Kate O'Flynn is a British actress. She is known for her performance in National Theatre's production of ''Port'' for which she received a

Critics' Circle Theatre Award The Critics' Circle Theatre Awards, originally called ''Drama'' Theatre Awards up to 1990, are British theatrical awards presented annually for the closing year's theatrical achievements. The winners, from theatre throughout the United Kingdom, ar ...

in 2013, as well as starring roles in plays ''

A Taste of Honey ''A Taste of Honey'' is the first play by the British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was 19. It was intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and address social issues that ...

'' in 2014, and ''

The Glass Menagerie ''The Glass Menagerie'' is a memory play by Tennessee Williams that premiered in 1944 and catapulted Williams from obscurity to fame. The play has strong autobiographical elements, featuring characters based on its author, his Histrionic persona ...

'' for which she was nominated for a

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards ...

in 2017. On screen, she has appearances in the films ''

Up There ''Up There'' is a 2011 British feature film comedy-drama, written and directed by Zam Salim and starring Burn Gorman, Kate O'Flynn, Aymen Hamdouchi, Chris Waitt, Jo Hartley and Warren Brown. It is financed by the UK Film Council, BBC and Crea ...

'' (2011) and ''

Mr. Turner ''Mr. Turner'' is a 2014 biographical drama film based on the last 25 years of the life of artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). Written and directed by Mike Leigh, the film stars Timothy Spall in the title role, with Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Je ...

'' (2014), and television series ''Landscapers'' (2021) and ''Death in Paradise'' (2022).

Education and training

O'Flynn attended Manchester's Royal Exchange youth theatre as a teenager, before training at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...

(RADA).

Career

O'Flynn's first professional role was in

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...

's 2008 film ''

Happy-Go-Lucky Happy Go Lucky may refer to: Film and television * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1936 film), an American film * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1943 film), an American musical film starring Betty Hutton * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1946 film), a French film * ''Happy Go L ...

''. Later that year, her performance in '' The Children's Hour'' with the Royal Exchange Theatre Company won her the 2008

TMA Theatre Award The UK Theatre Awards, established in 1991 and known before 2011 as the TMA Awards, are presented annually by UK Theatre (formerly the Theatrical Management Association) in recognition of creative excellence and outstanding work in regional theat ...

for Best Supporting Performance in a Play. In 2009, O'Flynn appeared with

Russell Tovey Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama '' Being Human'', Rudge in both the stage and film versions of ''The Histo ...

at London's

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

in Molly Davies' ''

A Miracle ''A Miracle'' by Molly Davies was her first professionally staged play and was staged first at the upstairs Jerwood Theatre at Royal Court Theatre in London in 2009 as part of the theatre's Young Writers Festival. It starred Russell Tovey, Kate ...

''. Michael Billington gave the play 3 stars out of five in his review for British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', finding that "Kate O'Flynn's Amy is a model of gawky despair" but concluding that the cast "fill out a play that provides plenty of evidence of youthful talent but that also leaves you wanting more". In the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'',

Nicholas de Jongh Nicholas de Jongh is a British writer, theatre critic and playwright. He served as the senior drama critic of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1991 to 2009. Prior to that, he had worked for ''The Guardian'' for almost 20 years. In 2008, de Jongh ...

praised O'Flynn's "beautiful rendering of passivity, selfishness and vulnerability", while ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

s Charles Spencer wrote, "Kate O'Flynn brings an astonishingly raw vulnerability to the stage as Amy, the tears streaming down her face as she describes how impossible she finds it to love and nurture her child". O'Flynn appeared as Elizabeth Gough in the 2011 television film ''

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ''The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'' is a British series of television films made by Hat Trick Productions for ITV, written by Helen Edmundson and Neil McKay. It stars Paddy Considine in the title role of detective inspector Jack Whicher of the Metr ...

'', and played the role of Beryl in

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

's BAFTA Award-winning television adaptation '' Room at the Top'', based on

John Braine John Gerard Braine (13 April 1922 – 28 October 1986) was an English novelist. Braine is usually listed among the angry young men, a loosely defined group of English writers who emerged on the literary scene in the 1950s. Biography John Brain ...

's novel of the same name, the following year. Also in 2012, she appeared as Liz in the British feature film comedy ''

'', which was the winner of the Best Feature Film award at the

2012 British Academy Scotland Awards The 2012 British Academy Scotland Awards, were given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Scotland (also known as BAFTA Scotland, or BAFTA in Scotland), and honoured the best Scottish film, television and animated product ...

and was broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

in August 2015. In 2013, she performed at the National Theatre in its production of

Simon Stephens Simon Stephens (born 6 February 1971) is an English playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic ...

' ''Port''. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Maddy Costa noted: "As Rachael �� she grew from a mouthy 11-year-old to a downtrodden but resilient 24-year-old – and in the process transformed from a relative unknown to a star in the making". Her performance won her the Critics' Circle's Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer (other than a playwright). She returned to the National Theatre, playing Jo in its 2014

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

Shelagh Delaney Shelagh Delaney, FRSL (; 25 November 1938 – 20 November 2011) was an English dramatist and screenwriter. Her debut work, '' A Taste of Honey'' (1958), has been described by Michael Patterson as "probably the most performed play by a post-war B ...

's ''

''. She appeared in the 2014 film ''

'' and in 2015 O'Flynn played the part of Dr Peep in police comedy drama ''

No Offence ''No Offence'' is a British television police procedural drama on Channel 4, created by Paul Abbott. It follows a team of detectives from Friday Street police station, a division of the Manchester Metropolitan Police (a fictional version of the ...

''. She reprised her role in series 2. In 2016, O'Flynn played Myrtle in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

sitcom ''Dot'' set in the Cabinet War Rooms. In the same year, she also played Lady Alexandrina De Courcy in the ITV costume drama ''

Doctor Thorne ''Doctor Thorne'' by Anthony Trollope (Chapman and Hall, London, 1858) is the third novel in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, between ''Barchester Towers'' and ''Framley Parsonage''. The idea of the plot was suggested to Trollope by ...

'', based on Anthony Trollope's novel of the same name. O'Flynn played Alice Peabody, the new boss at Hard News in ''

Bridget Jones' Baby ''Bridget Jones's Baby'' is a 2016 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Emma Thompson, based on the fictional columns by Fielding. It is the third film in the Bridget Jones (film series), f ...

''. Also in 2016, O'Flynn appeared in the BBC series ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

'' episode 5 and 6 "The Eagle and the Daw" as Katherine Corven. She reprised the character in the 2017 episode 6.2 "The Jackdaw's Revenge". O'Flynn represented Victoria Woodcock in the 2019 television drama '' Brexit: The Uncivil War'' (2019) written by James Graham. In 2021, O'Flynn appeared in the miniseries ''Landscapers'' as DC Emma Lancing. In 2022, O'Flynn appeared in ''Death in Paradise'' as DI Neville Parker's sister Izzy.

Personal life

O'Flynn's '' The House of Special Purpose'' (2009) co-star,

Jonathan Bailey Jonathan Stuart Bailey (born 25 April 1988) is an English actor. Known for his comedic, dramatic, and musical roles on stage and screen, he is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award and a nomination for a Evening Standard Theatre Award. Bai ...

, calls her his "all-time bezzie" and together has hiked the

Everest base camp There are two base camps on Mount Everest, on opposite sides of the mountains: South Base Camp is in Nepal at an altitude of (), while North Base Camp is in Tibet, China at (). The base camps are rudimentary campsites at the base of Mount Eve ...

in Nepal in 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OFlynn, Kate British actresses Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art People from Bury, Greater Manchester 1986 births Living people