David Ireland (born 1976) is a Northern Irish-born playwright and actor, known for his award-winning plays Cyprus Avenue and Ulster American.
Ireland was born in Sandy Row, Belfast, but grew up in Ballybeen, Dundonald, County Down, where he attended Brooklands Primary School. He then attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, [1] before receiving training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. [2]
In 2009, Ireland's What The Animals Say was produced by Òran Mór in Glasgow. [3] In 2010, Everything Between Us, first produced by Solas Nua and Tinderbox Theatre Company, was performed in Belfast, Scotland and Washington, D.C. It won the Stewart Parker Trust BBC Radio Drama Award, [4] and the Meyer-Whitworth Award for Best New Play. [5]
In 2016, Ireland's Cyprus Avenue premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. [6] It was awarded the 2017 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play, and the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama. The play then transferred to The Public Theater, New York City, [7] the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, [8] and the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast. It returned to the Royal Court in February 2019 for a four-week run, [9] and had its Australian debut in May 2019 at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Theatre. [10] The Abbey Theatre performance with Stephen Rea was ranked by The Guardian writers as the 27th best theatre show since 2000. [11]
In 2018, Ireland's satirical dark comedy Ulster American was performed by Traverse Theatre as part of their Edinburgh Festival Fringe season. [12] It was awarded the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award for that year. [13] In 2019, it was nominated for Best Female Performance, Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Male Performance at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, [14] winning the first three. [15] It had its London debut at Riverside Studios in 2023 in a production starring Woody Harrelson, Andy Serkis and Louisa Harland. [16]
Ireland had played the role of the character Claire’s father in 2018's Derry Girls . [17] He wrote the upcoming 2023 Sky Atlantic series The Lovers . [18]
Ireland met his wife Jennifer while he was acting in Glasgow, where they now live with their children Ada and Elijah. [1]
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Stephen Rea is an Irish actor of stage and screen. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin’s Focus Theatre, and came to the attention of film audiences as one of the close collaborators of director Neil Jordan. He is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Tony Award nominee, a two-time BAFTA Award winner, and a three-time Irish Film and Television (IFTA) Award winner.
Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won once. Ulster were the first Irish team and the first team outside England and France to win the European Cup in 1999.
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world premieres of new plays primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland including work in the Scots language, alongside rarely seen rediscovered 19th and 20th century plays. The venue also presents new and rediscovered music theatre.
Mark Carruthers OBE is a Northern Irish journalist. He currently presents a number of television and radio programmes for BBC Northern Ireland.
Daniela Nardini is a Scottish actress who played Anna Forbes in the BBC Two television series This Life. The role earned her a BAFTA Best Actress award in 1998 and also earned her a Scottish BAFTA. She won a second Scottish BAFTA in 2009 for her role in Annie Griffin's New Town.
Gary Mitchell is a Northern Irish playwright. By the 2000s, he had become "one of the most talked about voices in European theatre ... whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright".
Conleth Seamus Eoin Croiston Hill is a Northern Irish actor. He has performed on stage in productions in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards and received two Tony Award nominations. He is best known for his role as Varys in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019).
David Greig is a Scottish playwright and theatre director. His work has been performed at many of the major theatres in Britain, including the Traverse Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and been produced around the world.
Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright.
Gareth Patrick Williams is an Irish composer based at Edinburgh College of Art. He was the first composer in residence for Scottish Opera from 2012 to 2015. His work spans from opera and music theatre to chamber music.
Elizabeth "Lisa" McGee is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. McGee is the creator and writer of Derry Girls, a comedy series that began airing on Channel 4 in the UK in January 2018. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
James John McArdle is a Scottish actor. He won the Ian Charleson Award for his role as Mikhail Platonov in Platonov and was nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Louis Ironson in Angels in America.
Jonathan Harden is a Northern Irish actor and director.
Jack Andrew Lowden is a Scottish actor. Following a four-year stage career, his first major international onscreen success was in the 2016 BBC miniseries War & Peace, which led to starring roles in feature films. He has received several awards including two BAFTA Scotland Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Jonjo O'Neill is an actor from Northern Ireland known for his stage and television work.
Rachel O'Riordan is an Irish theatre director. She is currently the artistic director at the Lyric Hammersmith, London.
Richard Rankin is a Scottish film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for the Scottish sketch show Burnistoun and as Roger Wakefield MacKenzie in the Starz drama Outlander.
Sarah Grochala is a British playwright. Her plays have been performed at the Finborough Theatre, Theatre503, Hampstead Theatre, Arcola Theatre and Soho Theatre in London. Her plays have been produced internationally by the Griffin Theatre, Sydney, Tiyatro Yan Etki Istanbul, Turkey and on the Toronto Fringe Toronto Fringe Festival, Canada. Her book on playwriting, The Contemporary Political Play, was published in 2017.
Lalor Roddy is a Northern Irish actor, described by the Irish Times theater critic Fintan O'Toole as "surely the finest Irish actor of his generation".
Amy Molloy is an Irish actress born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She resides in London UK.