50 people to watch in 2024: From film and music to arts, activism and more

• Published date: 06 January 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland)

By Donald Clarke

Charlie Maher

Actor

"You're putting me on the spot there. What is it actually about?" Charlie Maher, a good-looking Meath man, is pondering his lead role in Paul Duane's already much buzzed-about horror All You Need is Death. Charlie and Simone Collins play a couple investigating obscure Irish folk songs who, after one inquiry too many, unleash the sort of supernatural chaos you expect from a flick co-starring Olwen Fouéré. "We shot it in three weeks and it was one of the best atmospheres on a set ever," Maher says. Now a resident in London, he had an unlikely path into acting. He did an accounting degree, got a job in that field and then thought "absolutely not". After study at the Lir Academy, Maher secured a regular role on the TV series Blue Lights and credits in such high-profile projects as the BBC's Black Narcissus. The excited chatter around All You Need is Death, due later this year, is sure to hurry him further up the ladder.

Ruby Conway Dunne

Actor

Ruby Conway Dunne – like Michael Gambon, Cabra born – is just 14 years old, but there is every chance you have already seen her on screen. Way back in 2018, she played opposite Moe Dunford and Sarah Greene in Paddy Breathnach's homelessness drama Rosie. Now she takes a lead role in Claire Francis Byrne's upcoming feature Ready or Not. From a script by Senator Lynn Ruane, the film follows teenagers in 1990s Dublin. "They come across experiences they've never dealt with," Conway Dunne says intriguingly. "In a challenging way, it has to do with consent." The 1990s must feel a long time in the past for her. "No phones on set!" she says. "All the clothes were amaaaaazing. All 90s clothes." How was working with Ruane? "Oh, I love her so much!" she says. "She has been such a great inspiration to everyone." Conway Dunne seems already enthralled with the process of acting. "I just love asking questions and giving my input into the scene."

Niamh Moriarty

Actor

Niamh Moriarty has just had a good year. Her performance as a teenager with a potentially fatal medical condition in the heart-rending BBC series Best Interests won rave reviews and may well interest awards voters in the coming months. There is a great deal more to come in 2024. You can already catch her on Prime Video in the recently released feature Silver and the Book of Dreams. "It was my first film and to have it on such a large scale was very interesting," Moriarty says. "Also in terms of large-scale projects, I worked on a feature for Element Pictures called Sisters, directed by Ariane Labed. Then later on in the year I will be filming a TV show called Show Kids, directed by Hugh O'Conor." Moriarty, who has cerebral palsy, means to argue on behalf of greater access for disabled professionals. "Yes, completely," the Killiney teenager says. "The type of work that actors and performers get often comes with a platform. Access and representation in the industry is something I feel really passionately about."

Cara Loftus

Screenwriter

Cara Loftus, already an experienced film professional, is telling me about her debut feature screenplay. "So the core idea behind Spilt Milk is about a boy called Bobby O'Brien who is obsessed with Kojak," she says. "He wants to be a detective, and he goes on a journey to find his missing brother. It's set against the backdrop of Dublin 1984." Hang on. Loftus is surely not old enough to have been around during that bald copper's high period? "I grew up watching Columbo," she says, laughing. "I know it's not my era." The Dubliner has an interesting story. Over the last decade, she received production credits on such high-profile Irish-shot productions as The Last Duel and Disenchanted, but "deep down" she always wanted to write. Selected for the inaugural new writing scheme with Screen Ireland, Spilt Milk, directed by Brian Durnin, has just wrapped principal photography in Dublin. "It was amazing we got to make it," Loftus enthuses.

Maya O'Shea

Actor

Attendees at last year's Galway Film Fleadh have already had a glimpse of Maya O'Shea's breakthrough performance in Patricia Kelly's Verdigris. The Dubliner plays a smart sex worker who befriends a befuddled older lady – the irresistible Geraldine McAlinden – in a drama that skirts with serious comedy. Winner of best independent film at the fleadh, Verdigris will go before general audiences later this year. "It was my first time going into cinema to watch myself," O'Shea says. "It was so heart-warming to see the response." An alumnus of Dublin Youth Theatre, O'Shea went on to study theatre performance at Inchicore College of Further Education. Like so many actors of her generation, she emerged to the confusion of the pandemic. Then Verdigris premiered the very week the Hollywood actors strike began. "It was dry for the last couple of months," she says of the casting market. "But this week it exploded. I am inundated." We do not doubt it.

ENTERTAINMENT

By Kate Demolder

Leon Diop and Briana Fitzsimons

Black and Irish

Few people made a greater impact in Ireland in 2023 than Leon Diop and Briana Fitzsimons of Black and Irish, the organisation established with a mission to enhance the lives of black and Irish people. Their book, Black & Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes – which took home an award at the Irish Book Awards and was featured on the Late Late Toy Show – is the first book about black-Irish identity, profiling the trailblazers who have changed Ireland for the better, including Ruth Negga (by whom the book was officially launched), Emma Dabiri and Phil Lynott. In their roles as leaders, academics, podcasters and now authors, Diop and Fitzsimons educate, lobby, investigate and encourage by way of social media, all in an effort to create an Ireland we are all proud to call home. In 2024, the pair have "lots of plans to keep going", with another book in the pipeline.

Pea Dinneen

Playwright, theatre maker, performer

The winner of the Next Stage Wild Card award at the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival was Pea Dinneen, the playwright, theatre maker and performer from Dublin whose name feels suspiciously pleasing to say aloud. For those who did not see her take part in this year's sensational queer cabaret, EGG: The Proclamation of the Irish Republegg, you might remember her previous work, like her debut play White, which enjoyed a sold-out run at the Dublin Fringe in 2018 and eventually landed her with an awarded place on the Dublin Fringe artist residency programme. Since then, she has been honing her craft working as a dramaturge and playwright mentor around the country, and as programme leader and mentor on the Transforming Stages development programme with Outburst Queer Arts Festival, an initiative nurturing early career trans and non-binary theatre makers. In 2024, she will be putting on a big show opening in September, a loosely autobiographical cabaret play based on her experiences as a trans woman. She is also under commission with Kabosh Theatre for a play to open in November.

Terence Power and Calvin O'Brien

Podcasters

In a podcast-saturated world, it is almost impossible to stand out, especially as two white men. But Calvin O'Brien and Terence Power of Talking Bollox have carved out a genuine voice for young men from Dublin 1, a demographic that has been consistently and painfully overlooked. Speaking to guests from all walks of life – including Tánaiste Micheál Martin, former addicts and sex educator Jenny Keane – O'Brien and Power are a breath of fresh air in their unity, grace and openness to learning. Listeners cannot get enough. Following the success of their 2023 live shows, the lads have another set for February, with other exciting plans for the year that they cannot reveal yet.

Áine Gallagher

Comedian

Self-described as Ireland's only guerrilla Irish language teacher, Áine Gallagher is taking the panic out of the modh coiníollach by taking her Cup of Focals show on the road, teaching us all to love the cúpla focal again. It all stemmed from a new year's resolution she made at 26, something that pivoted her to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with her show Grá and Eagla, followed by a TED Talk. Gallagher has just finished as artist in residence at Little Bird Café in Portobello and has big plans for 2024, including bigger gigs, better Gaeilge-learning experiences and creating more welcoming, open spaces where Gaeilge – minus the snobbery – can thrive. She is also writing a new comedy show about her miscellaneous drawer. "It's a mess. I've been trying to organise it for years. It fully represents who I am as a person. I'm hoping to premiere it at festivals in the autumn," Gallagher says. Catch her Smock Alley show on March 16th, with other dates to be announced.

Amanda Adé

To categorise Amanda Adé as one, singular thing is a fruitless exercise. The career of the young multi-hyphenate spans social media creation, activism, filmmaking, education and humour, all while chipping away at a myriad of other industries (she recently told Micheál Martin that she is coming for his job). Recognised by Meta as a Creator for Tomorrow, Adé engages with audiences on topics such as gender and racial equality through podcasts, events and other means (last year, she contributed to an article in this newspaper about the micro-aggressions people with afro hair feel when attending an Irish hair salon), aiming to provide food for thought for those stuck in one perspective. This year, Adé will launch her own creative agency Off Trance, as well as partaking in a couple of short films and documentaries on social issues.

MUSIC

By Kate Demolder

Aby Coulibaly

Aby Coulibaly has been written about in The Irish Times before, and in the six months since then, her musical presence has only grown stronger. It has been helped of course by her sensational EP At The End Of The Day, It's Night, featuring the same tone, veracity and smooth voice that loyal fans obsess over. At just 24, Coulibaly already boasts an active role in...