Orla Fitzgerald


Orla Fitzgerald is an Irish actress for stage and screen for over 25 years.
She received two nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Breakthrough Artist at the fourth annual Irish Film and Television Awards for her work as Sinéad Ní Shúilleabháin in Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Fitzgerald was nominated best actress in the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards for the role of Clare in Digging for Fire, written by Declan Hughes and directed by Matt Torney for Rough Magic Theatre Company. Most recently she has been embracing her Cork heritage in the role of Orla in The Young Offenders.

Training and early career

Fitzgerald took drama classes in Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, placed there by her mother, who thought she was perhaps too shy. “It was a 90-minute workshop on a Saturday morning, where we did improv and plays. It was all about fun and being creative and I loved it,” the actress has said.

Selected filmography

TV work

Selected stage career

The Comedy of Errors, Royal Exchange, ManchesterCrestfall, Theatre503, LondonPumpgirl, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; 3 to 27 August 2006; Bush Theatre, London; 12 September to 14 October 2006This Ebony Bird, Blood in the Alley Theatre Company, Ballydehob, IrelandThe System; The Project, Raw Productions, DublinThe Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish;, DublinPlayboy of the Western World; Royal Exchange, ManchesterA Town Called F**cked; Last Serenade Theatre CompanyMacbeth; Second Age Theatre Company, DublinA Quite Life; Peacock Theatre, DublinThe River; Meridian Theatre CompanyWho's Breaking?; Graffiti Theatre Company, CorkLaodamia; Merlin International Theatre, BudapestDisco Pigs; Corcadorca Theatre Company, CorkOthello; Everyman Theatre, CorkThe Beauty Queen of Leenane; Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith), London

Selected radio career

  • Enda Walsh’s ''4 Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks''