The Entertainer by David Clay Diaz, Catherine O’Shea and Mehdi Mezkar (pictured)

Catherine O’Shea is an Irish and British screenwriter and playwright. Catherine was a member of BAFTA Crew x BFI Network 2020-22 and is now a BAFTA Connect Member. She is represented by agent Elaine Steel. She is an alumnus of the Royal Court Theatre, Traverse Theatre, Criterion Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre writing programmes.  She was also a member of the Criterion’s Advanced Storytelling Programme and Virtual Reality storytelling course in 2021. She writes about identity, history, politics, love, loss and grief and uses dance and striking visual descriptions in her writing.

She is currently working on feature film, TV drama, comedy and short film screenplays.Her short film January Gone a BAFTA microshort was selected for the Berlin Flash Film Festival in August 2021.

Her short film Capture Her co-written with director Abbie Lucas (Voices, Testing Greta) had it’s industry premiere in April 2022 at the Courtyard Cinema, was screened to support NHS doctors at the Lexi Cinema in December 2022 and was selected for Pinewood Studios Lift-Off Global Network in 2023.

Her tv pilot Death Cloak, co-written with Markus Meedt was an award winner at the Toronto Drama and Writing Festival in April 2023 and was selected as a quarter-finalist andin the top 8% on Coverfly.

She was a co-writer on indie feature film The Entertainer with director David Clay Diaz (Me, We and Agonie) starring Alex Arnold (Poldark, Yesterday, Skins) which is coming in 2023.

She has a track record of successful productions at theatres including Chichester Festival Theatre, The Pleasance Theatres, Battersea Arts Centre, The Vaults, The Criterion Theatre, RADA, Soho Theatre and many others. Her play at Camden People’s Theatre received two 5* reviews and pick of the week from Lyn Gardner in 2019.

She has had five plays performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe including Volpone: Sex, Lies and Videotape starring James Norton; Transient which transferred to Shunt Vaults in London and Fit for Purpose which was originally staged at RADA starring Tanya Moodie and was awarded the Charlie Hartill Special Reserve Fund and transferred to the Pleasance. In 2016 Catherine wrote the one-woman show Carnival for the Tristan Bates Theatre and Evolution House venues. 

Her play Seagull was performed at Chichester Festival Theatre as part of their anniversary celebration and then toured across the South-East. She was a co-writer of Double Infemnity for the 2018 Vault Festival.  She wrote the plays John Simmonds, a Trafalgar Journey and Tamera the Time Traveller which are performed monthly in rep at the National Maritime Museum. 

Catherine was a board member of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and is a member of BAFTA Connect, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Women in Film and Television. She is also a committee member of the Railway Fields Nature Reserve.

Her play The Companion was performed as a reading at the Paradise Factory in New York, as a showcase at the Criterion Theatre and as part of Script Accelerator at the Park Theatre in 2015. Her play Shards was produced by Lights Down Productions at the Camden People’s Theatre August 2019.  Lights Down Productions also produced an extract of her play Milton Keynes State of Mind for the Globe Theatre and Lights Down online showcases in July 2020.