Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961) is an Irish theatre, television, and film actress born in Dublin.
Brady has since appeared in many feature films and major television series, and was named in the 2020 list of Ireland's best film actors, published by The Irish Times.
Brady married in 2002 and lives in California.
Early life and education
Orla Brady was born in Dublin,[1] the daughter of Catherine and Patrick Brady,[citation needed] one of four children. At one time, her parents were the owners of an establishment called Oak Bar, in Temple Bar, Dublin.[2] She lived in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, from birth until the age of seven.[3][2] She was educated at a convent of the Ursulines in Cabinteely, Dublin.[2]
Brady began training in performance in 1986, with a year in Paris;[1] she studied at L'École Philippe Gaulier,[4] and secured a place at Marcel Marceau's École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris.[5] As she spoke of the time in interview, "there was a lot of clowning around, buffoonery and fencing. It was then that my own style kind of blossomed."[1]
Career
Brady began appearing regularly in television roles in the 1990's. Substantial television roles have included Star Trek: Picard (2022), Into the Badlands (2016 - 2019), Mistresses (2008 - 2010), Jo (2013), American Odyssey (2015) and Bosch Legacy (2025)[6].
Notable feature film work has included The Foreigner (2017) with Pierce Brosnan and Jackie Chan, Rose Plays Julie (2019) with Aiden Gillen, The Price of Desire (2015), A Love Divided (1999) and Silent Grace (2001)[7].
Since moving to California in 2001, Brady has also appeared in Family Law,[13] where she played Naoise O'Niell, a series that ran for 3 years on CBS. She also starred in Nip/Tuck, a US drama about plastic surgeons (in which she played Dr. Jordan), and starred as Claire Stark in Shark (2008).[13] In 2008, she appeared in "Firewall", the second episode of the BBC series Wallander.[14] She also appeared as Meredith Gates, a fleecing art collector who herself is conned in the first series of the British series Hustle.[13] Commencing in 2009, Brady portrayed Elizabeth Bishop, the wife of Walter Bishop and the mother of Peter Bishop in the Fox television series Fringe.[15][8] In 2010, she played Catherine in the TV series The Deep,[9] alongside James Nesbitt, and starred as Katie Dartmouth in the TV series Strike Back.[9]
In 2012, she appeared in the ITV series Eternal Law as Mrs Sheringham, an angel who fell in love with a human and became mortal, and played Taryn in the Sky One series Sinbad.[16] In late 2013, she appeared as the Countess Vera Rossakoff in the television adaptation of The Labours of Hercules, part of the final series of Agatha Christie's Poirot alongside David Suchet.[17] Brady appeared in a special production in the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who,[8] the 25 December 2013 Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor (as the character Tasha Lem).[18] In 2014, she filmed Banished, playing Anne Meredith.[19]
As of 2022, Brady has had a recurring role in the science fiction television series, Star Trek: Picard,[20] as Laris, wife of the now-deceased Zhaban (Jamie McShane), the two being former members of the Romulan Tal Shiar and now, workers in the wine production and home of Picard at his Chateau.[21][22]
Awards and recognition
Brady won the 1999 award for Best Actress at the Monte Carlo International Film and Television Festival for her starring role as Sheila Cloney in the RTÉ-BBC co-production, A Love Divided .[23] In 2020, Brady was listed as number 43 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's 50 best film actors.[24] Brady was also nominated several times for best actress by the Irish Film and Television Academy.
Modelling images used in artwork
In the 1980s, while she was in her mid-20s, Brady modelled for an artists' guide publication. She recalled in 2008 that the studio shoot had paid about £50 for her day's work, at a time when she welcomed the income, with her acting career yet to take off.[25] Photographed in a number of dancing poses, the resulting series of figure studies featuring Brady appeared in the Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual.[a] More than 25 years later, it was noted that one of these images of Brady, posing as part of a dancing couple, was the basis of the main figures in a widely-known painting, The Singing Butler, by artist Jack Vettriano. As stated by Vettriano in 2013, Brady's image had "later inspired [his] most famous painting, The Singing Butler". The identification of the pose study in the Illustrator's Manual with Vettriano's painting led to media reporting that he "owed his composition in part" to that publication. Vettriano, his agent, and Brady herself, have all stated that his work makes use of the image in a way that adheres to norms of artistic practice and was in line with the publisher's intent.[27][28][b]
Personal life
In 2001, Brady moved to Los Angeles, where she met English photographer Nick Brandt, whom she married in December 2002 in the Chyulu Hills of Kenya. She has discussed in interviews that she originally left Ireland as she found it "a repressive place to be a woman" at the time, with little opportunity.[2][5] The 2015 marriage equality and 2018 abortion referendums, as well as the expanding Irish industry, changed her mind, making her realise "Oh, this is a different Ireland and it accepts me now."[4] Brady had a "Catholic upbringing", but as of 2002 considered herself an atheist.[29]
^The Guardian article attributes the source of certain figures in Vettriano's paintings to the Illustrator's Manual, but it does not mention Brady as the model for the manual's illustration.[28] The news item on the Jack Vettriano Website does explicitly name Brady as the model photographed in the dancing couple reference illustration, used by Vettriano as the source for the figures in his The Singing Butler, and other paintings,[27] as does The Courier of Dundee's summary of Brady's 2008 Daily Mirror interview.[25]
^ abBrady, Tara (30 May 2016). "Orla Brady: from Dublin to Hollywood to kicking ass in the Badlands". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 May 2023. Sure, Brady was already well-travelled: she had trained in performing arts at Marcel Marceau's École Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris and later at the L'École Philippe Gaulier in Paris.
^ abBrown, Kate (7 February 2023). "The scandal and success behind Fife artist Jack Vettriano's The Singing Butler". The Courier. Orla later told Mail Online: 'I didn't know about the picture's existence until someone asked me about it a few years ago. As soon as I saw it, it was obvious it was me. I didn't find it weird. The book was designed for artists who couldn't afford life models – and he'd used it as it was intended.'
^Hince, Peter (1987). Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual. Contributions by Mick Dunn, Dick Hatfield; photography by Peter Hince. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN978-0-74750-008-7. OCLC18256305.
^Allen Smith, Warren (2002). Celebrities in Hell: A Guide to Hollywood's Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Free Thinkers, and More. Barricade Books Inc. p. 130. ISBN1-56980-214-9. Brady had a Catholic upbringing but now considers herself an atheist
