Ireland made her
off-Broadway theatre debut in
Nocturne (2001), a play written by
Adam Rapp, which ran at the New York Theatre Workshop. She also appeared in the play during its run in the American Repertory Theatre New Stages presentation at the Hasty Pudding Theatre,
Cambridge, Massachusetts in October 2000. Her other
off-Broadway work includes
Caryl Churchill's
Far Away (2002) at the New York Theatre Workshop. She played the title role in
Sabina (2005) by
Willy Holtzman at Primary Stages. (right) at the 2014
Peabody Awards Ireland was featured in the 2008 stage adaptation of
The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, a series of
lesbian pulp fiction novels by
Ann Bannon. She made her
Broadway theatre debut in
Reasons to Be Pretty (2009). For this performance, she received a nomination for the
Tony Award for
Best Featured Actress in a Play, and won the
Theatre World Award. She then appeared in
After Miss Julie in a
Roundabout Theatre Company presentation of a
Donmar Warehouse production at the
American Airlines Theatre in September through December 2009. Ireland in the New Group revival of
A Lie of the Mind in February and March 2010. Ireland's early film roles are the drama
Rachel Getting Married (2008) and the comedy
The Understudy (2008). In 2012, she played the female lead role in the
Matt Ross debut film
28 Hotel Rooms. For playing Ellen Doyle in
Glass Chin (2014), she earned a nomination for the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. In November 2012, she starred in the title role of
Marie Antoinette in the world premiere at the Yale Repertory Theatre. She starred in the Lincoln Center Theatre production of Abe Koogler's
Kill Floor in 2015. She has also appeared in the films
The Family Fang (2015),
Hell or High Water (2016),
Piercing (2018),
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), and
The Irishman (2019). In 2012, while working on a
Wooster Group production of
Troilus and Cressida in
London, Ireland dated costar
Scott Shepherd. During that period, the couple fought physically at home, with Ireland once appearing at rehearsals with a
black eye. Ireland later expressed disappointment that the Wooster Group did not do more to support her, and has lobbied theater unions to create protocols for handling misconduct. She was awarded an
Audie Award for Best Female Narrator in 2020 for her recording of
Nothing to See Here by
Kevin Wilson. ==Filmography==