Biography
Owen O'Neill is a writer, actor of stage and screen, and stand-up comedian. He has written and performed eighteen one-man plays and has won a string of awards including two Fringe Firsts at the Edinburgh Festival. The Herald Angel award for best play and the Edinburgh Critics Award for best comedy. He has appeared in five feature films including Michael Collins directed by Neil Jordan and The General directed by John Boorman.
In 2009 at the East 59th Street Theatre in New York City he won best actor for his portrayal of Nathan Cassidy in his award winning one -man play Absolution. "A white-knuckle, emotionally searing piece of theatre." -- The New York Times "As brilliant as it is dark, it may be one of the most candid dramatic portrayals of humanity in quite some time." -- Dossier Journal New York His debut feature film, Arise And Go Now, a dark comedy about priests, pigeons, and the IRA, was directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). It was screened as part of the BBC Film on 2 series. "O'Neill has scored a fine debut. His writing is reminiscent of the plays of Sean O'Casey and the films of John Ford." -- The Times. He wrote and directed The Basket Case, which was adapted from his short story of the same name published in 2004 by Random House. It won Best Short Film at the 2008 Boston Film Festival and best film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Brazil. In 2009 he, along with Dave Johns, adapted The Shawshank Redemption for the stage. It was rewritten in 2013 for the Edinburgh Festival, and it went through another transformation in 2016 with a major UK tour produced by Bill Kenwright productions. His latest book of poetry, Licking The Matchbox was published in July 2018.