Deirdre Mullins is an Irish actress, director and activist. In 2017, she won a

Scottish BAFTA BAFTA in Scotland is the Scottish branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Formed in 1986, the branch holds two annual awards ceremonies recognising the achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, televis ...

for Best Actress in Film for her role in ''The Dark Mile''.

Early life and education

Born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Mullins grew up in Stoneybatter on the city's

Northside Northside or North Side may refer to: Music * Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, EngIand * NorthSide, an American record label * NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark * "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vince ...

. Her family moved to the suburb

Howth Howth ( ; ; ) is a peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes the ...

when she was 10. She was head girl at

Mount Temple Comprehensive School Mount Temple Comprehensive School is a secondary school in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. The school operates under the patronage of the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, and has, as a primary objective, the provision of state-funded second ...

in Clontarf. She began her studies in Drama and Theatre at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

. She then transferred to the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

where she studied Anthropology and later graduated with a degree in English Literature in 2006. She participated in the Trinity Players and the St Andrews Mermaids. She went on to train at the

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) is a drama school in Bristol, England. The institution provides training in acting and production for careers in film, television and theatre. BOVTS was an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance a ...

from 2006 to 2008 before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Career

Mullins starred as Naomi in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

series '' Man Down''. Her theatre work includes playing Rosalind in ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'' at

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, Lon ...

, Lika in

Marina Carr Marina Carr is an Irish playwright, known for '' By the Bog of Cats'' (1998). Early life and education Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1964, but spent most of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly, adjacent to the town of Tulla ...

's ''16 Possible Glimpses'' at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

, and Jessie Taite in

Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. Early life O'Casey was ...

's '' The Silver Tassie'' at the National Theatre. Mullins' directing debut, a production of Mary Zimmerman's ''Metamorphoses'', was set in a hotel swimming pool and won her rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe 2006 including ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

''s top 5 shows to see at the Fringe. It was in ''Time Out''s top 3 shows at the Fringe; giving it 5 stars, Rachel Halliburton said 'This is the kind of unexpected discovery that critics live for at Edinburgh'. A decade later, Mullins directed her second show, an experimental new play by Bea Roberts, ''Infinity Pool'', which won a Toast of the Fringe Award at Plymouth Fringe Festival and went on to enjoy a place on ''The Guardian''s list of recommended shows at the Edinburgh Fringe & International Festival 2016. The critic

Lyn Gardner Lyn Gardner is a British theatre critic, children's writer, and journalist who contributes reviews and articles to ''The Stage'' and '' Stagedoor'' and has written for ''The Guardian''. Theatre critic and educator A graduate in drama and English ...

described it as 'painfully funny'. Giving it 5 stars from ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...

'', Stewart Pringle said it was 'utterly unique and exceptional in every way, it's a heart-breaking story of a stunted life, told with theatrical verve and palpable compassion'. The play was short-listed for the highly prestigious Total Theatre Award. Mullins is a core committee member of ERA 50:50, a campaign calling for equal representation of women on screen and stage. She made an impassioned speech about this when picking up her BAFTA (Scotland).Interview in The Guardian about the ERA 50:50 campaign
/ref>

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Stage

Audio

Radio

Drama

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mullins, Deirdre Living people 21st-century Irish actresses Actresses from Dublin (city) Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School Alumni of the University of St Andrews Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish film actresses Irish stage actresses Irish television actresses Irish voice actresses People educated at Mount Temple Comprehensive School People from Howth People from Northside, Dublin Year of birth missing (living people)