Ambassador Emily Swallow

Emily Swallow was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Sterling, VA and Jacksonville, FL.  Her parents loved music and live performance and she was surrounded by it growing up, but never considered it as a career until an acting teacher at the University of Virginia (where she was pursuing a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and headed for the State Department) noticed her love for creating characters on stage and encouraged her to take her training further.  She auditioned for the prestigious NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program and was accepted into their MFA Program.

On television, Emily is best known for playing the Darkness on Supernatural, Agent Kim Fisher onThe Mentalist, Dracula’s ill-fated true love, Lisa Tepes, in the animated series Castlevania, and as Din Darin’s mentor The Armorer in the award winning Disney+ Series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.  She has also appeared on How to Get Away with Murder,Monday Mornings, Flight of the Concords, NCIS, The Good Wife, and in the video game The Last of Us Part II. 

Emily continues to act on stage whenever she can, most recently playing the eldest daughter of Joe Morton’s King Lear at the Wallis Annenberg Center in LA.  She has starred in world premieres of Donald Margulies’ The Country House at LA’s Geffen Playhouse, opposite Mark Rylance in Louis Jenkins’ play Nice Fish at the Guthrie Theatre, in John Patrick Shanley’s musical Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theater Club and in High Fidelity on Broadway.  In summer of 2018 she played opposite Tom Hanks in the Shakespeare Center Los Angeles production of Henry IV Parts 1&2. She was part of the LA Drama Critics’ Circle Award-Winning production of Disgraced at the Mark Taper Forum in LA and the Ovation Award-Winning production of Cry it Out at the Echo Theatre in LA. 

Emily was one of the first guests announced at our Inaugural Voices Against Cancer Initiative in Sioux Falls, SD in July of 2022.  From the moment she arrived, she was clearly a crowd favorite.  The Armorer has been an inspiring character for kids young and old, and Emily loved the opportunities this provided to get to know the honored children and families at the event.  Many families continue to comment on her kindness and generosity!  Before leaving Sioux Falls, she spoke with Voices Against Cancer Board Member Rob Keisacker and his wife Nicole, who lost their son Ian to cancer back in 2014.  Emily discussed her true desire to be more continually involved and to expand the community of people contributing to finding a cure for pediatric cancer.  Emily lost her father to cancer in 2021 and, after seeing how complicated and painful treatments were for him and how much it impacted not just him, but her entire family, she knew she wanted to join this initiative.  She was particularly motivated by their efforts to find treatments that will not leave lasting damage or cause prolonged suffering for the kids whose bodies are still developing as they fight the cancer.  She has also been drawn in by the selfless and generous support for each other within the community, both financial and emotional.  They go out of their way to make sure that no one feels isolated in facing this harrowing diagnosis.

Since then, Emily has shared the mission of Voices Against Cancer, and has helped raise thousands of dollars from raffles she implements at conventions that she attends.  As her fictional character, “The Armorer,” Emily Swallow has taken to heart what it means to “Take care of the Foundlings” and she has done an amazing job helping us to #GiveKidsAVoice.  She recently started a campaign on social media called #ThisIsTheWayWednesdays, in which she highlights unsung heroes of our schools, families, churches and communities.  If you know of someone deserving, tag them on her IG account @bigEswallz!