Eva Birthistle

Born: 1974
Where: Bray, Dublin, Ireland

The actress is best known for her portrayal of an Irish Catholic teacher in love with a Glaswegian Muslim in Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss.

Birthistle was brought up a Catholic but attended a Protestant school where she was victimised as a young girl.

After moving briefly to Northern Ireland, Birthistle returned to Dublin where she trained at the Gaiety School of Acting.

After graduating she worked on short films before landing a part in one of Ireland's longest-running soaps, Glenroe (where she learned to drive a tractor).

Other TV work followed before she made her feature debut in Alan Gilsenan's All Soul's Day in 1997.

She followed this with Drinking Crude alongside Colin Farrell and the TV movie Miracle At Midnight with Hollywood actress Mia Farrow.

In 2002 she starred in two different dramas about the Bloody Sunday shootings - the documentary-style Bloody Sunday with James Nesbitt and Jimmy McGovern's Sunday.

Next came a role opposite Robson Green in the legal drama Trust before being cast by Ken Loach for the romantic drama Ae Fond Kiss.