Orla Brady

Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)

Warning!
This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Picard, and thus may contain spoilers.

Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961; age 61) is an Irish actress who played Laris in the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard's first season. She had been promoted to series regular for the second season where she also played Tallinn.

From 2010 to 2012, Brady had a recurring role on the J.J. Abrams television series Fringe. She is also one of several actors to have appeared in both the Star Trek and Doctor Who franchises.

Life and career

Brady was born in Dublin and lived in Bray, County Wicklow until age 7. She studied at the Loreto Convent Catholic girls' school in Wicklow and an Ursuline Convent in Dublin. At age 25, she moved to Paris, France for a year and studied at Philippe Gaulier's acting school and Marcel Marceau's school of mime arts.

Moving back to Ireland, she became a prolific stage actress, first at the Balloonatics Theatre Company, appearing in touring productions of Hamlet and Finnegan's Wake, then at the Dublin's Gate Theatre, where she played Adele in House of Bernarda Alba and Natasha in Three Sisters. She debuted on the English stage in the Royal National Theatre's production of Blinded by the Sun and since developed a career in both Irish and British theatre.

Her first on screen appearances were guest spots on British series So You Think You've Got Troubles, Minder, The Bill, Absolutely Fabulous, and The Rector's Wife in the early 1990s. She made her feature film debut in 1994's Words Upon the Window, an adaptation of William Butler Yeats's play of the same name.

In 1995-96, she starred in the police drama series Out of the Blue as Detective Rebecca "Becky" Bennett. In 1997-98, she co-starred in the comedy series Noah's Ark, and played the female lead in the 1998 television adaptation of Wuthering Heights. She also had a co-starring role in the 1999 Hallmark Channel fantasy miniseries The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns where she acted alongside Colm Meaney and Whoopi Goldberg.

She moved to Los Angeles in 2001, where she met photographer English photographer Nick Brandt, whom she married in December 2002. The same year, she had a series regular role as Naoise O'Neill in the second season of Family Law, in which Tina Lifford played a recurring part. In 2005, she co-starred in the supernatural miniseries Revelations, alongside John Rhys-Davies and Fionnula Flanagan.

Her other television credits include guest appearances in episodes of Hustle (2004), Nip/Tuck (2004), and Empire (2005, with James Frain, directed by Kim Manners). In 2007-08, she played the recurring role of Claire Stark in four episodes of the legal drama series Shark, which co-starred Jeri Ryan. Robert Curtis Brown, Jonathan Banks, and John Cothran, Jr. appeared in guest roles in episodes with Brady.

She starred in the BBC drama series Mistresses (2008-10), and co-starred in the BBC miniseries The Deep (2010) and the ITV supernatural series Eternal Law (2012). Her other British television credits include a guest spot in an episode of Wallander (2008), the role of Tasha Lem in "The Time of the Doctor", the 2013 Christmas special episode of Doctor Who (with Sonita Henry), and that of Countess Vera Rossakoff in The Labours of Hercules (2013), an Agatha Christie's Poirot TV movie.

More recently, Brady starred in the 2015 BBC historical miniseries Banished and had a recurring role in the short-lived NBC drama series American Odyssey (also in 2015). Between 2015 and 2019, she starred in the post-apocalyptic series Into the Badlands, and in 2019, had a recurring guest role in the 9th season of American Horror Story (with Steven Culp).

Star Trek: Picard regular cast

Isa Briones • Santiago Cabrera • Evan Evagora • Michelle Hurd • Alison Pill • Jeri Ryan • Patrick Stewart • Harry Treadaway