Kiernan Shipka's Real Name: Kiernan Brennan Shipka

Quick answer: Kiernan Shipka's documented full name is Kiernan Brennan Shipka. The Sydney Morning Herald records that form and, with the Evening Standard, places her birth in Chicago in 1999 (Evening Standard; Sydney Morning Herald).

Real name and early life

The Sydney Morning Herald says Kiernan Brennan Shipka was born in Chicago to John Shipka, a real estate developer, and Erin Brennan. The Evening Standard, writing when she was 18, likewise says she was born in Chicago in 1999, the only child of John, president of a real estate company, and Erin, president of an asbestos-removal firm. A more precise calendar date sometimes seen elsewhere is not independently documented in these two profiles, so this page uses the year they give. The Standard says she appeared in a commercial at five months old and, by the age of six, was already plotting a career; her parents signed her up for classes, and a family move to try Hollywood followed. She booked the role of Sally Draper on Mad Men at age eight, the Standard says.

Career highlights

Both profiles identify Mad Men as the work that made her widely known. The Herald says she played Don Draper's daughter Sally from ages eight to 15. The Standard describes her father driving her back from a costume fitting and telling her mother that the job "seemed kinda legit." After that series ended, Netflix cast her as Sabrina Spellman in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a darker adaptation of the Archie Comics character previously played, in a sunnier 1990s series, by Melissa Joan Hart, the Standard explains. The Herald similarly describes the reboot as a coming-of-age story about a half-mortal witch, and notes that Shipka worked with Miranda Otto, who played Aunt Zelda, including on a horror film they had just done together. These accounts, written around the launch of Sabrina, are the basis for the career summary here and do not extend into later series work. The Standard describes her getting the Netflix role after an audition process, then crying with relief when the offer came through, a reminder of how early Mad Men still sits in a career that began in early childhood.

Name notes for searchers

Kiernan Brennan Shipka is the documented full name; she is known professionally as Kiernan Shipka. Searchers looking for Sally Draper on Mad Men or for Sabrina Spellman in the Netflix series are usually aiming at the same person.