Born in the Rebel County, raised in The Kingdom and now living in The City of the Tribes, Louise was always destined to have an identity crisis, a theme that’s been strongly threaded through her work. She most recently received funding from Screen Ireland’s Director Conceptual Development Fund to develop her feature Skinfull—a blackly comic and visceral take on a girl’s decision to get sober. Also supported by Screen Ireland was her first feature script, Daniella, a black comedy about the double life of a transgender farmer in West Kerry. In 2019, she directed five episodes of the comedy drama series Flatmates, which is currently streaming on BBCiPlayer. The series follows the lives and aspirations of step-siblings as they move from London to Manchester and negotiate the world of adulting. She has returned to season two as lead director.
“Frenetic and funny, touching and blunt. But it’s also Louise Ní Fhiannachta’s direction that’s the star. The tone, pace, soundtrack and creative choices throughout bristle with an energy that’s been missing from a lot of Irish drama.” This is how the Irish Times described her comedy-musical-drama series, Eipic, which earned her an IFTA nomination for Best Director in 2016. Her multi-award-winning short, Rúbaí, was nominated for Best Narrative Short at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, during which time Louise featured in Indiewire’s Meet the Women Directors series. Other credits include the black comedies Lá Breá Chuige (TG4) and Dead Leaf Moth (The Lir). Louise cut her directing teeth on TG4’s Ros Na Rún, and it has served as a great education in performance directing, people managing, and coming in on-time and on-budget.
Although live action is her first love, she’s also directed three creative documentaries. Her IFTA-winning Páidí Ó Sé: Rí an Pharóiste (TG4) is an authored account of the life and complexities of a legendary Gaelic footballer as told by his community. It was also presented with the Celtic Media Spirit of the Festival Award in 2015. She also directed Finné: Louise Hannon and Finné: Peter Mulryan (both TG4), the latter being about a survivor of the Tuam Mother & Baby Home; it is one of the most important stories she will ever tell. Having started her career as a writer, her credits include the drama series Seacht (Season 1) (BBCNI/TG4), Ros Na Rún (TG4), and the RTÉ/Filmbase short, Cured.
Richly-complex characters and new ideas excite her. She is deeply passionate about getting to the heart of a story using a fresh and sometimes blackly comic lens. It is a joy for her to connect with actors and to explore with them a character’s journey, to reach and reveal the magic at the heart of everything. She is committed to working with imaginative teams to direct challenging stories that make a difference.
