Mark O'Halloran

#Education: Mark O’Halloran named UCC Film Artist in Residence 2017/18

UCC Film and Screen Media, in association with the Arts Council and College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, has announced the appointment of its 2017-8 Film Artist in Residence, Mark O’Halloran.

Mark O’Halloran is a writer/ actor and is from Co. Clare, Ireland.  As an actor he has worked with all the major theatre companies in Ireland, most recently in the acclaimed production of The Importance of Nothing with Pan Pan theatre company and The Shadow of a Gunman with The Abbey Theatre Dublin.  On screen he has appeared in numerous films, most notably as one of the eponymous heroes in Adam & Paul for which he also wrote the screenplay and the lead role of MP in History’s Future directed by Fiona Tan for which he was nominated as Best Actor at IFTA awards 2017. He also appears in The Guard and Calvary and in Viva, a film set in Havana for which he also wrote the screenplay.

O’Halloran’s other writing credits include the multi award winning film Garage, the television series Prosperity, and Viva, a Spanish language feature. For the stage he has written the play Trade and most recently contributed text to the award winning theatre production Lippy.

O’Halloran has been nominated for numerous awards including a European Film Award for the screenplay of Adam & Paul, Irish Film and Television Awards where he won for both Best Screenplay and Best TV writer 2007.  He also won the London Evening Standard award for Best Screenplay in 2005. Trade was named as Best Play at the Irish Theatre Awards 2012. Lippy was Best Production at 2014 Irish Theatre Awards as well as winning a Fringe First at Edinburgh and 2 Obie Awards in New York. Viva was shortlisted for best foreign language Oscar and nominated for Best Screenplay at the IFTA awards 2016. O’Halloran was also nominated as Best Actor in the Irish Time Theatre Awards for his performance as Donal Davoren in the Abbey Theatre’s production of Shadow of a Gunman.

Other screenplay include Halal Daddy which will be released in on June 30th; Lane a television script that films this summer, directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan; and also Tradewhich goes into production in late summer 2017.