Overview (3)

Born July 10, 1958 in County Cork, Ireland Birth Name Fiona Mary Wilson Height 5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Spirited Corkonian--Fiona Shaw was already a polished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film Mein linker Fuß (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found incredible success as an artist and writer. Shaw portrayed Eileen Cole, the doctor largely responsible for Christy's education and physical rehabilitation. Since her film debut, Shaw has received several accolades for her film and television performances.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anthony Ronald Vario

Spouse (1)

Sonali Deraniyagala (2018 - present)

Trivia (22)

She was awarded an honorary C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2001 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama.



At the Evening Standard Theatre Awards she was named Best Actress for 'Medea' performed at the Queeen's Theater in London. (2002)





She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1990 (1989 season) for Best Actress in a New Play for "Electra", "As You Like It" and "The Person of Sichaun".



She was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Actress in her performance for "Machinal" at the Royal National Theatre.

She was awarded the 1993 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Machinal.



She was awarded the 1991 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actress for her performance in Hedda Gabler.



She was awarded the 1989 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Actress for her performances in Electra and The Good Person of Sichuan.



She was awarded the 2001 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in Medea at the Queen's Theatre in London, England.



Became an Associate Member of RADA.



Graduated from RADA.



Was nominated for Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for playing the title character in "Medea."



In the Independent on Sunday [UK] 2006 Pink List - a list of the most influential gay men and women - Fiona Shaw came no. 69, a new entry.



Her mother was a physicist and her father was an eye surgeon.





Following an unhappy experience playing Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew" for Jonathan Miller (Miller would not extend himself to allow the inclusion of modern sexual politics), she has only occasionally worked with male directors. Her collaboration with Deborah Warner has produced a string of daring performances and an armful of theatre awards.

She won the Bancroft Gold Medal at RADA and made her professional debut as Rosaline in "Love's Labour's Lost" in 1982.



Graduated from University College Cork.



Attended secondary school at Scoil Mhuire in Cork City.





Former longtime companion of Saffron Burrows from 2002 to 2005.



Throughout the Harry Potter movie series, Shaw played "Petunia Dursley", Harry Potter's aunt, who had a strong aversion to any mention of or person connected to witchcraft or wizardry. Soon after finishing the last Potter movie, she started playing a witch possessed by a much-more powerful witch on the TV show, True Blood (2008).

Used to live within earshot of London Zoo (Regent's Park) (UK), but later moved to the London borough of Islington.



A fitness enthusiast, Shaw commutes around her home base in London on her bicycle.



In 2019, Fiona Shaw became a patron of London-based not-for-profit Irish Film London, which celebrates and champions Irish film, TV and animation in Great Britain.



Personal Quotes (41)

Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy.



I just think that things should be allowed to run their course, and not turned into a Disney ride.



There's something about the Irish that is remarkable.



This whole tribal loyalty seems to have gone.



And by endlessly sanitizing our feelings, we actually feed a disgruntled nation.



The word democracy has no meaning. Duty has gone. Only rights remain.



I enjoy making films, but my heart is in the stage. Every night you have to be on. There's no second take.



I think America becomes more disgruntled by going to the movies and having an endlessly good time at them.



To be honest I live among the English and have always found them to be very honest in their business dealings. They are noble, hard-working and anxious to do the right thing. But joy eludes them, they lack the joy that the Irish have.



There once was a demographic survey done to determine if money was connected to happiness and Ireland was the only place where this did not turn out to be true.



A relationship is sent by God and accident.



Acting doesn't have to be threadbare misery all the time.



A lot of Irish people perform. They perform in drawing rooms. They sing songs and they play piano.



The energy released by it is enormous and it becomes quite addictive, the power between the audience and the actor.



I'm not afraid of chaos and I'm happy talking to strangers. I really love not knowing where I'm going.



Every generation is obsessed with the decade before they were born.



I find it incredibly tedious, hate that it murders itself with its own conservative pomposity.



I certainly had no intention of playing a man.



I can hardly decide what plays I should be in.



Honestly, I get more recognized for 'Three Men and a Little Lady' than 'Harry Potter'.



I would say the next imminent hot writers are often the writers from the decade before you were born.



I would love to write the story of my upbringing in Ireland.



I take the theater seriously in that I loathe it, I'm bored by it.



I loathe bad theater and most theatre is very bad because it's repetitious, unexciting and, dangerously, it is sometimes praised for those things.



I had a ball doing Harry Potter.



Once you've done one style, you leave it for a while.



One moment cannot be the most important.



Like a lot of Irish households we read a lot of Irish history. It was almost Soviet, raising the next generation with a mythic view of their history.



Irish people are educated not only about artistry but local history.



My mother taught me to read.



Theater is dangerously open to repetition. It's exciting when you hit on a new way.



So I just play the character, I play the lines.



People who are good at film have a relationship with the camera.



The Americans are very clear, and obsessed with nouns.



Theater dates very quickly.



My mother adores singing and plays piano. My uncle was a phenomenal pianist. My brother John is a double bassist. I used to play the piano, badly, and cello. My brother Peter played violin.



Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th.



There is a great relief in experiencing the worst vicariously.



There was no professional theater in Cork, but still I did a lot of performing.



I once saw my mother playing Mary Magdalene in a parish event. But she had to put the role aside in order to go and front the choir who were singing at the same occasion. She left the stage halfway through the Crucifixion.



I'm not on the run from anything and I'm not at all clear about what I'm running towards. But as some great writer put it, I want to be certain that when I arrive at death, I'm totally exhausted.

