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Emily Bett Rickards (born July 24, 1991 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian actress, perhaps best known for her role as Felicity Smoak across The CW's Arrowverse. People may also remember her from the music video of Nickelback's "Never Gonna Be Alone".


Selected filmography:


She provides examples of:

  • Ascended Extra: Her role on Arrow wasn't meant to be very large or developed — in the comics, Felicity is barely more than a footnote of a character — but the producers (and later the viewers) reacted to her and her chemistry with Stephen Amell so positively that she was brought back with greater importance, becoming the third person to join Team Arrow, not to mention Oliver Queen's love interest...effectively pushing aside his longtime romantic partner from the comics in the process.
  • The Cast Show Off: Zig-Zagged. She was trained in musical theater, but she never sung or/and danced in the Arrowverse shows on-screen. She and her Arrow co-stars sang "Summer Nights" on the show's Season One behind the scenes video, with her and John Barrowman's voices standing out.
  • Classically-Trained Extra: She was trained in musical theater, but she mainly played bit roles before playing Felicity Smoak (and even that was supposed to be one too).
  • Creator Backlash: She's aware in some aspect of her character now being considered a Base-Breaking Character for the entire Arrowverse after the Seasonal Rot of Arrow Seasons 3, 4, and 6 along with the infamous ending to the Crisis on Earth-X Crisis Crossover. However, Rickards' comments in interviews have alluded that she's just as frustrated as the audience is about her character's mishandling. Notably, she was angry about Felicity's disability storyline being quickly brushed aside (as she had even done tons of research about disabilities and was excited to represent the individuals in question). Furthermore, she was disappointed about the Darker and Edgier material she was asked to shoulder during Arrow Seasons 3 and 4 (since she felt that the more angsty storylines she was given didn't play to her strengths).
  • Disappeared Dad: Strangely common across her roles.
  • Sacred Cow:invoked Make no mistake, Felicity Smoak is far and away one of the most hated characters in the Arrowverse for many reasons, but her actress Emily Bett Rickards is firmly off limits. She is seen as an outright saint in real life - she has raised money for charitable causes dedicated to fighting auto-immune diseases, sponsored a scholarship worth upwards of $250,000 out of her own pocket, is very nice and personable to her fans, and did "tons of research" when she discovered Felicity would become paralyzed. If anything, she is the most pitied out of everyone involved with the show since she's had to watch her character's reputation go down the drain through no fault of her own. It's basically one of the rules of being an Arrowverse viewer: you are not to say anything bad about Emily under any circumstances.
  • She Also Did:
    • She was The Narrator for the audiobook version of "The Wicked Ones," a short story set in the universe of The Mortal Instruments.
    • She's also continued her theater work outside of her television roles, gaining significant critical praise when she starred in the lead role of Zayd Dorn's Reborning at the Annex Theater in Vancouver during early 2018.

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