Background
Fairley was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, to locally renowned publicans Theresa and Brian Fairley.
Fairley was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, to locally renowned publicans Theresa and Brian Fairley.
She attended a Roman Catholic grammar school.
Upon graduation, she moved to Belfast where she honed her skills with the repertory company Fringe Benefits, alongside a fellow alumnus of the Ulster Youth, Conleth Hill. Fairley appeared in a number of British television shows, including The Bill, Holby City and Casualty. Some of her earlier roles were as Cathy Michaels on ITV1"s Inspector Morse in the episode titled "The Way Through The Woods" and as Nancy Phelan in Lovejoy in the episode 9 of Season 3 titled "Smoke Your Nose".
She took over the role of Mistress
Granger from Heather Bleasdale (who had played Mrs Granger in Chamber of Secrets) in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films. On 19 March 2010, it was announced that she would play the role of Catelyn Stark in the Home Box Office series Game of Thrones, replacing Jennifer Ehle who played the character in the original pilot episode.
On 4 June 2013, East! news confirmed that she had joined the cast of the United States of America Network series Suits for its third season. Fairley plays the recurring role of Ava Hessington.
As a teenager, she became a member of the Ulster Youth Theatre.