Laura Donnelly (born 24 June 1982) is an actress from Northern Ireland. Known for her collaborations with playwright Jez Butterworth, Donnelly has appeared in the West End and Broadway productions of his plays The River (2012–2015), The Ferryman (2017–2019), and… Laura Donnelly (born 24 June 1982) is an actress from Northern Ireland. Known for her collaborations with playwright Jez Butterworth, Donnelly has appeared in the West End and Broadway productions of his plays The River (2012–2015), The Ferryman (2017–2019), and The Hills of California (2024). For her performance in The Ferryman, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. For The Hills of California, she won the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award, and received additional Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award nominations.
On television, Donnelly is best known for her roles in the Starz series Outlander (2014–2017), the ITV series Beowulf (2016), and the HBO series The Nevers (2021–2023), for which she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Super Award for Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series. Her film roles include Dread (2009), Hello Carter (2013), The Program, (2015) Tolkien (2019), and Werewolf by Night (2022) as Elsa Bloodstone.
We believe privacy is a right, not a trade-off. Choose exactly what you're comfortable with. You can change these any time. Full privacy policy.
Essential
Always on
Required for the site to function
Session management, security tokens, login state, and your cookie preference itself. These cannot be turned off. No personal data is shared with third parties.
Analytics
Optional
Helps us understand what content you enjoy
We use anonymised analytics (e.g. Google Analytics) to see which articles perform well, how long people spend reading, and where traffic comes from. This helps us write better content. Your IP address is anonymised and no data is sold.
Personalisation
Optional
Remembers your preferences across visits
Remembers your reading preferences and recently read articles so we can surface relevant content. All data stays in your browser — nothing is sent to our servers.
Advertising
Optional
Used to show relevant ads that support the site
Allows advertising partners to show you ads based on your interests. If you decline, you'll still see ads but they won't be tailored to you. We work with Google AdSense and similar networks. You can opt out globally at youronlinechoices.eu.
Continue reading
You're clearly a fan
Get the best stories in your inbox
Join thousands of readers who get XOTLIST delivered daily. No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime.
