Kirsten Sheridan facts for kids

Kirsten Sheridan (born 14 July 1976) is an Irish film director and screenwriter. She is well-known for helping to write the movie In America with her father, Jim Sheridan, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan. This film was based on their own family experiences. For her work on In America, she was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Kirsten Sheridan also directed popular films like Disco Pigs and August Rush.

Early Life and Education

Kirsten Sheridan was born in Dublin, Ireland. In 1981, when she was young, her family moved to New York City. They lived there for eight years while her father worked to become an actor and theater director.

Later, her family moved back to Ireland. Her father then became very successful as the director of the movie My Left Foot. In this film, Kirsten herself played the younger sister of the main actor, Daniel Day-Lewis.

Kirsten studied script writing at New York University in 1993. She then went to film school at University College Dublin. She earned her film degree from Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design in 1998.

Film Career Highlights

Award-Winning Short Films

Kirsten Sheridan's first short film, called Patterns, was her final project in college. It won many awards at film festivals around the world. These included festivals in Clermont-Ferrand, Cork, Galway, Dresden, Aspen, and Chicago.

Her next short film was The Case of Majella McGinty. This movie was about a young girl who found a way to escape her difficult life by crawling into a suitcase. This film also received awards at festivals in Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston.

Directing Feature Films

Kirsten Sheridan's first full-length movie as a director was Disco Pigs in 2001. This film was based on a play by Enda Walsh. It starred Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy as two teenagers who had a very close, almost obsessive, friendship. The Guardian newspaper described the movie as a "stylish, fast-paced drama" that mixed real-life situations with imaginative fantasy scenes.

Disco Pigs earned Kirsten Sheridan nominations for best director at the British Independent Film Awards and the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards. It also won prizes at several youth film festivals, including Castellinaria, Giffoni, Young European Cinema, and Ourense.

Writing In America

After Disco Pigs, Sheridan worked with her father, Jim, and her sister, Naomi, to write the script for In America. This movie was based on their own memories of when their family lived in New York City and faced financial struggles. They also added a story about the death of Jim's younger brother into the film.

Jim Sheridan directed In America, and it became a very successful movie. It received many important award nominations, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Later Directing Work

Kirsten Sheridan's film August Rush was released in 2007. It starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell as musicians who fall in love. Freddie Highmore played their talented son, who was an orphan and a musical genius. Robin Williams played a character who was like Fagin from Oliver Twist. Some critics found the film a bit confusing, but others thought it had charming moments.

In 2010, Sheridan directed a movie called Dollhouse. It was filmed in just 21 days and released in 2012. The story was not written down beforehand, meaning the actors made up some of their lines as they went along. The cast included young Irish actors like Jack Reynor and Seána Kerslake, who were not well-known at the time. Dollhouse was shown at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and won a special award at the 2012 Odesa International Film Festival.

Television Projects

Kirsten Sheridan has also worked on television series. She was a Co-Executive Producer and a writer for the FX series ‘Say Nothing’, which premiered on Hulu on November 14, 2024. She also served as an Executive Producer for the Sky/Peacock series ‘Lockerbie’, starring Colin Firth, which premiered on January 2, 2025.

Personal Life

Kirsten Sheridan has three children. Her sons are Leo (born in 2002), Séamus (born in 2007), and Frankie (born in 2010).

Filmography

Short Films Directed

Feature Films Directed

As Editor

• Between Two Worlds (1997)
• Ward Zone (1998)

Awards and Nominations

See also

In Spanish: Kirsten Sheridan para niños