Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan (birthname: Saoirse Una Ronan) is perhaps the most brilliant female actor of her generation, as measured by the fact alone that she has already been Oscar-nominated four times before she turns 30. Known for her acute and sensitive portrayals of young women in period dramas, Ronan has also displayed her touch for more modern tales, as in her Oscar-nominated Best Actress role in Greta Gerwig’s autobiographical, Lady Bird (2017), as well as comedy in See How They Run (2022), with Sam Rockwell, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, and David Oyelowo.

The breakthrough role for Saoirse Ronan came in only her third feature when she was 13, in Joe Wright’s Atonement (2007), with James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, and Vanessa Redgrave, earning her raves as an acting prodigy and her first Oscar (supporting) nomination. The same year, Ronan solidified her rapidly growing reputation as a brilliant young actor in Gillian Armstrong’s period drama, Death Defying Acts, with Guy Pearce (as Harry Houdini) and Catherine Zeta-Jones. By the time she was a mere 14, Ronan gained her first starring role, in 20^th Century Fox’s sci-fi adventure, City of Ember (2008), with Harry Treadway, Mary Kay Place, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, and Toby Jones.

Ronan joined the ensemble (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci) of Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones (2009), one of Jackson’s few box office disappointments, earning less than $100 million globally. Saoirse Ronan joined writer-director Peter Weir for the Soviet-era adventure, The Way Back (2010), with Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Colin Farrell. Ronan reunited with director Wright for the thriller, Hanna (2011), earning her praise in a more action-heavy role, with Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, and Vicky Krieps. Ronan went from the kick-ass Hanna to a teen assassin in Geoffrey Fletcher’s comedy-drama, Violet & Daisy (2011), with Alexis Bledel, James Gandolfini, Danny Trejo, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

Saoirse Ronan’s taste for darker material and her reputation as the most ambitious and talented teenage actor of her era continued with Neil Jordan’s vampire drama, Byzantium (2012), with Gemma Arterton and Sam Riley. Ronan further explored genre material in writer-director Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi thriller, The Host (2013), with Jake Abel, Max Irons, Frances Fisher, and William Hurt. Ronan played an American teenager in Kevin Macdonald’s speculative drama, How I Live Now (2013), with George Mackay and Tom Holland, followed by the first of her appearances in a Wes Anderson film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), with a vast cast led by Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Tilda Swinton.

After the oddity of joining the cast of Ryan Gosling’s debut as writer-director, Lost River (2014), Saoirse Ronan made a major impact in the Oscar-nominated Best Actress role (paralleling her own parents’ immigration from Ireland to New York) in Nick Hornby’s period drama, Brooklyn (2015), with Domhnail Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters. Having voiced in a few minor animated films, Ronan voiced in the more sophisticated animated work, Loving Vincent (2017), by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, including cast members Chris O’Dowd and Helen McCrory.

Embodying the lively semi-autobiographical title character of Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) marked a major development for Saoirse Ronan, establishing herself as a fully adult actor in what turned out to be a triumph on every level, from box office to Oscars, with five nominations (including another Best Actress nod for Ronan). Though overlooked in all the attention devoted to Lady Bird, Ronan delivered a lovely turn in Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach (2017), with Emily Watson and Billy Howie. Co-starring with Annette Bening, Corey Stoll, Elisabeth Moss, Howie, and Brian Dennehy, Ronan shone in director Michael Mayer’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull (2018), released by Sony Pictures Classics after a Tribeca festival premiere.

Ronan further dove into period drama as the star of Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots (2018), with Margo Robbie, Jack Lowden, David Tennant, and Guy Pearce. Ronan’s exquisite, Oscar-nominated lead performance distinguished her reunion with Gerwig for Little Women (2019), with Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern, and Meryl Streep. Staying in the 19^th century, Ronan played opposite Kate Winslet in writer-director Francis Lee’s British romance, Ammonite (2020), with Gemma Jones and Fiona Shaw.

Ronan joined up again with Wes Anderson for a minor role in the massive ensemble of The French Dispatch (2021), and then reappeared in the movies as a constable helping Sam Rockwell in the Tom George/Mark Chappell sleuth comedy, See How They Run (2022). Garth Davis’ intimate sci-fi thriller, Foe (date to be announced) was Ronan’s next project, opposite Paul Mescal and Aaron Pierre, and distributed by Amazon Studios. Ronan followed this with The Outrun (date to be announced), set in the Orkneys, with supporting actors Paapa Essiedu and Stephen Dillane under Nora Fingscheidt’s direction, marking Ronan’s first project as a producer.