Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (born 4 March 1987) is a Northern Irish actress from Derry. She is best known for her role as Michelle Mallon in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

sitcom ''

Derry Girls ''Derry Girls'' is a British teen sitcom created and written by Lisa McGee that premiered on 4 January 2018 on Channel 4. The channel's most successful comedy since ''Father Ted'', the series was inspired by McGee's own experiences growing up ...

''.

Early life

O’Donnell was born on 4 March 1987 to a large family in Derry, Northern Ireland. She attended St Anne's Primary School, St Cecilia's College, and

North West Regional College North West Regional College is a further education and higher education college in the north-west region of Northern Ireland. The college has five main campuses in counties Londonderry and Tyrone: Strand Road ( Derry), Springtown (Derry), ...

. She began acting at a young age in school plays. Upon graduation, she decided to pursue it professionally despite not being able to afford drama school. She instead studied performing arts at

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was tak ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

. She began auditioning and dividing her time between England and home, taking part in theatrical productions and working as a dancer for promotions and pantomimes.

Career

Between 2012 and 2015, O'Donnell played her first significant role as Eva Maguire, one of the main characters of the BBC2 NI series ''

6Degrees ''6Degrees'' (or ''Six Degrees'') is a Northern Irish dramatic television series about a group of university students living in Belfast. It premiered on 21 February 2012 on BBC2 NI. In July 2013 it also began airing on the Irish channel RTÉ 2 ...

'', after the end of which she took part in the film ''Urban & the Shed Crew'', by Candida Brady. In 2018, she starred in a theatre production ''I Told My Mum I Was Going on an RE Trip'', by Julia Samuels, playing an underage girl who decides to undergo an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

. The following year, she joined the cast of ''Girls and Dolls'', a play by the ''Derry Girls'' creator

Lisa McGee Elizabeth "Lisa" McGee (born 1980) is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. McGee is the creator and writer of '' Derry Girls'', a comedy series that began airing on Channel 4 in the UK in January 2018. In 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 10 ...

, and acted in Martin McDonagh's ''

The Cripple of Inishmaan ''The Cripple of Inishmaan'' is a dark comedy by Martin McDonagh who links the story to the real life filming of the documentary ''Man of Aran''. The play is set on the small Aran Islands community of Inishmaan (Inis Meáin) off the Western C ...

'' at the Gaiety Theatre. O'Donnell later landed the role of Michelle Mallon in ''Derry Girls'', a

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

by Channel 4, which gained international fame. Of her role as Michelle, she says, "Michelle really thinks she's maybe just a bit too big for the place she was born in and she's ready to take on the world one swearword at a time. She's really feisty, really ballsy, doesn't really care about authority, just sort of up for anything and up for a laugh." O'Donnell and her fellow ''Derry Girls'' costars participated in the RTÉ fundraising special ''

RTÉ Does Comic Relief ''RTÉ Does Comic Relief'' was an Irish telethon event that took place on 26 June 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) hosted the four-hour telethon "RTÉ does Telethon" in aid of the Community Foundatio ...

'', performing a sketch alongside

Saoirse Ronan Saoirse Una Ronan ( , ; born 12 April 1994) is an American-born Irish actress. Primarily known for her work in period dramas since adolescence, she has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations fo ...

. All proceeds from the night went towards those affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Personal life

O'Donnell lives in Derry with her partner, DJ Paul McCay. She is a patron of the

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

-based youth theatre company 20 Stories High.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:ODonnell, Jamie-Lee 1987 births 20th-century births Living people 21st-century actresses from Northern Ireland Alumni of De Montfort University Actors from Derry (city) Television actresses from Northern Ireland