Background
The daughter of a nurse and a Royal Navy submariner, Pierson was born Emma Jane Pierson on 30 April 1981 in Plymouth, Devon. Her father, Charles, was stationed at Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde where Emma spent the first four years of her life.
Career
She is best known for her role as Anna Thornton-Wilton in the British Broadcasting Corporation television drama Hotel Babylon. Pierson has appeared in many television programmes, including SunTrap, Days Like These, Beast, I Saw You, Charles II: The Power and The Passion, The Worst Week of My Life, Bloodlines, Coupling and Time Gentlemen Please. Her more recent projects include the film Lives of the Saints and the British Broadcasting Corporation Three comedy Dead Boss.
After leaving school in 1997, Pierson performed in amateur productions with the North Bradley players, appearing in a number of plays including Chekhov"s Uncle Vanya.
Pierson gained the role of Becky Radcliffe in the British Broadcasting Corporation children"s drama series Grange Hill while studying law at the City of Bath College. After leaving Grange Hill, Pierson took on the role of Jackie Burgett in Days Like These, an Independent Television sitcom set in Luton and adapted from the American comedy series That "70s Show.
However, Days Like These proved unsuccessful and the series was cancelled after only ten of its thirteen episodes were aired. Pierson has continued to appear in comedy series, including various episodes of the Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller, Beast with Alexander Armstrong and The Worst Week of My Life with Ben Miller.
In 2002, following the departure from the series of Julia Sawalha, Pierson played new character student barmaid Connie in the second series of sitcom Time Gentlemen Please, written by First Rate (at Lloyd's) Murray and Richard Herring, and appeared in an episode of the sitcom Coupling.
Pierson’s career has also included roles in comedy dramas such as Bedtime and Legend of the Tamworth Two. Also Emma in 2010 is starring in the Radio 4 comedy series "House on Fire". Pierson has also appeared in many dramas, including Stranded, the Hallmark channel"s version of Swiss Family Robinson, British Broadcasting Corporation political drama The Project, Charles II and an as yet unreleased low-budget British movie, The Engagement, from the director of Sirens, John Duigan.
In 2005, Pierson played the role of policewoman Justine Hopkin in the two-part Independent Television drama, Bloodlines.
She has since acted in many more dramas, such as Riot at the Rite, a period drama about Russian dancer Nijinsky, and Hotel Babylon, a British Broadcasting Corporation series based on the book of the same name by Imogen Edwards-Jones and portraying life behind the scenes in a London hotel. British indie movie The Lives of the Saints, which was co-directed by Chris Cottam and photographer Rankin and in which Emma played a character called Tina, was released in 2006.
This was Pierson’s first major movie role, after brief roles in Virtual Sexuality and Guest House Paradiso early in her career.