Orla Brady
Encyclopedia
Early life and career
The second of four children born to Dublin publicanPublican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
Patrick Brady (former owner of the Temple Bar
Temple Bar, Dublin
Temple Bar is an area on the south bank of the River Liffey in central Dublin, Ireland. Unlike the areas surrounding it, Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street pattern, with many narrow cobbled streets. It is promoted as "Dublin's cultural quarter" and has a lively nightlife that is popular...
) and his wife Catherine who had appeared in amateur productions at the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
, Brady first became interested in an acting career after reading works by Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
and Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
.
Brady drifted between jobs in her early 20s: My 20s were torture. I found men terrifying. I didn't know how to relate to them and, because of that, there was no way I could have stood on a stage and asked people to look at me. I just wasn't comfortable in my skin.
She gradually moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, working part time as a model. Amongst other assignments she posed for DIY painting guide The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual. After the original of Jack Vettriano
Jack Vettriano
Jack Vettriano OBE born Jack Hoggan , is a Scottish painter.- Early life :Jack Vettriano grew up in the industrial seaside town of Methil, Fife. He left school at 16 and later became an apprentice mining engineer. Vettriano did not take up painting as a hobby until the 1970s, when a girlfriend...
's painting The Singing Butler was sold at auction in 2004 for £750,000, it was revealed the painter used the manual to form his figures for the painting, including Brady for the 'lady in red'. In February 2009, Vettriano published a previously unseen second version of 'The Singing Butler', which feaures the dancing figure for which Brady posed wearing a dark emerald green dress, hence the title,Dancer In Emerald, the original painting for which is on loan to the Kirkcaldy Museum as part of Homecoming Scotland 2009.
In 1986 at age 25 she applied via the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Embassy in London for a bursary to study theatre in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. After struggling through her French language interview, she studied for a year at the L'École Philippe Gaulier and secured a place at the École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris founded by Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...
.
Mainstream
After graduation, she returned to Dublin and immediately won the role of Adela in the House of Bernarda Alba at the Gate TheatreGate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
, and then worked with Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
-based physical theatre company, Balloonatics, and discovered the fun of theatre through alternative productions of Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
and Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
.
Her first piece of professional work in England was in Blinded by the Sun at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, and developed a career based on both Irish and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
located theatre, television and movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. These have included the 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...
/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...
co-production A Love Divided as Sheila Cloney, RTÉ's Proof
Proof (TV series)
Proof is an Irish television mini-serial co-produced by Subotica for RTÉ in Ireland and TV2 in Denmark. Proof had two season the second season entitled Proof 2.-Production:...
and the 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...
's Mistresses
Mistresses (TV series)
Mistresses is a British serial drama television programme that follows the lives of four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships...
. She had a supporting role in the film 32A
32A
32A is a 2007 feature film, directed by Marian Quinn, from her own script. It was shot principally in Dublin, with additional footage in Roscommon and Sligo....
.
From 2001 she decided to spend a period in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where she has appeared mainly in televisions series, including the short-lived Family Law
Family Law (TV series)
Family Law is a television drama starring Kathleen Quinlan as divorced lawyer Lynn Holt, who attempted to start her own law firm after her lawyer husband took all their old clients...
. She has also starred in Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
, a US drama about plastic surgeons as Dr. Jordan, a female plastic surgeon who, unusually for the series, declined sex with Dr. Christian Troy
Christian Troy
Dr. Christian Troy is a fictional character played by Julian McMahon on the FX Networks series Nip/Tuck. The show revolves around McNamara/Troy, the plastic surgery practice he runs with his business partner and best friend, Sean McNamara....
. She later starred as Claire Stark, the divorced ex-wife of James Woods
James Woods
James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
in hit series Shark
Shark (TV series)
Shark is an American legal drama created by Ian Biederman that originally aired on CBS from September 21, 2006 to May 20, 2008. The series stars James Woods.-Synopsis:...
. In 2008, she appeared in Firewall, the second episode of the BBC TV series Wallander.
She also appeared as Meredith Gates, a fleecing art collector who gets conned herself, in the first season of the British series Hustle
Hustle (TV series)
Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but...
.
Brady reprised her role in series two of Mistresses, which filmed in 2009. In addition, Brady appeared on Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
as the wife of Walter Bishop
Walter Bishop (Fringe)
Walter Bishop, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the Fox television series Fringe. He is portrayed by John Noble. Noble also plays Walter's counterpart in the show's parallel universe, who is referred to in the show as Walternate.-Arc:...
, played by John Noble
John Noble
John Noble is an Australian film and television actor, and theater director of more than 80 plays. He was born in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia and is currently starring as scientist Walter Bishop in the J. J. Abrams television series Fringe.He made occasional appearances on the...
.
In 2010 she appeared in the TV Series The Deep
The Deep (TV serial)
The Deep is a British television serial drama produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Wales. Written by Simon Donald, The Deep stars Minnie Driver, James Nesbitt, and Goran Visnjic as the crew of a research submarine, who encounter disaster thousands of feet underwater in the Arctic Circle.The...
and as Katie Dartmouth in the TV series Strike Back
Strike Back (TV series)
Chris Ryan's Strike Back is a six-part British television series based on the novel of the same name written by best-selling author and former soldier of the Special Air Service, Chris Ryan. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures for Sky1...
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Personal life
In 2001 Brady moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where she met English photographer Nick Brandt
Nick Brandt
Nick Brandt is a photographer who photographs exclusively in Africa, one of his goals being to record a visually poetic last testament to the wild animals and places there before they are gone at the hands of man.-Background and early career:...
whom she married in December 2002.
Brady received a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
education but considers herself an atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
.