Orla Brady Biography

Orla Brady (born March 28, 1961) is an Irish actress.

Early life

Orla Brady is the second of four children born to Patrick and his wife Catherine. She lived in Bray, Co.Wicklow, Ireland, from birth until the age of seven. She was educated at a Loreto Convent in Wicklow and an Ursuline Convent in Dublin.

At 25 years of age she moved to Paris where she studied at the L'cole Philippe Gaulier, securing a place at Marcel Marceau's cole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris.

Career

Brady began her career with Balloonatics Theatre Company, touring productions of Hamlet and Finnegans Wake. She then returned to Dublin to perform at the Gate Theatre where she played Adele in House of Bernarda Alba and Natasha in Three Sisters. After moving to London she played Kate in Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! which later transferred from the King's Head Theatre to the West End.

Brady's first professional work in England was in Blinded by the Sun by Stephen Poliakoff at the Royal National Theatre and she has since developed a career based on both Irish and British located theatre, television and film. These have included the RT/BBC co-production A Love Divided where she portrayed Sheila Cloney, for which she won the 1999 Golden Nymph Best Actress Award at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. She also played one of four main characters in the BBC's drama series Mistresses, Siobhan Dillon, a lawyer who struggled to maintain her relationship with husband Harry while also having an affair with her colleague, Dominic, with whom she later went on to have a child. As well as that, she has appeared in RT's Proof, and had roles in films such as Words Upon the Window Pane (1994), The Luzhin Defence (2000), How About You (2007) and 32A (2007).

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2001, Brady has also appeared in Family Law where she played Naoise O'Niell. The series ran for 3 years on CBS. She has also starred in Nip/Tuck, a US drama about plastic surgeons where she played Dr. Jordan. She later starred in Shark as Claire Stark, the divorced ex-wife of James Woods. In 2008 she appeared in Firewall, and the second episode of the BBC series Wallander. She also appeared as Meredith Gates, a fleecing art collector who herself is conned in the first series of the British series Hustle.

Commencing in 2009, Brady portrayed Elizabeth Bishop, the wife of Walter Bishop and the mother of Peter Bishop in the Fox television series Fringe. In 2010, she appeared in the TV series The Deep alongside James Nesbitt where she played Catherine. She also starred in the TV series Strike Back as Katie Dartmouth.

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. She also currently stars in the Sky1 series Sinbad where she plays Taryn. 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.

On 25 December 2013 Brady starred in the 2013 Christmas special episode The Time of the Doctor of the hit BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who as the pivotal character Tasha Lem. In 2014, she filmed Banished, playing Anne Meredith.

She is currently appearing in the AMC martial arts drama series Into the Badlands as Lydia.

Photographic model

In the late 1980s Brady posed for a series of photographic figure studies that were published in The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual (1987). An image of Brady posing in her own dress was used by the artist Jack Vettriano as the focal subject of The Singing Butler.

Personal life

In 2001 Brady moved to Los Angeles where she met an English photographer, Nick Brandt, whom she married in December 2002 in the Chyulu Hills of Kenya. She currently lives in Los Angeles and London.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Words Upon the Window Pane	Vanessa
1999	'	Sheila Kelly Cloney
2000	'	Aunt Anna
2001	Silent Grace	Eileen
2002	Fogbound	Ann
2006	Last Night	Lucy	Short film
2007	32A	Jean Brennan
2007	How About You...	Kate Harris
2013	Wayland's Song	Grace
2015	'	Eileen Gray

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Minder	Bank Teller	"Opportunity Knocks and Bruises"
1994	'	Amy	"No Job for an Amateur"
1994	Absolutely Fabulous	Nurse Mary	"Hospital"
1994	'	Sister Josephine	"1.2"
1995	Dangerfield	Diane Foster	"Victim of Rape: Parts 1 & 2"
1995	New Voices	Ruby	"The Treasure of Zavimbi"
1995	Casualty	Wendy	"Outside Bulawayo"
1995-1996	Out of the Blue	D.S. Rebecca "Becky" Bennett	Main role
1996	Pie in the Sky	Kit Kelly de Goris	"Irish Stew"
1996	'	Aoife	"The Christmas Lunch Incident"
1997	'	Marcella Duggan	TV film
1997	Noah's Ark	Clare Somers	Main role
1998	Wuthering Heights	Cathy	TV film
1999	Pure Wickedness	Jenny Meadows	Recurring role
1999	'	Kathleen Fitzpatrick	TV film
2001-2002	Family Law	Naoise O'Neill	Regular role
2003	Servants	Flora Ryan	Regular role
2003	'	Angela Jahnsen	TV film
2004	Hustle	Meredith Gates	"Picture Perfect"
2004	Nip/Tuck	Dr. Monica Jordan	"Christian Troy"
2004	Lawless	Liz Bird	TV film
2004-2005	Proof	Maureen Boland	TV miniseries
2005	Revelations	Nora Webber	TV miniseries
2005	Empire	Atia Balba Caesonia	TV miniseries
2005	World of Trouble	Joan Denny	TV film
2006	Sixty Minute Man	Kate Henderson	TV film
2006	Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise	Lilly Summers	TV film
2007	Protect and Serve	Dr. Lorna Herrera	TV film
2007-2008	Shark	Claire Stark	Recurring role
2008	Wallander	Ella Lindfeldt	"Firewall"
2008-2010	Mistresses	Siobhan Dillon	Regular role
2010	'	Catherine Donnelly	TV miniseries
2010-2012	Fringe	Elizabeth Bishop	Recurring role
2012	Sinbad	Taryn	Regular role
2012	Eternal Law	Mrs. Sheringham	Main role
2013	Jo	Beatrice Dormont	Main role
2013	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Countess Rossakoff	"The Labours of Hercules"
2013	Doctor Who	Tasha Lem	"The Time of the Doctor"
2015	Banished	Anne Meredith	Main role
2015	American Odyssey	Sofia Tsaldari	Regular role
2015	Into the Badlands	Lydia	Main role