Eva Birthistle

Early life and education

Birthistle was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland, but moved with her family to Derry, Northern Ireland when she was 14. She was raised Catholic but attended the non-denominational Foyle College. After her GCSEs, she studied acting at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.

Career

In 1995, she got her first TV role as Regina Crosbie in the serial Glenroe. She stayed for three years until 1998. She was offered her first feature film in 1997, All Souls' Day by Alan Gilsenan. She played a variety of roles in Irish films, including Drinking Crude (1997), co-starring Colin Farrell, and TV movie Miracle at Midnight (1998), with Mia Farrow. In 2002, Eva appeared in Sunday, a dramatisation of the events of Bloody Sunday written by Jimmy McGovern.

In 2003, she appeared in the TV series Trust before starring as Roisin Hanlon in the Ken Loach movie Ae Fond Kiss... (2003–04), which won her the 2005 London Critics Circle Film Award as "British Actress of the Year". She appeared in Breakfast on Pluto, Imagine Me & You and Save Angel Hope (by Lukas Erni) in 2005, and in Brian Kirk's Middletown in 2006. She starred as human rights lawyer Jane Lavery in the TV conspiracy drama The State Within, and played Rosaleen in the Taken at the Flood episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot in 2006. In late 2007, she featured as Rembrandt's wife Saskia van Uylenburg in the historical drama, Nightwatching by Peter Greenaway.

She featured in the BBC drama The Last Enemy in early 2008, playing the role of Eleanor Brooke, a junior minister. In 2009, she portrayed Jenette in the last episode of the second season of the BBC hit series Ashes to Ashes. She also appeared in two successful horror films The Children (2008) and Wake Wood (2011). In 2010, she won Best Actress at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival for her acclaimed performance as a lovelorn paralegal in Curt Truninger's The Rendezvous.

She played "Annette Nicholls" in the 2010 three-part TV series Five Daughters. She appeared as Detective Superintendent Sarah Cavendish in the ninth, and final, series of Waking the Dead. In 2011, Birthistle appeared in the Sky1 TV series Strike Back: Project Dawn as Captain Kate Marshall. In 2013, Birthistle co-starred with Anna Friel in the Sky1 TV production The Psychopath Next Door. In Brooklyn she played Georgina, the cabin-mate of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), mentoring her in surviving the voyage to New York and dealing with immigration to the US. In 2014, she portrayed Sarah Bailey in the miniseries Amber. Since 2015, she has starred in The Last Kingdom as Hild, a nun turned warrior and friend of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. She appeared in the 2017 Irish film The Delinquent Season opposite Cillian Murphy.

In 2020 she made her directorial debut with the short film Kathleen Was Here, starring Hazel Doupe. In 2024, she expanded it into her feature directorial debut, Kathleen Is Here, also starring Doupe as the title character.

Personal life

Birthistle's husband, Ross Barr, is an acupuncturist. They have a son, Jesse, born in 2013, and a daughter, Joni (named after Joni Mitchell), born in 2017.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. (22 April 2018). "Changing the script: Eva Birthistle on screenwriting, motherhood and 'good work'". [[The Times]].
2. Applebaum, Stephen. "Eva Birthistle A Fond Kiss...". BBC.
3. "Eva Birthistle".
4. "Ashes to Ashes Episode #2.8 (2009)". [[Internet Movie Database]].
5. "Strike Back Project Dawn: Eva Birthistle Interview". Sky1.sky.com.
6. (1997). "All Souls’ Day". [[The Irish Times]].
7. "Drinking Crude".
8. (16 May 1998). "TELEVISION REVIEW; When Denmark Didn't Look the Other Way". [[The New York Times]].
9. (3 January 2001). "Henry James, Avert Your Eyes!". [[The Washington Post]].
10. "Getting Close".
11. "Making Ends Meet".
12. (5 March 2000). "Saltwater". [[Variety (magazine).
13. (6 March 2002). "Borstal Boy". [[Entertainment Weekly]].
14. "Coolockland".
15. (29 January 2002). "Troubles in mind". [[The Guardian]].
16. "Mystics".
17. (13 February 2004). "Rising star Eva jets in for opening of Timbuktu". [[Irish Independent]].
18. (12 July 2005). "Review - Ae Fond Kiss ...". [[The Guardian]].
19. (19 November 2004). "Fond Kiss star heads for Hollywood". [[Irish Examiner]].
20. (13 January 2006). "Review - Breakfast On Pluto". [[The Guardian]].
21. (1 June 2020). "“Imagine Me & You” And Its Importance in Search of My Sexuality". intheirownleague.com.
22. (4 March 2007). "Film - Middletown". [[The Guardian]].
23. "The Martyr’s Crown".
24. (25 March 2010). "Review - Nightwatching". [[The Guardian]].
25. "SAVE ANGEL HOPE".
26. (22 April 2010). "'The Daisy Chain' never fulfills promise". [[Irish Examiner]].
27. "Reverb".
28. (29 November 2008). "A PIECE OF MY MIND: Eva Birthistle, actress". [[The Herald (Glasgow).
29. (27 March 2011). "Wake Wood – review". [[The Guardian]].
30. "THE CROSSING - Christina Solomons Photography".
31. "The Rendezvous".
32. (1 December 2013). "The Day of the Flowers – review". [[The Guardian]].
33. (19 September 2014). "Life’s a Breeze". [[RogerEbert.com]].
34. (25 September 2013). "Anna Friel in The Psychopath Next Door wants viewers to hate her in the darkest role she's played". [[Daily Mirror]].
35. (21 March 2014). "Eva glad she wasn't a mum during Amber". [[Irish Independent]].
36. "Here With Me".
37. (18 January 2016). "Eva among cast and crew celebrating Oscar nomination for Brooklyn". [[Northern Ireland World]].
38. (8 July 2015). "Eva to star in comedy Swansong". [[Irish Independent]].
39. (26 August 2016). "The Circuit review: Pulling's creators take aim at the dinner party". [[The Guardian]].
40. (25 April 2018). "The Delinquent Season: A hugely disappointing Irish debut". [[The Irish Times]].
41. Wiseman, Andreas. (August 26, 2025). "Antonio Banderas, Eva Birthistle, Úrsula Corberó, Arinzé Kene, Richard E. Grant & Forest Whitaker Among Cast For Trudie Styler Pic 'Rose’s Baby', Filming Underway & First Look".
42. (30 November 2013). "How the girl from 'Glenroe' became 'the next big thing' again. . .". [[Irish Independent]].
43. "Eva Birthistle".
44. "In Deep, Series 1, Ghost Squad: Part 1".
45. "Trust - Drama".
46. "Silent Witness, Series 7, Fatal Error, Part 1".
47. "Agatha Christie's Poirot - Series 10 - Episode 4".
48. (18 July 2006). "BBC ONE Autumn 2006". [[BBC]].
49. (2 October 2008). "The Last Enemy". [[Variety (magazine).
50. "Ashes to Ashes, Series 2, Episode 8".
51. (28 April 2010). "Five Daughters: The true story". [[Manchester Evening News]].
52. (12 March 2011). "Sunday's TV: Waking the Dead". [[The Times]].
53. (8 August 2011). "Review: Strike Back: Season One". [[Slant Magazine]].
54. (12 July 2012). "TV review: Bank of Dave; Case Sensitive". [[The Guardian]].
55. (13 January 2014). "Eva Birthistle: 'I cried every day while filming new RTE show Amber'". [[Irish Independent]].
56. (27 April 2014). "Vera, Series 4, ITV". [[The Arts Desk]].
57. (22 February 2021). "Eva Birthistle: From Behind Her Eyes to Brooklyn stardom". Entertainment Daily.
58. (17 October 2018). "What time is The Bisexual on Channel 4 tonight, who’s in the cast with Desiree Akhavan and what’s it about?". [[i (British newspaper).
59. (21 September 2022). "Meet the cast of Netflix's Fate: The Winx Saga". [[Radio Times]].
60. (20 February 2021). "Netflix’s Behind Her Eyes left out this gruesome detail from the book". [[Radio Times]].
61. (24 October 2022). "Back in black? Bad Sisters star Eva Birthistle reveals a possible second series". [[The Sunday Post]].