Better known to baby dykes (actually to most of us) as Harry Potter’s Aunt Petunia, Fiona Shaw is an accomplished actress in film, theatre and television as well as a theatre and opera director with a career that spans three decades. Born on July 10, 1958 in Cork County, Ireland to an ophthalmic surgeon (dad) and physicist (mom), Fiona trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She has received awards for her extensive work in the theatre and has worked in numerous films and tv productions such as ‘My Left Foot’, ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘The Butcher Boy’, ‘Gormenghast’, and of course as the insufferable Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter blockbuster movies. More recently she appeared as a witch (irony of ironies) in the fourth season of HBO’s ‘True Blood’ series.

It was while working in the stage adaptation of Jeanette Winterson’s ‘The Powerbook” in 2002 that she fell in love with her co-star, the lovely English actress, Saffron Burrows who is also 14 years her junior. Harry Potter and Voldemort the most powerful wizards who ever lived?!? Bah! Amateurs! Aunt Petunia is the one with some serious magic and charms! Now, SHE does know how to cast a spell! Their relationship lasted several years but since both ladies have gone their separate ways.

Next up for the Irish actress will be directing the Glyndebourne production of Britten’s opera, ‘The Rape of Lucretia’.