Saoirse-Monica Jackson is one of the only Derry Girls cast members who can use her own accent.
The actress was born in Derry, which is obviously where the much-loved Channel 4 sitcom is set and based on writer Lisa McGee's childhood growing up during The Troubles in the 1990s
Saoirse-Monica plays passionate and ambitious Erin, who can sometimes comes across as vain and sarcastic but always wants to do right.
The actress may be playing a schoolgirl on the show, but is actually a lot older than her teenage character in real life.
Erin was 16-years-old when the series started, but Saoirse-Monica is actually 27.
When she's not acting in Derry Girls, the rising star leads a busy life which Erin would probably be quite jealous of.
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Saoirse-Monica's parents owned a village pub and she trained in acting at the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester.
The young actress made her TV debut in 2016 as Sasha in Harlan Coben's The Five, appeared in BBC One drama Broken the following year and has performed on the West End.
Saoirse-Monica got her big break when she was cast as Erin in Derry Girls, which first aired on Channel 4 back in January 2018 and is now in its third and final series.
Before getting the Derry Girls gig, the actress used to lie to her ex-boyfriend about what job she was doing.
Saoirse-Monica got her ex to drop her off into town in his car everyday, claiming she had a fancy sales job, but it was all a lie.
"I was living with my boyfriend and I was lying to him telling him that I had a sales job in town," she explained during an interview with Kevin McGahern on his show Kevin Paints in May 2020.
"He was dropping me into town everyday to an office block and I would run around the corner and get into a car and sell Hello Fresh door to door."
Saoirse-Monica confessed she was rubbish at the job because she would sit down and have tea and biscuits with the potential customers, before ruining her own deals.
When the possible new clients, who were mostly elderly, eventually decided to sign up she would tell them not too as she didn't think the product suited them.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Saoirse-Monica ended up getting fired from the job, so Derry Girls came about at the perfect time.
"Well obviously it’s Lisa McGee’s story but being from Derry myself, I’m extremely proud of the show and where I’m from," she said on The One Show in 2019.
"I definitely never expected to work with my own accent, never mind do a show where I’m from. It’s a dream come true. Unlike Lisa McGee I didn’t have a dream that big, so it’s amazing."
She now boasts nearly 250,000 Instagram followers and constantly posts snaps of her enviable wardrobe and gives a cheeky look behind-the-scenes during filming.
The Derry Girls cast are friends on and off-screen, regularly meeting up to have fun in their own time.
Now living in London, Saoirse-Monica admitted she was "really grateful" for FaceTime during lockdown.
"I think if I didn't have FaceTime I'd relly, really miss my family," she explained.
"I've been in England nearly ten years, obviously I've always been able to go home whenever I want and it's quite a bizarre feeling, to know I can't just go back to Ireland.
"So I'm really grateful for FaceTime. I'm also really grateful for red sparkling wine that I've just discovered, cause it's a treat at the end of every day and I love it."
The Derry Girls actress is now dating Scottish DJ Denis Sulta, real name Hector Barbour, who is a rising star across the global dance scene.
The pair became Instagram official in September last year and the renowned DJ refers to his partner affectionately as his "girl from across the water".
They enjoyed a luxury break to Mexico over New Year and she shared a snap with the caption: "HUNKY NEW YEAR EVERYONE."
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