Kirsten Sheridan (born 14 July 1976) is an Irish film director and screenwriter. She is best known for co-writing the semi-autobiographical film '' In America'' with her father, director

Jim Sheridan Jim Sheridan (born 6 February 1949) is an Irish playwright and filmmaker. Between 1989 and 1993, Sheridan directed two critically acclaimed films set in Ireland, ''My Left Foot'' and ''In the Name of the Father'', and later directed the film ...

, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan, for which she was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

and a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

for and Best Screenplay "2004 Golden Globe Nominations"
, ''Premiere''. Accessed 3 November 2007.. She is also known as the director of films ''

Disco Pigs ''Disco Pigs'' is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as two young people from Cork who have a lifelong, but unhealt ...

and

August Rush ''August Rush'' is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and produced by Richard Barton Lewis. The screenplay is by Nick Castle and James V. Hart, with a story by Paul Castro and Castle. A co-production between the United State ...

.''

Early life

Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Sheridan moved to New York City in 1981, spending her early childhood there while her father struggled to make it as an actor and theater director. Her family moved back to Ireland eight years later, whereupon her father found success as the director of ''

My Left Foot ''My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown'', also known simply as ''My Left Foot'', is a 1989 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jim Sheridan adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir of the same name by Christy ...

'',Macnab, Geoffrey
"My life as a pig"
''The Guardian'', 12 November 2001. Accessed 2 November 2007. in which Sheridan plays the younger sister of lead actor

Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...

."Person of the Month Jim , Naomi & Kirsten Sheridan"
''Independent.ie'', 22 February 2004. Accessed 2 November 2007. She studied script writing at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1993 and went to film school at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

, ultimately earning her film degree from Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design in 1998.

Career

Her thesis short film ''Patterns'' won several international film festival awards, including Clermont-Ferrand, Cork, Galway, Dresden, Aspen, and Chicago, and her next short, ''The Case of Majella McGinty'', about a little girl who escapes her stressful life by crawling into a suitcase,Kemp, Rebecca
"''In America''"
, ''Close-UpFilm.com''. Accessed 2 November 2007. received festival awards at Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston."Who's Who Directors: Kirsten Sheridan"
''IFTN.ie''. Accessed 2 November 2007. The first feature film Sheridan directed was 2001's ''

'',

Enda Walsh Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright. Biography Enda Walsh was born in Kilbarrack, North Dublin on February 7, 1967. His father ran a furniture shop and his mother had been an actress. He is the second youngest of six children. Wal ...

's screen adaptation of his own play, starring

Cillian Murphy Cillian Murphy (; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. Originally the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes, he turned down a record deal in the late 1990s and began acting on stage and in short an ...

and

Elaine Cassidy Elaine Cassidy (born 31 December 1979) is an Irish actress. She is best known for playing DC Dinah Kowalska in ''No Offence'', Abby Mills in the American television series ''Harper's Island'' for CBS, Felicia in '' Felicia's Journey'', Runt in ...

"Kirsten Sheridan Filmography"
''IMDb.com''. Accessed 2 November 2007. as teenagers in a lifelong, obsessive, antisocial friendship. ''The Guardian'' described the independent film as a "stylised, hyperkinetic drama ... that combines kitchen-sink realism and vicious fight scenes with highly stylised fantasy sequences". ''Disco Pigs'' earned Sheridan nominations for best director at the

British Independent Film Awards The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports and promotes British independent cinema and filmmaking talent in United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, ...

and the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards, as well as prizes at the Castellinaria Youth Film Festival, the Giffoni Film Festival, the Young European Cinema Film Festival and the Ourense Film Festival. Next, Sheridan collaborated with her father Jim and sister Naomi on the script for ''In America'', a film based on their memories of their family's years of poverty in New York, with the story of the death of Jim's younger brother woven in as an added element. Jim directed the film, which went on to success and earned several prestigious awards nominations,"Kirsten Sheridan Awards"
''IMDb.com''. Accessed 2 November 2007. including an Oscar nomination for

. Sheridan's latest film is 2007's ''August Rush'', which stars

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Jonathan Rhys Meyers (born Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keeffe; 27 July 1977) is an Irish actor, model and musician. He is known for his roles in the films ''Michael Collins (film), Michael Collins'' (1996), ''Velvet Goldmine'' (1998), ''Titus (f ...

and

Keri Russell Keri Lynn Russell (born March 23, 1976) is an American actress. She portrayed the titular character on the drama series ''Felicity (TV series), Felicity'' (1998–2002), which won her a Golden Globe Award, and Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans), ...

as star-crossed lovers and musicians,

Freddie Highmore Alfred Thomas Highmore (born 14 February 1992) is an English actor. He is known for his starring roles beginning as a child, in the films '' Finding Neverland'' (2004), '' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005), '' August Rush'' (2007), and ...

as their orphaned musical prodigy offspring, and

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

as a

Fagin Fagin is a fictional character and the secondary antagonist in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver Twist''. In the preface to the novel, he is described as a "receiver of stolen goods". He is the leader of a group of children (the Artful Dod ...

esque character. ''The Irish Times'' criticized the film as "bounc(ing) around between so many forms, moods and genres that it proves impossible to get a handle on," while ''Variety'' called it "utterly predictable, but with moments of genuine charm." Sheridan directed ''Dollhouse'' in 2010. Filming took place over 21 days, and it was released in 2012. The

unscripted ''Unscripted'' is an American comedy-drama series that aired on HBO in early 2005. The series was largely improvised by its performers. It was executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, and Grant Heslov. ''Unscripted'' is the se ...

story, featured a cast of young Irish actors, including then-unknown

Jack Reynor Jack Reynor (born 23 January 1992) is an Irish-American actor. His notable roles include the films '' What Richard Did'', '' Transformers: Age of Extinction'', ''Glassland'', ''Macbeth'', '' Sing Street'', and ''Midsommar'', as well as the seri ...

and

Seána Kerslake Seána Kerslake () is an Irish actress. She is known for portraying the role of Aisling O'Dowd in RTÉ2 comedy-drama '' Can't Cope, Won't Cope'' (2016–2018). In 2017, she was named one of sixteen young actors by Screen International as a '' Sta ...

. The film was featured at the 62nd

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

and won the jury prize at the 2012

Odesa International Film Festival The Odesa International Film Festival ( uk, Оде́ський міжнаро́дний кінофестива́ль) is an annual film festival held in the middle of July in Odesa. Since 2016 the festival program has consisted of three parts: ...

. Sheridan has won many awards for her short films.

Personal life

Sheridan has three children, daughter Leyla (born 2002) and sons Seamus (born 2007) and Frankie (born 2010).

Filmography

Selected awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheridan, Kirsten 20th-century Irish people 21st-century Irish people English-language film directors Irish women film directors Living people Film people from Dublin (city) Irish women screenwriters Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of IADT