Eva Birthistle

Eva Birthistle (born 16 April 1974) is an Irish actress and writer.^[1] She is best known for her roles in Bad Sisters and Ae Fond Kiss..., and also starred in The Last Kingdom between 2015 and 2022. She won the London Film Critics Circle British or Irish Actress of the Year Award in 2004, and has twice won the IFTA Best Actress in a Leading Role (Film) award.

Eva Birthistle
Birthistle in 2007
Born	(1974-04-16) 16 April 1974 (age 50) Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland[1]
Occupation	Actress
Children	2

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.^[2] After her GCSEs, she studied acting at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.^[1]

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),^[3] 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.^[3]

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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6] In 2013, Birthistle co-starred with Anna Friel in the Sky1 TV production The Psychopath Next Door.^[7] 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.^[1][3]

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, is an acupuncturist. They have a son, Jesse, born in 2013, and a daughter, Joni (named after Joni Mitchell), born in 2017.^[1]

Filmography

Eva Birthistle in Here With Me (2014)

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Ref.
1997	All Souls' Day	Nicole		[8]
	Drinking Crude			[9]
1998	Miracle at Midnight	Karin	Television film	[10]
	The American	Noemie Nioche	Television film	[11]
	Getting Close	Jane	Short film	[12]
1999	Making Ends Meet	Kathy		[13]
2000	Saltwater	Deborah McCeever		[14]
	Borstal Boy	Liz Joyce		[15]
	Coolockland	Bird	Short film	[16]
2002	Sunday	Maura Young	Television film	[17]
2003	Mystics	Samantha		[18]
2004	Timbuktu	Isobel		[19]
	Ae Fond Kiss ...	Roisin Hanlon		[20]
2005	The Baby War	Megan	Television film	[21]
	Breakfast on Pluto	Eily Bergin		[22]
	Imagine Me & You	Edie		[23]
2006	Middletown	Caroline		[24]
2007	The Martyr's Crown	Mrs. Clougherty	Short film	[25]
	Nightwatching	Saskia van Uylenburgh		[26]
	Save Angel Hope	Renee Frye		[27]
2008	The Daisy Chain	Cat		[28]
	Reverb	Maddy		[29]
	The Children	Elaine		[30]
2009	Wake Wood	Louise Daley		[31]
2010	The Crossing		Short film	[32]
	The Rendezvous	Jackie		[5]
2012	Day of the Flowers	Rosa		[33]
2013	Life's a Breeze	Margaret		[34]
	The Psychopath Next Door	Marianne Moran	Television film	[7]
2014	Noble	Sister Laura		[35]
	Here with Me	Emily	Short film	[36]
2015	Brooklyn	Georgina		[37]
	Swansong	Karen Prince		[38]
2016	The Circuit	Nat	Television film	[39]
2018	The Delinquent Season	Danielle		[40]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1996–1998	Glenroe	Regina Crosbie	Recurring role	[41]
1999	DDU: District Detective Unit	Mary Kelly	Episode: "Unforgiven"	[42]
2001	In Deep	Tina Shaw	Episode: "Ghost Squad"	[43]
2002	Holby City	Vicky	Episode: "Cruel to Be Kind"	[42]
2003	Trust	Maria Acklam	Miniseries; 6 episodes	[44]
	Silent Witness	Lauren Hathaway	Episode: "Fatal Error"	[45]
2006	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Rosaleen	Episode: "Taken at the Flood"	[46]
	The State Within	Jane Lavery	Miniseries; 6 episodes	[47]
2008	The Last Enemy	Eleanor Brooke	Miniseries; 5 episodes	[48]
2009	Ashes to Ashes	Jenette	Episode: "Series 2, Episode 8"	[49]
2010	Five Daughters	Annette Nicholls	Miniseries; 3 episodes	[50]
2011	Waking the Dead	DSI Sarah Cavendish	Series regular; 10 episodes	[51]
	Strike Back: Project Dawn	Captain Kate Marshall	Recurring role; 6 episodes	[52]
2012	Case Sensitive	Ruth Blacksmith	Episode: "The Other Half Lives"	[53]
2014	Amber	Sarah Bailey	Miniseries; 4 episodes	[54]
	Vera	Kate Darrow	Episode: "On Harbour Street"	[55]
2015–2022	The Last Kingdom	Hild	Recurring role; 17 episodes	[56]
2018	The Bisexual	Laura	Miniseries; 5 episodes	[57]
2021	Fate: The Winx Saga	Vanessa Peters	Recurring role; 3 episodes	[58]
	Behind Her Eyes	Marianne	Episode: "Behind Her Eyes"	[59]
2022–present	Bad Sisters	Ursula Flynn	Series regular	[60]