Saoirse Ronan is an Irish-American child actress and the fifth youngest person to be nominated for an Academy Award.
She was born on April 12, 1994, to Irish parents in New York City. The family moved to Ireland, where she spent most of her childhood. Her father, Paul Ronan, is an actor; she usually accompanies him to shoots of films such as The Devil’s Own and Veronica Guerin. In 2003, she began acting on the Irish television series The Clinic, as recurring guest Rhiannon Geraghty. Two years later, she appeared in another Irish television series, Proof, playing the role of Orla Boland. Her first film was the supernatural thriller Death Defying Acts, also starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones, although its release has been delayed to 2008. Her first film to be released was The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, opposite Aran Bell, Tom Berenger and Clare Burt, in 2007.
Ronan’s breakthrough role, however, was for the 2007 film Atonement. She plays a 13-year-old Briony Tallis, an aspiring writer, who accuses her sister’s (Keira Knightly) love interest (James McAvoy) of raping their cousin (Juno Temple), in the process affecting their relationship. The novel’s writer, Ian McEwan, was impressed with Ronan’s performance, describing the way she “gives us thought processes right on-screen, even before she speaks[.]” Ronan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Ronan also appeared in the 2007 romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman, as the daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer. The film was not released theatrically in the United States, and was instead released straight to DVD. She is also set to appear in the film adaptation to the novel City of Ember, alongside Bill Murray, Tim Robbins and Harry Treadaway. She will also appear in the 2009 adaptation The Lovely Bones, with Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg.