Saoirse Ronan Biography

The daughter of Irish actor Paul Ronan and his wife, Monica, Saoirse (pronounced Sersha) Ronan spent time on movie sets since she was a baby and was even carried around by Brad Pitt on the set of The Devil's Own (1996).

Born in New York and raised in Ireland, Saoirse made her screen debut as a recurring character in the TV series The Clinic from 2003 to 2004. She then took over the role of Orla Borland in the BBC series Proof in 2005 before making her big screen debut in I Could Never Be Your Woman opposite Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer. Filmed in 2005, it wasn't released until years later.

In the critically-acclaimed film Atonement (2007), filmed in 2006, she played Briony Tallis, a 13-year-old who destroys lives when she tells a lie. For her performance, she received nominations from many of the most prestigious societies in the film industry, including the Golden Globes, Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. She won "Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role" from the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

Saoirse has since played Catherine Zeta-Jones' daughter in the period film Death Defying Acts (2008). In City of Ember (2008), she joined Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, and in director Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones (2009), she once again played a difficult role, as a girl who was brutally raped and murdered and watched the effects of her death on her family from Heaven. She took on the title role in Hanna (2011), as a teenager raised by her father to be an assassin.

Her career took another huge leap forward when she was cast as the lead in The Host, based on the sci-fi novel by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. She then starred in Brooklyn (2015), which earned her an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination. For her lead role in the critically acclaimed indie movie Lady Bird (2017), she won her first Golden Globe in 2018. She also received her third Academy Award nomination for her work in the film.

Also in 2017, Saoirse made a brief detour to the world of music to appear in Ed Sheeran's video for his hit song, "Galway Girl."

Her career in the film industry has been enhanced with several period dramas, including Mary Queen of Scots (2018)—a biographical and historical film in which she starred as Mary Stuart alongside Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I—and Little Women (2019), a new adaptation of the novel of the same title that was first published in 1868, in which she played the lead role of Jo March. At age 26, for her work in Little Women, Saoirse received her fourth Oscar nomination. She also received nominations from the BAFTA awards and Golden Globes for her work in the film.

She plays a married woman in 1840s England, who falls in love with a female fossil hunter played by Kate Winslet in Ammonite (2020), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Saoirse lives in New York City, where she studies martial arts.

Filmography:

Ammonite (2020)
Little Women (2019)
The Seagull (2018)
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Lady Bird (2017)
On Chesil Beach (2017)
Loving Vincent (2017)
Brooklyn (2015)
Lost River (2015)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Violet & Daisy (2014)
How I Live Now (2013)
Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013)
The Host (2013)
Byzantium (2012)
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)
Hanna (2011)
The Way Back (2010)
Death Defying Acts (2009)
The Lovely Bones (2009)
City of Ember (2008)
Atonement (2007)
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (2007)
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)