Aisling Walsh

She was born in Dublin, Ireland to Raphael Walsh, a furniture designer and manufacturer from Navan, County Meath. In 1975, when Walsh was 16, she began studies at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin.[4] She then continued her education at The National Film School in Beaconsfield, England, where one of her main influences was Bill Douglas, a Scottish filmmaker who tutored at the school.[5] She later settled in London.[6]

In 1985, Walsh wrote and directed her first short film, which was titled Hostage.[7] She followed this up with her feature film directorial debut, Joyriders (1989), before transitioning into television work throughout the 1990s.[8] Her television work in this period includes episodes of The Bill (1991–1994), Doctor Finlay (1993), Roughnecks (1995), and Trial & Retribution (1997–2002).[8][9] In 2003, Walsh wrote and directed her second feature film, Song for a Raggy Boy, which won multiple awards at international film festivals,[10] including the Best Film award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.[11] Her third feature film, The Daisy Chain, a horror-thriller film, was released in 2008.[12]

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, Walsh also continued to work in television, directing series and television films, such as the BAFTA TV Award-nominated Fingersmith (2005), the BBC One film Sinners (2007),[13] The Fifth Woman—a feature-length episode of the BBC series Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh (2010)—and Room at the Top (2012), the latter of which earned her a BAFTA TV Award in 2013 for Best Mini-Series.[2]

In 2014, she directed A Poet in New York, which explores how Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at the age of 39.[14] The film was made to mark the centenary of Thomas' birth on 27 October 1914.[15]

Her fourth feature film, the biographical film Maudie (2016), about Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis,[16] premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.[17] Walsh stated that, as someone who has studied painting herself,[8] she was drawn to the simplicity and beauty in Lewis's work.[18] Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics.[19] A critic writing for The Japan Times called the film "an unabashedly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman".[20] The film was also a New York Times Critic's Pick; in her review, Manohla Dargis criticized the film's tone and score, but commended the performances and direction.[21]

For her work on Maudie, Walsh won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Director; the film won a total of seven awards at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.[22] Walsh also won the award for Best Director at the 15th annual Irish Film and Television Awards in 2018 for her direction of Maudie.[23]

• Aisling Walsh at IMDb