His Dark Material's Mary Malone is the ultimate fictional woman in STEM

The Mary Sue

"An astrophysicist is not the type of female character you typically expect to see on a fantasy show, and yet!" says Leah Marilla Thomas. "Enter Mary Malone on HBO’s His Dark Materials, a key character from Phillip Pullman’s novel series, played by Simone Kirby. She showed up in the second episode of the second season tonight, and through talking to Lyra about dust made some important discoveries of her own. You know how Will’s world (our world) and Lyra’s world have different names for similar phenomena? It turns out that dust is dark matter! Besides that, Mary Malone brings a dose of scientific reality to His Dark Materials and it’s relatable to boot."