Zoe Swicord Kazan born September 9 1983 is an American actress playwright and screenwriter She made her acting debut in Swordswallowers and Thin Men 2003 and later appeared in films such as The Savages 2007 Revolutionary Road 2008 and Its Complicated 2009 She starred in Happy Thank You More Please 2010 Meeks Cutoff 2010 Ruby Sparks 2012 and What If 2013 In 2014 she appeared in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge for which she received an Emmy nomination She portrayed Emily Gardner in the film The Big Sick 2017 and in 2018 appeared in the Coen Brothers film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in the episode The Gal Who Got Rattled She has appeared in several Broadway productions She also wrote Ruby Sparks and cowrote Wildlife 2018 with her partner Paul Dano who directed Wildlife and costarred with Kazan in Ruby Sparks In 2020 she costarred in the HBO miniseries The Plot Against America