WFT Ireland Member Maureen O’Connell, or ‘Mo’, as everyone calls her, has just been nominated for Best Performer in a Play by the Broadway World Ireland Theatre Awards! She is nominated for the role of Lizzie Nutt in the new critically acclaimed play by Paul Nugent called The Devil Himself, an AboutFace Company and Smock Alley Theatre co-production. The Devil Himself is about the true and scandalous events that took place in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA in the late 1800s. Lizzie is accused by her fiance of having other lovers and promptly writes to her father, Captain Nutt, to break off the engagement. Things do not go as he planned…
Mo’s nomination is open to a public vote. Please support a fellow member and get out and vote here!
Mo’s Recent Projects
Additionally, Mo has recently finished work on another new critically acclaimed play called Vulture by Jack Harte, where she played Gabrielle, a mother living in a small rural midlands town in Ireland in the 1980s. Emma Devlin from The Hub Reviews said of Mo’s performance: “O’Connell is the one to watch here, with incredibly convincing emotion throughout and some throw-away expressions that genuinely tugged at the heart.” Mo directed theatre this year at the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, directing “The War Wounded” by Garret Baker and received 4 nominations and won Best Actress for Liath Hannon.
Furthermore, two short films directed by Mo – Haven, and Bruise – have been picking up awards on the festival circuit. Bruise has won several Director awards for Mo, winning Best Arthouse Film along the way at the prestigious Fastnet Film Festival in May 2023. Amongst many other awards, Haven recently won Best Short Film at the B3 Biennale Moving Image Film Festival in Frankfurt in October 2023. Haven is to screen next in Wales at the Cardiff Mini Film Festival in 2024. Mo then produced Lambing for Katie McNeice which won Best International Short at San Diego. She also produced This Promise for Naoimh Looney, which just won Best Director for Naoimh at the Female Feedback Film Festival.
The Dublin International Comedy Film Festival
Mo is also the CEO and Founder of the Dublin International Comedy Film Festival, which had its 2nd in-person festival this year. Completely sold-out and featuring a new live script reading competition, the festival was most successful. DICFF had great prizes from Count Basie Theatre and Mike Farrgher in the USA, providing 2 Irish filmmakers with a trip to New Jersey in March 2024 to have their film screened at Count Basie. DICFF also joined forces with Deadpan Pictures as they judged and awarded Best Irish Short. Film Equipment Hire gave a €500 voucher and a clapperboard as prizes. Writers Guild Ireland rounded everything off with a year long membership as an award for Best Live Script.
More about Mo
Mo O’Connell is an award-winning actor, writer, director and producer. She is the Founder and Head of 3 Hot Whiskeys Productions. Mo has a BA in Acting from RADA and a Higher National Diploma in Film Production from Ballyfermot. Mo has made over 12 short films, and produced and directed her own multi-award-winning comedy feature length film, SPA Weekend which won the She is on Fire Award at its World Premiere at the Female Filmmakers Film Festival Berlin in 2019.
Mo was selected by the Advanced Producer’s Programme run by TU Dublin & Screen Ireland to part-take in the prestigious Lord David Puttnam Scholarship. This excellent and inspiring course concluded at the end of July of 2023. Mo has recently been awarded a Distinction for her studies for the Diploma in Advanced Producing ratified by Screen Ireland and TU Dublin University.
Mo hopes to continue acting and making films and of course, working on expanding her fun festival!
