Representation: JASMINE DAINES PILGREM
creatives@lisarichards.co.uk / +44 207 2871441
Oonagh is a freelance writer and director represented by Lisa Richards Creatives.
For television, Oonagh recently directed OBITUARY (Tua Films, About Premium Content, Screen Ireland, RTE & Hulu), VARDY v ROONEY: A COURTROOM DRAMA (Chalkboard TV, Channel 4) and 2nd Unit on BAD SISTERS (Merman/Apple TV) for Dearbhla Walsh.
As writer-director, Oonagh is developing her new TV drama series NOTIONS with Keeper Pictures and RTE. As director, Oonagh recently completed the short NEVER KILL A FEMBOY ON THE FIRST DATE with writer Lee-Loi Chieng, producer Aoibhín Murphy of Newgrange Pictures and Virgin Media Discovers. It premiered at DIFF in Feb 2024.
With a BA in English and Philosophy from University College Cork and M.Phil in Irish Theatre from Trinity College Dublin, Oonagh’s passion for screenwriting and directing was sparked when she got the job as casting director to Ken Loach on his Palm d’Or winning THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY. Since graduating from the National Film and Television School in London, Oonagh has written and directed nine award-winning shorts, a TV pilot and a feature doc with the support of Screen Ireland, the Arts Council, RTE, TG4, BRITDOC and the Wellcome Trust. Her short film FIVE LETTERS TO THE STRANGER WHO WILL DISSECT MY BRAIN won Best Director of an Irish Short at Cork International Film Festival, a Discovery Award and Best Irish Short at the Dublin International Film Festival, an Irish Writer’s Guild Zebbie Award for Best Short Screenplay and a 2021 IFTA nomination.
Oonagh has participated in several national and international training initiatives such as Berlinale Talents, She Writes, Screen Yorkshire’s Triangle Scheme, the ‘Apulia Experience’, Torino TFL Labs, Sources 2, Guiding Lights and X-Pollinator.
Oonagh’s feature screenplay SNOW ON BEARA won her a place on the Athena IRIS Screenplay Lab in NYC and BBC Drama Writers Room in London and is in development with EZ Films and Creative Europe. From January to May 2019, Oonagh was screenwriter-in-residence at Carlow College. In February 2020, Oonagh was selected for the EWA Screenwriting residency in Berlin with SNOW ON BEARA. In April 2021, Oonagh was awarded a Markievicz Award. In August 2021, Oonagh took part in the UGC Writers Campus at Series Mania with her TV crime series AU PAIR.