Brendan O'Carroll
Encyclopedia
Brendan O'Carroll is an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 comedian, writer, actor and director. Best known for portraying the foul-mouthed Irish matriarch Mrs. Brown, O'Carroll has been a popular comedian in Ireland since the early 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

.

Early life

O'Carroll was born in 1955 in Dublin's North Inner City and was the youngest of 11 children. His mother, Maureen
Maureen O'Carroll
Maureen O'Carroll was an Irish Labour Party politician who sat from 1954 to 1957 as Teachta Dála for Dublin North Central....

, was a Labour Party
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...

 TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...

 and he says this has had a huge impact on his life. He left school aged 12 and had a string of occupations including waiter, milkman, DJ, before making the move to comedy. Much of his comedy is about his childhood in Finglas and Dublin City and his infatuation with murder.

As an author

O'Carroll has written seven novels, including The Mammy, The Chisslers, The Granny, "Sparrows Trap" and The Young Wan; a number of these have been translated into 12 languages and have been best sellers worldwide.

He has also written four films and nine comedy shows. These include The Course (1995), Grandad's Sure Lilly's Still Alive(1997), The Last Wedding (1999), Mourning Mrs Brown (2000), Mrs Brown Rides Again (2004), For the Love of Mrs. Brown
For the Love of Mrs. Brown
For The Love of Mrs. Brown is the fourth play in the Mrs. Brown Series by Brendan O'Carroll, preceded by Mrs. Brown's Last Wedding. The plot centers mainly around the character Agnes Brown finding a date over the internet for Valentine's Day.-Plot:...

(2007) How Now Mrs Brown Cow? (2009), and "Good Mourning Mrs Brown" (2011).

As an actor

He has appeared in many movies and TV shows over the years and has had parts in Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere was an award-winning British comedy television show on Channel 4 starring and written by Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness. All the episodes were also directed by Kay. It began on 12 November 2004 and ran for six 30 minute episodes up until 17 December 2004, with each...

, The Royle Family
The Royle Family
The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...

, Angela's Ashes
Angela's Ashes (film)
Angela's Ashes is a 1999 Irish-American drama film based on the memoir of the same title by Frank McCourt. It was directed by Alan Parker and starred Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Joe Breen, Ciaran Owens, and Michael Legge .-Plot:Angela's Ashes tells the story of Frank McCourt and his childhood...

, Agnes Browne
Agnes Browne
Agnes Browne is a 1999 American/Irish romantic comedy-drama film directed and produced by, and starring Anjelica Huston, based on the book The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll.-Plot:...

alongside Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...

 (for which he also wrote the screenplay), Sweety Barret with Brendan Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor. His best-known films include Braveheart, Gangs of New York, In Bruges, 28 Days Later, the Harry Potter films, The Guard and the role of Michael Collins in The Treaty...

, Britain's Fattest Man
Britain's Fattest Man
Britain's Fattest Man is a television documentary broadcast on Channel 4 and 4HD on 5 January 2011. It focuses on Paul Mason, who weighed 70 stone and was the heaviest man in Great Britain until a gastric bypass operation saved his life...

 and The Van
The Van (1996 film)
The Van is a 1996 film, based on the novel by Roddy Doyle. Like The Snapper, it was directed by Stephen Frears. It was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.- Plot :...

. He also has his own feature length series box set of his most famous character, Mrs Agnes Brown. Brendan also Stars in "Security Men" Written by Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope, for ITV. Mrs. Brown's Boys
Mrs. Brown's Boys
Mrs Brown's Boys is an Irish sitcom created by and starring Dublin writer-performer Brendan O'Carroll, who plays the title character Mrs. Brown. The programme is a co-production between BBC Comedy and BocPix in association with RTÉ....

debuted on RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 and BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 2011 and the BBC commisioned it for a second series which will start filming in October 2011.

As a comedian

O'Carroll toured from 2 September to 2 November with Mrs Brown Rides Again and How Now Brown Cow.

Personal life

He is a member of Mensa
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...

 with an IQ of 156 which is in the top 2% for Ireland.

For a long time he had a ponytail, until it was removed by Leeds Utd and Ireland footballer Gary Kelly with a pen-knife in 1994 at the USA world cup. The ponytail was subsequently auctioned for US charity, "Give Kids The World" and was sold for $10,000.

In 2005, O'Carroll married actress Jennifer Gibney his second wife (Goodbye to the Hill), (Some Mother's Son), (Agnes Brown), (Mrs Brown's Boys - BBC One).

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1996 The Van
The Van (1996 film)
The Van is a 1996 film, based on the novel by Roddy Doyle. Like The Snapper, it was directed by Stephen Frears. It was entered into the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.- Plot :...

Weslie
1998 Sparrow's Trap Directed & wrote screenplay
1998 The Tale Of Sweeney Barret Rissolli
1999 Agnes Brown Seamus The Drunk Wrote screenplay
1999 Angela's Ashes
Angela's Ashes (film)
Angela's Ashes is a 1999 Irish-American drama film based on the memoir of the same title by Frank McCourt. It was directed by Alan Parker and starred Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Joe Breen, Ciaran Owens, and Michael Legge .-Plot:Angela's Ashes tells the story of Frank McCourt and his childhood...

Funeral Carriage Driver
2004 Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere was an award-winning British comedy television show on Channel 4 starring and written by Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness. All the episodes were also directed by Kay. It began on 12 November 2004 and ran for six 30 minute episodes up until 17 December 2004, with each...

Gypsy Joe TV, 1 episode
2009 The Fattest Man in Britain
The Fattest Man in Britain
The Fattest Man in Britain is a comedy-drama written by Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope which aired on ITV on 20 December 2009. It starred Timothy Spall, Bobby Ball, Aisling Loftus and Barry Austin...

Fr O'Flaherty ITV, 1 episode
2011-Present Mrs. Brown's Boys
Mrs. Brown's Boys
Mrs Brown's Boys is an Irish sitcom created by and starring Dublin writer-performer Brendan O'Carroll, who plays the title character Mrs. Brown. The programme is a co-production between BBC Comedy and BocPix in association with RTÉ....

Agnes Brown BBC One, stars in and wrote

External links

  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x17n9
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