Who is Laura Donnelly?
Donnelly is a Northern Irish award-winning actress, probably best known to the world as Amalia True in the TV series “The Nevers” (2021-2022), and several other popular roles she’s secured so far in her career.
Laura Donnelly Wiki: Age, Childhood, and Education
Laura Donnelly was born on 24 June 1982, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is one of six children born to a general practitioner father and a mother who was a nurse. She has three sisters, Susan, Helen and Kirsten, and two brothers, Aidan and Connor.
She went to Rathmore Grammar School in her hometown, and after matriculation, Laura moved to Glasgow, Scotland, where she enrolled at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, gaining her degree in 2004.
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Career Beginnings
Laura made her on-screen debut in 2005 with the role of Beth in the BAFTA-nominated TV romantic comedy series “Sugar Rush”, a short-lived but critically acclaimed series about a 15-year-old girl who moves to Brighton and falls in love with her new best friend, Sugar, and which starred Olivia Hallinan, Lenora Crichlow and Richard Lumsden.
The same year, Laura joined the BAFTA-winning medical drama series “Casualty” as Fleur Butler, and portrayed Maya Robertson in the short-lived TV fantasy comedy-drama series “Hex”, which starred Jemima Rooper, Jamie Davis and Amber Sainsbury.
The next year, Laura appeared in one episode of the long-running BAFTA-winning police drama series “The Bill”, which ran from 1984 until 2010, while in 2007, she co-starred in the television comedy movie “Be More Ethnic”, with Christopher Simpson and Keith Duffy.
In 2008, Laura starred in the sci-fi thriller-horror film “Insatiable”, set in a dystopian future with low levels of food but various diseases, in which a man starts selling food, which turns out to be human flash, co-starring John Cronin and Dairine Ni Dhonnchu.
The following year, Laura appeared in the comedy-drama film “Right Hand Drive” and co-starred alongside Jackson Rathbone and Hanne Steen in the horror thriller-drama film “Dread”, based on the short story by Clive Barker.
Moreover, Laura featured in the BAFTA-winning TV mini-series “Occupation”, which starred James Nesbitt, Stephen Graham, and Warren Brown.
Rise to Prominence
Laura portrayed Violet Heath in the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated TV action thriller-drama series “Missing” (2012), which tells a story about a mother who goes through hell and high water to find her missing son, starring Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis, Adriano Giannini.
She was pretty busy in 2013 – first, she was Sarah Kay in the BAFTA-nominated TV thriller crime-drama series “The Fall”, with Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan and John Lynch in the lead roles, then appeared in Anthony Wilcox’s comedy-drama film “Hello Carter”, which starred Charlie Cox, Christian Cooke and Hannah Lederer, about a down-on-his-luck guy who experiences various adventures throughout London to get his girlfriend back.
Laura ended the year with the lead role in the short drama film “The Houdini Girl”, while in 2014, co-starred in the drama film “Heart of Lightness”, based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, with James Bachman, Daniel Bianchini and Michael Colgan in the lead roles.
The same year, Laura secured one of her most prominent roles as Jenny Fraser, one of the major characters in season one of the eponymous fantasy romantic-drama series “Outlander”, and a guest in the second and third seasons. She featured in eight episodes of the Primetime Emmy Award-nominated series from 2014 to 2017, positively influencing her career.
She started getting more popular roles in the mid-2010s; she was cast as Emma O’Reilly in the biopic “The Program”, about an Irish sports journalist who tries to uncover whether Lance Armstrong used banned substances for his extraordinary performance during Tour de France for several consecutive years.
Next, she portrayed Elvina in the new take on the popular English lore, “Beowful: Return to the Shieldlands” (2016), starring Kieran Bew, Joanne Whalley, and Ed Speleers.
Missing these two Fiery Frasers 🥺#SamHeughan #LauraDonnelly #Outlander pic.twitter.com/Myj5oSgSde
— Dakshini 🍉🕊️ (@DakshiniFraser) May 24, 2020
Two years later, Laura joined the cast of the historical fantasy-action drama series “Britannia”, which tells the story of the Roman Army and its attempt to crush the Celts of Britannia, starring David Morrissey, Eleanor Worthington-Cox and Julian Rhind-Tutt. She appeared in six episodes of this popular epic fantasy series from 2018 to 2021, while in 2019, she portrayed Mabel Tolkien, the mother of the legendary epic fantasy writer, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in the biopic “Tolkien” that deals with writers’ formative years, and the inspiration he founded among a group of like-minded people, fellow outcasts at school.
In 2021, Donnelly was selected for the lead role of Amalia True in the alternative Victorian, steampunk-styled fantasy tale, about a group of women who overnight inherit a set of unusual abilities, entitled “The Nevers”, created by Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and the writer behind “The Avengers”. Her character runs the orphanage, which is a home for women like her, and together they fight the government and internal enemies while trying to unravel where those powers came from.
The series received positive reviews, and Laura a Critics Choice Super Award nomination in the category for Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series.
Most recently, Laura has been selected for the role of Elsa Bloodstone, the monster-hunting hero in the upcoming Disney+ horror special “Werewolf by Night”, starring Garcia Bernal.
Stage Career
In addition to her success on screen, Laura has also enjoyed success on stage. Her most prominent role was as Caitlin Carney in the play “The Ferryman”, written by her partner Jezz Butterworth. She won the 2018 Olivier Award in the category for Best Actress, and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress for her Broadway portrayal.
Net Worth
According to reports, Laura Donnelly’s net worth has been estimated at over $15 million as of late-2022.
Personal Life, Dating, Boyfriend, Children
Laura has been in a romantic relationship with English playwright Jez Butterworth since 2012. The couple met at the premiere of the play “The River”, in which she appeared and he was the director. They started dating shortly after their first meeting, and have been together ever since. The couple has two daughters, Radha and Alibhe, and live in London.
Before Jez, from 2001 to 2015, Laura was in a relationship with musician Nathan Connolly, who is best known as the guitarist of the indie rock band Snow Patrol.
Appearance and Vital Statistics
Laura has black hair and hazel eyes. She is 5ft 4ins (1.62m) tall and weighs about 112lbs (51kgs), with vital statistics of 36-25-34, bra size 34B.
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