Orla Brady

Orla Brady
Born	(1961-03-28) 28 March 1961 Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Nick Brandt (m. 2002)

Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961) is an Irish theatre, television, and film actress born in Dublin. She has been nominated for several awards from the Irish Film & Television Academy for her work in televised programs, as well as starring in the RTÉ/BBC co-production A Love Divided where she portrayed Sheila Cloney, for which she won the 1999 Golden Nymph Best Actress Award. She began her career with the Balloonatics Theatre Company as a touring performer, later gaining her first minor role in television as a bank clerk in the series Minder in 1993. Her first role in film was as Vanessa in Words Upon the Window Pane in 1994. Brady starred in recurring roles in a number of US and UK series, and in a Doctor Who special. In 2020, she was listed as number 43 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Early life

Brady was born in Dublin, the second of four children of Patrick and his wife Catherine (Kitty). She lived in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, from birth until the age of seven. She was educated at a Loreto Convent in Wicklow and an Ursuline Convent in Dublin.

At 25, she moved to Paris, where she studied at L'École Philippe Gaulier, securing a place at Marcel Marceau's École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris.

Career

Brady began her career with Balloonatics Theatre Company, touring productions of Hamlet and Finnegans Wake. She then returned to Dublin to perform at the Gate Theatre where she played Adele in House of Bernarda Alba and Natasha in Three Sisters. After moving to London, she played Kate in Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which later transferred from the King's Head Theatre to the West End.

Brady's first professional work in England was in Blinded by the Sun by Stephen Poliakoff at the Royal National Theatre and she has since developed a career based on both Irish and British located theatre, television and film. These have included the RTÉ/BBC co-production A Love Divided where she portrayed Sheila Cloney, for which she won the 1999 Golden Nymph Best Actress Award at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. She also played one of four main characters in the BBC's drama series Mistresses, Siobhan Dillon, a lawyer who struggled to maintain her relationship with husband Hari while also having an affair with her colleague, Dominic, with whom she later went on to have a child. Also, she has appeared in RTÉ's Proof, and had roles in films such as Words Upon the Window Pane (1994), The Luzhin Defence (2000), How About You (2007), and 32A (2007).

Since moving to California in 2001, Brady has also appeared in Family Law, where she played Naoise O'Niell. The series ran for 3 years on CBS. She has also starred in Nip/Tuck, a US drama about plastic surgeons in which she played Dr. Jordan. She later starred in Shark as Claire Stark, the ex-wife of James Woods. In 2008, she appeared in Firewall, the second episode of the BBC series Wallander. She also appeared as Meredith Gates, a fleecing art collector who herself is conned in the first series of the British series Hustle.

Commencing in 2009, Brady portrayed Elizabeth Bishop, the wife of Walter Bishop and the mother of Peter Bishop in the Fox television series Fringe. In 2010, she appeared in the TV series The Deep alongside James Nesbitt, wherein she played Catherine. She also starred in the TV series Strike Back as Katie Dartmouth.

In 2012, she appeared in the ITV series Eternal Law as Mrs Sheringham, an angel who fell in love with a human and became mortal. She also she played Taryn in the Sky1 series Sinbad. In late 2013, she appeared as the Countess Vera Rossakoff in the television adaptation of The Labours of Hercules, part of the final series of Agatha Christie's Poirot alongside David Suchet.

On 25 December 2013, Brady starred in the 2013 Christmas special episode The Time of the Doctor of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who as the character Tasha Lem. In 2014, she filmed Banished, playing Anne Meredith.

From 2017 to 2019, she had a main role in the AMC martial arts drama series Into the Badlands as Lydia. In 2019, Brady portrayed Dr. Hopple in American Horror Story: 1984, the ninth season of the FX horror anthology television series American Horror Story.

In 2020 has a recurring role as Laris, in sci-fi series, Star Trek: Picard

Photographic model

In the late 1980s, Brady posed for a series of photographic figure studies that were published in The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual (1987). An image of Brady posing in her own dress was used by the artist Jack Vettriano as the focal subject of The Singing Butler.

Personal life

In 2001, Brady moved to Los Angeles, where she met English photographer Nick Brandt, whom she married in December 2002 in the Chyulu Hills of Kenya. She currently lives in the mountains of Southern California.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Words Upon the Window Pane	Vanessa
1999	A Love Divided	Sheila Kelly Cloney
2000	The Luzhin Defence	Aunt Anna
2001 / 2004(released)	Silent Grace	Eileen
2002	Fogbound	Ann
2006	Last Night	Lucy	Short film
2007	32A	Jean Brennan
2007	How About You	Kate Harris
2013	Wayland's Song	Grace
2015	The Price of Desire	Eileen Gray
2017	The Foreigner	Mary Hennessy
2019	A Girl from Mogadishu	Emer Costello
2019	Rose Plays Julie	Ellen
2019	The Other Me	Marina	filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Minder	Bank Teller	"Opportunity Knocks and Bruises"
1994	The Bill	Amy	"No Job for an Amateur"
1994	Absolutely Fabulous	Nurse Mary	"Hospital"
1994	The Rector's Wife	Sister Josephine	"1.2"
1995	Dangerfield	Diane Foster	"Victim of Rape: Parts 1 & 2"
1995	New Voices	Ruby	"The Treasure of Zavimbi"
1995	Casualty	Wendy	"Outside Bulawayo"
1995–1996	Out of the Blue	D.S. Rebecca "Becky" Bennett	Main role; 12 episodes
1996	Pie in the Sky	Kit Kelly de Goris	"Irish Stew"
1996	The Vicar of Dibley	Aoife	"The Christmas Lunch Incident"
1997	The Heart Surgeon	Marcella Duggan	TV film
1997	Noah's Ark	Clare Somers	Main role; 9 episodes
1998	Wuthering Heights	Cathy	TV film
1999	Pure Wickedness	Jenny Meadows	Recurring role; 4 episodes
1999	The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns	Kathleen Fitzpatrick	TV film
2001–2002	Family Law	Naoise O'Neill	Regular role; 43 episodes
2003	Servants	Flora Ryan	Regular role; 6 episodes
2003	The Debt	Angela Jahnsen	TV film
2003	Chris Ryan's Strike Back	Katie Dartmouth	TV miniseries; 2 episodes
2004	Hustle	Meredith Gates	"Picture Perfect"
2004	Nip/Tuck	Dr. Monica Jordan	"Christian Troy"
2004	Lawless	Liz Bird	TV film
2004–2005	Proof	Maureen Boland	TV miniseries; 8 episodes
2005	Revelations	Nora Webber	TV miniseries; 6 episodes
2005	Empire	Atia Balba Caesonia	TV miniseries; 4 episodes
2005	World of Trouble	Joan Denny	TV film
2006	Sixty Minute Man	Kate Henderson	TV film
2006	Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise	Lilly Summers	TV film
2007	Protect and Serve	Dr. Lorna Herrera	TV film
2007–2008	Shark	Claire Stark	Recurring role; 4 episodes
2008	Wallander	Ella Lindfeldt	"Firewall"
2008–2010	Mistresses	Siobhan Dillon	Regular role; 16 episodes
2010	The Deep	Catherine Donnelly	TV miniseries; 5 episodes
2010–2012	Fringe	Elizabeth Bishop	Recurring role; 5 episodes
2012	Sinbad	Taryn	Regular role; 9 episodes
2012	Eternal Law	Mrs. Sheringham	Main role
2013	Jo	Beatrice Dormont	Main role; 8 episodes
2013	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Countess Rossakoff	"The Labours of Hercules"
2013	Doctor Who	Tasha Lem	"The Time of the Doctor"
2015	Banished	Anne Meredith	Main role; 7 episodes
2015	American Odyssey	Sofia Tsaldari	Regular role; 9 episodes
2015–2019	Into the Badlands	Lydia	Main role; 27 episodes
2018	Collateral	Phoebe Dyson	Main role; 4 episodes
2019	American Horror Story: 1984	Dr. Karen Hopple	Recurring role; 4 episodes
2020	Star Trek: Picard	Laris

External links

• Orla Brady at IMDb