Roisin Gallagher worked as an actress for 13 years before landing The Dry. The television breakthrough came after a long career that viewers discovering her today may never have seen.
Her subsequent roles include Janet in The Lovers and Saoirse in Netflix’s How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. Behind those credits is a story rooted in Belfast, theatre and the steady work of building a career.
Her story begins in west Belfast
Gallagher grew up in west Belfast. In an August 2023 interview with The Irish Times, she described a household where her parents encouraged their children to consider other people’s perspectives. Her mother worked as a nurse; her father was an oil truck driver.
That background matters when considering The Lovers, which places Belfast’s cultural divisions inside an unlikely romance. Gallagher’s character comes from a Protestant working-class background, while the actress was raised Catholic.
Speaking to The Irish News in September 2023, Gallagher discussed filming in parts of east Belfast and encountering traditions outside her own upbringing. Her connection to the city gave the production personal significance, but her character’s history remains fiction.
The theatre career before television
There is a clear record of Gallagher’s work before her best-known screen roles. In 2018, she played Beverly in Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party at Belfast’s MAC, in a production directed by Richard Croxford.
Beverly is a demanding central role: a hostess whose attempts to control a social evening gradually expose the tensions beneath it. The casting provides a useful corrective to the idea that Gallagher appeared from nowhere when television audiences noticed her.
Gallagher herself addressed that misconception in a 2023 interview with VIP Magazine. She explained that 13 years of acting preceded The Dry, emphasising the consistent work involved in developing her craft. Her breakthrough was a change in visibility after years in the profession.
Why The Dry became a turning point
In The Dry, Gallagher plays Shiv Sheridan, a woman returning to Dublin after years in London. Shiv is sober and determined to rebuild her life, but her family makes that resolve difficult to maintain.
The character and premise are confirmed in the programme’s official publicity. Written by Nancy Harris and directed by Paddy Breathnach, the series places recovery inside the complicated everyday life of the Sheridan family.
Gallagher leads an ensemble that includes Ciarán Hinds, Pom Boyd, Siobhán Cullen and Moe Dunford. Shiv gives her room to move between awkward comedy, family conflict and vulnerability without reducing the character to a single problem.
There is also documented awards recognition. ITV’s 2024 press material records Gallagher’s IFTA nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for her performance. That is a verifiable professional milestone, rather than a promotional description of her success.
The Lovers brought a different kind of lead role
Gallagher followed Shiv with Janet, the outspoken Belfast supermarket worker in The Lovers. Opposite Johnny Flynn’s broadcaster Seamus O’Hannigan, she plays one half of a relationship built around sharply contrasting personalities.
In a September 2023 interview with Country & Town House, Gallagher described drawing on women she knew from Belfast when shaping Janet. She also discussed the character’s vulnerability beneath her abrasive manner. Those details come from the actress’s account of her preparation.
Her performance earned a 2024 BAFTA nomination for Female Performance in a Comedy. BAFTA’s official record confirms the nomination; the award went to Gbemisola Ikumelo for Black Ops. Describing Gallagher as a BAFTA winner for this role would therefore be inaccurate.
What she has shared about her family
Gallagher has spoken publicly about her relationship, although interviews offer only selected details. In a 2014 Belfast Telegraph interview, she explained that a friend arranged a blind date while she was performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Edinburgh. Her partner, Craig, worked as an electrician.
A 2024 Irish Examiner interview subsequently described her living in Belfast with her husband and two sons. That supports the basic account of her family life at the time of publication. It does not justify speculation about private matters she has not discussed.
Her Netflix role extends the story
In 2026, Gallagher appeared as television writer Saoirse in Lisa McGee’s How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. Netflix confirms that the eight-episode comedy-thriller arrived on 12 February, with Sinéad Keenan and Caoilfhionn Dunne completing the central trio.
The friends investigate the suspicious death of someone from their childhood, confronting memories and secrets along the way. It gives Gallagher another leading role in a story where comedy sits beside darker material.
The answer to who Roisin Gallagher is lies in that documented progression: an experienced stage actress whose work reached a wider audience through The Dry, gained BAFTA recognition through The Lovers, and continued onto Netflix. The breakthrough was real. So were the years that came before it.
