Acting
Mar 3, 1987
Derry, Northern Ireland, UK
Jamie Lee O'Donnell
Acting
Biography
Jamie-Lee O'Donnell is an actress known for her role as Michelle Mallon in Channel 4’s comedy series, Derry Girls. O’Donnell was born on 4 March 1987 in Derry, Northern Ireland. She attended St Anne's Primary School, St Cecilia's College, and North West Regional College. She began acting at a young age in school plays. Upon graduation, she decided to pursue it professionally despite not being able to afford drama school. She instead studied performing arts at the De Montfort University campus in Bedfordshire, but did not complete the course. She began auditioning and dividing her time between England and home, taking part in theatrical productions and working as a dancer for promotions and pantomimes. She moved around in search of employment, also working as a barista and at one point taking on a corner shop, which failed as a business. Between 2012 and 2015, O'Donnell played her first significant role as Eva Maguire, one of the main characters of the BBC2 NI series 6Degrees, after the end of which she took part in the film Urban & the Shed Crew, by Candida Brady. In 2018, she starred in a theatre production I Told My Mum I Was Going on an RE Trip, by Julia Samuels, playing an underage girl who decides to undergo an abortion. The following year, she joined the cast of Girls and Dolls, a play by the Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee,[8] and acted in Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Gaiety Theatre. O'Donnell landed the role of Michelle Mallon in Derry Girls, a sitcom by Channel 4, which gained international fame. Of her role as Michelle, she says, "Michelle really thinks she's maybe just a bit too big for the place she was born in and she's ready to take on the world one swearword at a time. She's really feisty, really ballsy, doesn't really care about authority, just sort of up for anything and up for a laugh." O'Donnell and her fellow Derry Girls co-stars participated in the RTÉ fundraising special RTÉ Does Comic Relief, performing a sketch alongside Saoirse Ronan. All proceeds from the night went towards those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a patron of the Liverpool-based youth theatre company 20 Stories High.
Feature Films (10)
With warmth, wit and honesty, Derry Girls' Jamie-Lee O'Donnell reflects on her childhood experiences and discovers what life's like for young people growing up in Derry today.
The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O'Donnell
With 1 in 3 women having had an abortion "I told my Mum I was going on an R.E. trip…" explores what seems to be one of society's last taboos using verbatim voices, music, beats and rhyme.
I Told My Mum I Was Going On An RE Trip
A young Romanian woman is snatched in broad daylight from a London street, trafficked to Ireland and used as a sex slave in a series of pop-up brothels. Her shocking true story offers a tense and thought-provoking thriller exposing how, in modern Britain, slavery can hide in plain sight.
Doing Money
After traveling to the UK for an abortion, three Irish women spend the night together in London.
A Secret Journey
Londoners Maya and Jamie escape their urban nightmare to the tranquility of rural Ireland only to discover malevolent, murderous goblins lurking in the gnarled, ancient wood at the foot of their new garden. When heavily pregnant Maya’s relationship with a local family turns sour, who – or what – will come to her rescue and to what extremes will she go to protect her unborn child?
Unwelcome
Hope has a life-changing piano audition coming up — nerve-wracking at the best of times. Unfortunately, as a sufferer of social anxiety, it's going to take extraordinary courage to seek the help needed to pursue her dream.
The Fruit Fix
Television & Series (11)
Rob Williams' darkly comic crime drama portrays prison as you've never seen it before: through the embattled and inspiring characters who work there.
Screw
The iconic pop culture panel show featuring host Greg Davies, who is joined by regulars Noel Fielding & Jamali Maddix for music-themed mayhem.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Amidst the political conflict of Northern Ireland in the 1990s, five secondary school students square off with the universal challenges of being a teenager.
Derry Girls
Neighbours on an idyllic suburban street have a falling-out over one family's plan to build an extension to their house.
The Feud
Follow two unique board-gaming friends meandering through leafy suburban life, charting a story about Judo, ancient Rome, first loves, and the expansion of the Universe.
Leonard and Hungry Paul
Romesh Ranganathan takes charge of the back-stabbing big money game show. Can the contestants create a chain of answers and avoid the boot?
