SAOIRSE RONAN

Date of Birth
12 April 1994, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name
Saoirse Una Ronan

Nickname
Sersh

Height
5' 6" (1.68 m)

Mini Biography
Saoirse is an Irish actress. She was born in New York City, New York, United States. Her father is Paul Ronan, an Irish actor, and her mother is Monica Ronan. When Saoirse was age 3, the family moved to Ireland. Saoirse grew up in County Carlow, Ireland.

Saoirse made her first TV appearance with a small role in a few episodes of the TV series, "The Clinic" (2003). Her first film appearance was in the 2007 movie, I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007). Saoirse received international fame after appearing in the movie, Atonement (2007), which was directed by Joe Wright. The movie co-starred Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. The film was successful, both critically and commercially, and Saoirse earned an Oscar nomination for her role. She became one of the youngest people to be nominated for an Oscar.

After this, she continued to earn success and fame. Between 2008 to 2011, she starred in a number of successful movies, including City of Ember (2008), which earned her a nomination for Irish Film & Television Award, The Lovely Bones (2009), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, and The Way Back (2010/I), for which she won Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Supporting Role.

Saoirse Ronan lives in County Carlow, Ireland.

Trade Mark
Has an uncanny ear for accents


Trivia
Her first name is Irish and means "freedom". Her last name means "little seal".

Her father is established actor Paul Ronan, known for films like The Devil's Own (1997) and Veronica Guerin (2003).

Her parents are Paul Ronan and Monica Ronan.

Has a border collie dog named Sassy.

In traditional Irish, the name Saoirse is pronounced "seer-sha", and that is the way she pronounces it when she's in Ireland. When she's talking to people from North America she pronounces it "sur-shuh".

Was in New Zealand when it was announced that she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Atonement (2007).

Was ranked #23 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' the actress list. (2008).

Although she was born in New York City, she was raised in Ireland.

She does not watch football, but supposes she supports Manchester United.

She says she misses her dog Sassy the most whilst she's away from home.

Her favorite books are "City of Ember" and "The Secret of Platform 13".

In 2008, at the age of 13, she became the seventh youngest actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Atonement (2007). The only actresses younger than her to be nominated are Tatum O'Neal, Mary Badham, Quinn Cummings, Abigail Breslin, Patty McCormack and Anna Paquin.

Is an only child.

Moved from New York to Ireland when she was three and has lived there ever since.

Peter Jackson cast her with the intent of having an "unknown" play the lead role of Susie Salmon, but things changed when in the middle of filming The Lovely Bones (2009), Ronan was nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for her performance in Atonement (2007).

Was cast in Ridley Scott's vision of Robin Hood (2010), but dropped out in order to do Peter Weir's film The Way Back (2010/I).

Peter Jackson cast her as the lead character in his film The Lovely Bones (2009) based on an audition tape she sent in from Ireland. They were so impressed by the tape that they did not even meet her prior to offering her the role.

TIME Magazine ranked her performance in The Lovely Bones (2009) as the 3rd greatest female performance of 2009 just behind Mo'Nique and Carey Mulligan, and ahead of Meryl Streep.

She was offered the role of Kitty in Anna Karenina (2012/I) but turned it down to star in Byzantium (2012) and The Host (2013). Her reasoning for turning down the film was its long production schedule which would have required her to turn down movie roles from Fall 2011 to late Spring 2012 to film what would have ended up as a supporting role. By the turning down the role, she was able to take the lead role in two films. She was replaced by Alicia Vikander.

Sported a green Alberta Ferretti dress on the occasion of the Academy Awards for her first Oscar nomination (at age 13) for Atonement (2007) (Kodak Theatre / 24 February 2008).


Personal Quotes
He has a great way of getting the message across, like if I'm confused about doing a scene or a certain line or something, he explains it so well and so clearly. He's just fantastic (On Joe Wright, director of Atonement (2007)).

Briony Tallis is such an amazing character and I'm so lucky to play her.

It's unbelievable. Mom and I were in bed and dad was waiting up for the announcements again, because that's the way my daddy is. It's kind of a bit weird actually, in a good way, in a fantastic way. I never expected this in a million years to happen. I can't believe it. I'm really proud as well that two Irish paddies have been nominated for an Oscar for the same film. It's really great for Ireland, great. - On being nominated for an Oscar.

It's not work, it is more of a passion. It is so much fun and it is really makes you feel great at the end of the day. You feel like you are really after doing something good and you are after accomplishing something. Acting is one of these things that I can't really describe - it's just like, why do you love your mum and dad? You know, you just do.

I like books that are exciting and that make you think about things, as well. I like things that have a twist - like Atonement (2007), which I haven't read obviously, as I'm a bit young.

Be the person I'm playing. That's what acting is. You're pretending to be someone else.

It wasn't one of those things where you hear about it and you jump up and down and scream. We just sat there [on the couch in their living room] and we're trying to figure out what they just said. "Wait a minute, I've been cast in a Peter Jackson film. For a few days, it was weird. I was just trying to get my head around it - on how she reacted when she found out she'd been cast as "Susie Salmon" in The Lovely Bones (2009).

I know a lot of people must think that The Lovely Bones (2009) is a pretty dramatic film and it's going to be really deep and dark and everything, but I promise you it's not. It's really humorous and funny and bright and happy. Then this awful thing happens and it kind of makes everyone really sad, obviously, but they have to get on with things. It's like the journey that Susie takes to learn to let go and realize that she can't be with her family anymore, and the same for her family. They have to let go and they know that they can't be with Susie. But it's a really funny, lighthearted thing. There's some really dramatic scenes in it as well, which is great with The Lovely Bones (2009) because you kind of get the best of both worlds. You get to do funny scenes and dramatic scenes. You get to cry, you get to laugh, so it's great - talking about The Lovely Bones (2009).