Background

Ethnicity: Saoirse Ronan's father was born in Manchester, England, and is of Irish origin. Her mother is Irish, and also has small amounts of English and Scottish ancestry.

Saoirse Ronan was born on April 12, 1994, in New York City, New York, the United States, to Irish parents, Monica Ronan (née Brennan) and Paul Ronan, an actor. When Saoirse was three, the family moved back to Dublin, Ireland. Saoirse grew up in Dublin and briefly in County Carlow before moving back to Dublin with her parents.

Ronan spent several years of her childhood living in the Woodlawn section of the Bronx. This neighborhood is composed of predominately Irish and Irish-American community. She holds dual citizenship for Ireland and the United States of America.

Education

Saoirse attended the Ardattin National School in County Carlow, where she lived for a brief period of time. She was later home-schooled before she moved back to Dublin to live with her parents.

Career

Saoirse Ronan's first acting role came in 2003 when she landed a part in Irish TV series The Clinic. During the same time, Ronan auditioned to play Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a role she eventually lost to Evanna Lynch. She appeared in four episodes before moving on to another Irish show, Proof, in 2005. It wasn't long before the talented youngster made the transition to the silver screen, after returning to America and breaking into Hollywood.

She was chosen to play Michelle Pfeiffer's on-screen daughter Izzie in comedy flick I Could Never Be Your Woman, and the same year lensed holiday movie The Christmas Miracle Of Jonathan Toomey. Her big break came, however, when - aged just 13 she earned the starring role in the big-screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's WWII romance novel Atonement. Playing Briony, the youngster whose actions bring so much heartache to her sibling, was a dream come true for Saoirse, who not only got the chance to work with British star James McAvoy, but also with her role model Keira Knightley.

The movie proved a global success, scooping seven leading awards - including two Golden Globes - and garnering an impressive seven Oscar nominations in 2008. It also marked a personal triumph for the young Irish star whose performance was recognized with two best youth performance awards and a best-supporting actress Oscar nod.

Becoming the second youngest actor to be nominated for an Academy Award is no mean feat, and if her career to date is anything to go by Saoirse look set to enjoy a glittering future. And casting agents were quick to come a-calling in the wake of her success Atonement success, leading to a full schedule in 2008. She signed up for Death Defying Acts with Catherine Zeta-Jones, family fantasy City Of Ember.

The talented young actress followed with a role in The Lovely Bones (2009), Peter Jackson's big-screen adaptation of Alice Sebold's acclaimed novel. Ronan played the part of Susie Salmon, a young girl who is brutally raped and murdered and then watches her family cope from heaven. Ronan then took on the titular role in the 2011 action film Hanna, and the following year she starred in the vampire flick Byzantium.

Proving her ability to adapt to a wide range of genres, Ronan joined the ensemble cast of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). She then starred in Brooklyn, as an Irish immigrant adapting to life in New York City in the 1950s. The drama was a hit at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and resulted in Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for its lead actress. In 2016, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

In late 2017, Ronan earned another Golden Globe nomination for her lead role in Greta Gerwig's highly acclaimed Lady Bird, a coming-of-age tale about a high school student's relationship with her mom and friends. She kicked off 2018 by beating out stiff competition from the likes of Judi Dench and Helen Mirren for the first Golden Globe win of her career and later found herself among the Oscar nominees for best actress.

Following dramatic roles in On Chesil Beach (2017) and The Seagull (2018), Ronan returned to the spotlight as the star of Mary Queen of Scots (2018), biographical and historical film in which she starred as Mary Stuart alongside Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I.

Next up for the actress was a prominent role in Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women, a new adaptation of the novel of the same title that was first published in 1868, in which she plays Jo March., scheduled for a late 2019 release.

Ronan will next reunite with Greta Gerwig in Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same title, that features an ensemble cast including Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, and Meryl Streep, in which she plays Jo March. She will also reunite with Wes Anderson in the ensemble drama film The French Dispatch and will portray Charlotte Murchison opposite Kate Winslet's Mary Anning in Ammonite, a drama about a romantic relationship between the two women in the 1840s.

Achievements

• 

  Ronan's brilliant performance in Atonement earned her the first Academy Award nomination of her career, for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. She thus became one of the youngest actors ever to get an Academy Award nomination.
  
  She was also nominated for the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for the Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Atonement. She earned another BAFTA nomination for The Lovely Bones.
  
  In 2016, Ronan was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in Brooklyn. In 2017, she won a Golden Globe for the Best Actress, a BAFTA Award nomination, and a SAG Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Lady Bird. She also won her first Academy Award for the Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Lady Bird.
  
  As of 2018, Saoirse is the second youngest actress to receive three Oscar nominations before the age of 24.
  
  Ronan was featured by Forbes in two of their 30 Under 30 lists. In 2018, Ronan was included in Variety500, ''an index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global $2 trillion entertainment industry.''.
  
  While reviewing Lady Bird in 2017, The New York Times critic A.O. Scott labeled Ronan "one of the most formidable actors in movies today."

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Lady Bird

    (A warm, affecting comedy about a high school senior (Saoi...)

    2017
  • Loving Vincent

    (The world's first fully oil-painted feature film brings t...)

    2017
  • Stockholm, Pennsylvania

    (Saoirse Ronan, Cynthia Nixon, Jason Isaacs and David Wars...)

    2015
  • Atonement

    (Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, t...)

    2007
  • Brooklyn

    (In this charming love story based on the best-selling nov...)

    2015
  • On Chesil Beach

    (In 1962 England, a young couple finds their idyllic roman...)

    2017
  • The Host

    (From Stephenie Meyer, the creator of the worldwide phenom...)

    2013
  • The Lovely Bones

    (Based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold, The Lovel...)

    2009
  • The Way Back

    (A small band of convicts stage a daring escape from a WWI...)

    2010
  • Hanna

    (Hanna, "an exuberant chase thriller that pulses with ener...)

    2011
  • The Seagull

    (A tragicomedy unfolds when friends and family gather at a...)

    2018
  • Violet & Daisy

    (Two teenage assassins accept what they think will be a qu...)

    2011
  • Death Defying Acts

    (During Harry Houdini's tour of Britain in 1926, the maste...)

    2007
  • Mary Queen of Scots

    (Fiery feminists take on the rivalry between Mary Stuart a...)

    2018
  • I Could Never Be Your Woman

    (Michelle Pfeiffer (Hairspray) and Paul Rudd (Knocked Up) ...)

    2007
  • How I Live Now

    (Saoirse Ronan plays Daisy, an American teenager sent to s...)

    2013
  • Lost River

    ("Lost River" is a dark fairy tale about love, family and ...)

    2014
  • City of Ember

    (Two teens must find the secret of their underground city'...)

    2008
  • The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

    (The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey is a story of lo...)

    2007
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel

    (The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the adventures of legen...)

    2014
  • Byzantium

    (An insatiable lust for blood threatens to expose a dark f...)

    2012

• TV series

  • Proof: Prescription for Murder

    (Prescription for Murder delves into the world of pharmace...)

    2005

Religion

Saoirse was raised a Roman Catholic and attended mass every Sunday with her parents. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, she said: "I was raised Catholic, yeah. It’s a much more cultural thing in Ireland - I mean there are very religious Catholics as well - I went to a Catholic school, made my first communion and confirmation and all that sort of stuff."

Views

For many years, Ronan has been an ambassador for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC). She has publicly supported the charity for several years and also appeared in a TV commercial - "Every child has a right." She is also associated with Home Sweet Home, and in 2016, she supported the organization's move in which they illegally took over an office building in Dublin to house 31 homeless families. In the same year, she featured in a music video for Hozier's song "Cherry Wine" to bring attention to domestic violence.

She teamed up with the Irish food board, Bord Bia to promote Origin Green, Ireland’s food and drink sustainability program. This brought together Ireland’s farmers and food manufacturers with the common goal of sustainable food production. “This land belongs not to us, but to the ones who come after. There is much more to be done - we need to embark on a journey with sustainability as its destination,” said Ronan.

Ronan identifies as a feminist and has spoken against the gender pay gap in the film industry. Ronan was an avid supporter of the reproductive rights campaign in Ireland to repeal the eighth amendment banning abortion: "I know people who had to travel abroad in order to get an abortion, and that’s when I knew I would speak out," she told Vogue. When the eighth amendment was indeed repealed, she was "so proud to see family and friends, and people I wouldn’t have expected to vote yes, choose to give Irishwomen their rights."

She was an advocate for marriage equality in Ireland, was a big supporter of a 2015 referendum in her native country that permitted same-sex marriage.

She also voiced her support in 2016 for the illegal takeover of an empty building in Dublin’s city center to accommodate the homeless. Ronan also supports the Irish Blue Cross charity.

Quotations: "It's not work, it is more of a passion. It is so much fun and it is really makes you feel great at the end of the day. You feel like you are really after doing something good and you are after accomplishing something. Acting is one of these things that I can't really describe - it's just like, why do you love your mum and dad? You know, you just do."

"Be the person I'm playing. That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else."

" I don’t know where I am from. I am just Irish."

Personality

Saoirse Ronan grew up with a beloved border collie named Sassy. She called the day she had to put him down "the saddest day of her life."

Saoirse Ronan was 11 when she had her first kiss ever - on the set of her first film, Amy Heckerling's "I Could Never Be a Woman." The kiss, with another child actor, only lasted three seconds but Saoirse had to do about eight takes. "I was a phenomenal kisser by the end," she told W Magazine in 2017.

Saoirse Ronan moved out of her parents' home in Ireland when she was 19 and settled in London, where she felt "painfully lonely."

Ronan told Interview Magazine in 2016 that she has never directed but would love to in the future and likes having rules to follow, both in her personal life and work.

Quotes from others about the person

• "She's a genius. She's a master. She made me a better actor, I think any actor she works with, there's an elevation in their abilities, upping their game. I felt like I was working with a master, like someone from the Golden Age. Someone superior to my skills as an actor in every way. She's Meryl reborn." - Ryan Gosling

Interests

• surfing, video games

• Writers

  Ian McEwan

• Artists

  David Lynch

• Sport & Clubs

  basketball

• Music & Bands

  Fleet Foxes, Bonnie Tyler, The B-52's, This Mortal Coil, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, KT Tunstall, Scissor Sisters

Connections

Saoirse Ronan is reportedly dating Jack Lowden after falling in love on set of Mary Queen of Scots.

Father:

Paul Ronan

It was Paul, who inspired Saoirse to become an actress as he often brought her to rehearsals in theater. The man is very proud of his daughter though he was a bit disappointed when she didn’t receive the Academy Award in 2018.

Mother:

Monica Ronan

Monica had to immigrate to the USA in the 1980s, wherein 1992 she tied knots with Paul Ronan. As she and Paul were illegal immigrants, they could do only the lowest-paid jobs. For instance, Monica who used to be a child actress was a nanny. Currently, she is her daughter’s personal assistant and they are very close. The celebrity tells that they are best friends and partners in crime. Monica even was on Facetime when Ronan was receiving her first Golden Globe. The performer shares that her mom influences her a lot and always protects her from the “dark side” of Hollywood. Besides, she helps Saoirse to stay grounded.

colleague:

James McAvoy

Boyfriend :

Jack Lowden

colleague:

Benedict Cumberbatch

colleague:

Tom Holland

colleague:

Elisabeth Moss

colleague:

Benicio del Toro

colleague:

Willem Dafoe

Acquaintance:

Brad Pitt

colleague:

Lupita Nyong'o

In 2018, Calvin Klein appointed Ronan and Lupita Nyong'o as the face of Raf Simons' first fragrance for the company, called Women.