Dublin actress and singer Maria Doyle Kennedy returns to Irish screens in hit RTE crime drama Kin this weekend.
The Clontarf native moved with her family to Co Wexford before eventually settling in Bray and she still claims a close, personal connection with the town. While her first experience singing in public was at one of her parents' parties at the age of 13, she has said she never considered a formal career in singing until after she graduated from Trinity College, with a joint honours degree in political science and business. She also reportedly never considered becoming an actress until after she established herself as a singer.
Maria first met her husband musician Kieran Kennedy at a gig she was performing and they subsequently married in 1988 and formed The Black Velvet Band. The couple have four sons, including one of her sons from a previous relationship.
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Maria's acting career started out in 1991 when she played Natalie Murphy in the musical comedy-drama The Commitments. Director Alan Parker recruited her and other established singers for the film. Set in the Northside of Dublin, the movie tells the story of Robert Arkins's character Jimmy Rabbitte, a young music fanatic who assembles a group of working-class youths to form a soul band named The Commitments.
The actress has since established herself as one of Ireland's most prolific artists and entertainers. She is best known for her extensive television roles as Patsy in Father Ted (1998), Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors (2007–2010), Vera Bates in Downton Abbey (2011), Siobhan Sadler in Orphan Black (2013–2017), and Jocasta Cameron in Outlander (2018–present).
In 2020, Doyle Kennedy was cast as Ila in Amazon Prime's epic fantasy drama series The Wheel of Time. In 2021, she played Bridget 'Birdy' Goggins in Kin and is now returning for the series' second season. More recently in 2022, she starred as the Scottish journalist Tannie Maria in the series Recipes for Love and Murder.
Maria has also appeared in numerous films, including The Matchmaker (1997), The General (1998), Miss Julie (1999), Tara Road (2005), Albert Nobbs (2011), Byzantium (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015), Sing Street (2016), and The Conjuring 2 (2016). More recently, she provided her voice for the hit Irish animated film Wolfwalkers where she voiced Moll MacTire, the leader of the wolfwalkers and the mother of one of the protagonists.
The mother-of-four has said that she is attracted to portraying characters who are multifaceted and able to display not only a loving, motherly side, but also a fierce, determined side.
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