Demi Isaac Oviawe ( ; born 2 November 2000), sometimes known as Demi Isaac, is a Nigerian-born Irish actress who grew up in Ireland. She is best known for her role as Linda Walsh in the

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy '' The Young Offenders'' (2018–2020). In 2017, the ''

Irish Examiner The ''Irish Examiner'', formerly ''The Cork Examiner'' and then ''The Examiner'', is an Republic of Ireland, Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork (city), Cork, though it is ...

'' named Oviawe as one of their annual "Ones to Watch for 2018". She appeared on the 2019 series of the Irish edition of ''Dancing with the Stars''. She was eliminated on 17 February, making her the fourth celebrity to be voted off. She will present a weekend show on 2FM from early 2025.

Early life

Oviawe was born in

Benin City Benin City serves as the Capital city, capital and largest Metropolitan area, metropolitan centre of Edo State, situated in Nigeria, southern Nigeria. It ranks as the List of Nigerian cities by population, fourth-most populous city in Niger ...

and moved to Ireland at two where she grew up in the

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

town of Mallow. Oviawe's parents, Joy and Joe, named her after the actress

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...

. They had two sons upon moving to Ireland. Oviawe lost her mother at five and her father at 15, both to cancer. She and her brothers were taken care of by their Irish stepmother Kim Carroll, with whom their father had two more sons, and their paternal uncle Courage. Oviawe attended Mallow No 1 National School and then Davis College, completing her Leaving Cert in 2019. She first discovered acting at the former when she was cast as Mary in the school's

nativity play A Nativity play or Christmas pageant is a play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity. For the Christian celebration of Christmas, the viewing of the Nativity play is o ...

. At the latter, she played

camogie Camogie ( ; ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised ...

and

Gaelic Football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

, and starred in school productions of ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'', '' Grease'' and ''

Sister Act ''Sister Act'' is a 1992 American musical crime comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (billed as Joseph Howard). It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to hide in a convent after being placed in a witn ...

''. Initially, Oviawe planned to train as a secondary school teacher. However, in 2017 she auditioned on

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for a role in the TV series ''The Young Offenders'', and won the role of Linda Walsh.

Filmography

Television

Film

References

External links

* Living people 2000 births 21st-century Irish actresses 21st-century Nigerian actresses Actors from County Cork Actresses from Benin City Black Irish people Irish film actresses Irish television actresses Nigerian emigrants to Ireland Nigerian film actresses Nigerian television actresses People from Mallow, County Cork {{Nigeria-actor-stub