauty"
2015–2017	Man Seeking Woman	Liz Greenberg	Main role
2016	Bad Internet	Rayne	Episode: "The Seven Billionth Wheel"
	Casual	Sarah Finn	Recurring role
2017	Wrecked	Margot Wallace	Episode: "Ransom"
	Pillow Talk	Emma	4 episodes
2017–2018	Ghosted	Claire Jennifer	Recurring role
2017–2019	Future Man	Jeri Elizabeth Lang	5 episodes
2018	WASP	Desiree	Episode: "Joshua Tree Was Amahzing"
2019	High Maintenance	Lee	4 episodes
	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Lisa	Episode: "The Gang Gets Romantic"
2020–2024	The George Lucas Talk Show	Herself	2 episodes
2022	American Horror Stories	Fay Mallow	Episode: "Facelift"
	The Late Show with Stephen Colbert	No-One's Mother	Episode: "Kerry Washington/Joe Walsh"
2022–present	Severance	Helena Eagan / Helly R.	Main role

Music videos

Year	Song	Artist
2022	"Wolf"	Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2020	NBA 2K21	Alex Williams (voice)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2017	FilmQuest	Best Supporting Actress – Feature	Domain	Nominated	[15]
2020	Nashville Film Festival	Audience Award	Circus Person	Won	[16]
2022	Hollywood Critics Association Awards	Best Actress in a Streaming Series, Drama	Severance	Won[a]	[17]
	Saturn Awards	Best Actress in a Streaming Series		Nominated	[18]
	Gotham Awards	Outstanding Performance in a New Series		Nominated	[19]
2023	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series		Nominated	[20]
2025	Canadian Screen Awards	Best Performance in a Leading Role, Drama	Darkest Miriam	Pending	[21]

Notes

1. Tied with Laura Linney for Ozark