Saoirse Ronan is a young Irish actress who shot to stardom at the age of 13 when she appeared in the hit movie Atonement. She has already appeared in several Hollywood movies and been nominated for and won several prestigious acting awards.
She has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in 2015’s Brooklyn. She has worked with some of the most talented people in Hollywood including, Peter Jackson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rachel Weisz, Bill Murray, Mark Wahlberg, Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Susan Sarandon and Cate Blanchett.
Ronan’s father was an actor
Ronan was born in The Bronx, New York. Both her parents were Irish and the family moved back to Ireland to live in Co Carlow when she was three. Her father is actor Paul Ronan who was appeared in the movies, The Devil’s own and Veronica Guerin.
She was home schooled and followed in her father’s footsteps from an early age. She appeared in four episodes of Irish medical drama The Clinic when she was nine years old. The following year, she appeared in the TV series, Proof.
In 2007, Ronan appeared in three movies; The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, I Could Never Be Your Woman and Atonement.
Award winning performance in Atonement
In Atonement she plays Briony Tallis, a teenage girl who develops feelings for her older sister’s lover. She was nominated for several awards for her performance including an Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and an Empire Award for Best Newcomer.
She won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Youth in Film and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role.
The following year she appeared in Death Defying Acts and City of Ember. Again she received award nominations for her performances in both films and won the Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Supporting Role.
Starring in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones
Ronan starred as Susie Salmon in Peter Jackson’s supernatural drama, The Lovely Bones in 2009. Her character is murdered by her neighbour and spends her afterlife watching her family. Ronan received a host of award nominations for the film including a BAFTA for Best Actress.
She won several awards including Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Actress and Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role.
She played a young Polish orphan in The Way Back in 2010 and received the Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Supporting Role.
Several awards for the lead role in Hanna
The following year she played the title role in the movie, Hanna. Hanna is a teenage girl who has been trained as an assassin by her father. She won the Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Lead Role and several other awards.
Ronan’s first Irish character lands her an Oscar nomination
After that Ronan’s career went from strength to strength. She had lead roles on popular films How I Live Now and The Host.
In 2014, she appeared in the Oscar Nominated movie Grand Budapest Hotel.
The following year she played the lead role of Éilis Lacey in the movie Brooklyn. It was the story of a young Irish woman who left home in the 1950s to find a new life in America. It was the first time she had actually played an Irish character on the big screen.
Ronan won several awards for her performance in Brooklyn and was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. She said that the film was particularly poignant for her as she related to her character as a young Irish woman living away from her home country.
By now Ronan had become a recognised star and had a hit as a guest on prime time talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to her easy going personality and sharp sense of humour.
On one appearance, she gave American host Stephen Colbert pointers on how to speak with an Irish accent, and has also appeared on US chat queen Ellen DeGeneres’ show.
Another appearence saw Ronan tell Jimmy Fallon about the joys of an Irish pub lock in.
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