Last year was a busy year for rising actress Leia Murphy.
She came to the notice of larger audiences in Chris O’Dowd’s Small Town, Big Story (2025) for Sky, BBC’s Video Nasty (2025) and in last Christmas’ Call the Midwife two-part special.
Leia, from Lucan in Co. Dublin, grew up performing with local stage schools before she first came to prominence playing troubled teen ‘Vinny Doherty’ in RTÉ soap Fair City in 2021.
She went on to train at the Gaiety School of Acting (2021-2023).
Leia is now based in London and spoke to The Irish World.
Last year’s 1980s- set horror comedy Video Nasty was well received, how did you enjoy it?
“I just had the most fun on Video Nasty – that was probably the most creative freedom I was given on a job.
“My thoughts and opinions of the character, what she should look like and maybe certain lines she would or wouldn’t say, were considered even though our writer, Hugh (Travers), is phenomenal.
“I really commend him and his scripts, but he really wanted to hear from us and Chris (Smith), the director as well, just kept us involved the whole way through creatively which makes you feel part of the team and an important cog in the machine.”
You played teenager Zoe who put on a tough front but was fragile underneath..
“Yeah, and that’s true for a lot of teenagers and teenage girls specifically. It changes era to era.
“Obviously it’s set in the ‘80s so there’re different issues they go through but that thing of putting up a front and hiding behind her attitude and her look was to hide quite a troubling time at home.
“I loved playing that double sidedness of her and choosing where to let it show, where to keep it hidden.
“She had such a great character arc as well. I was so lucky to play her.”
How did you go about creating those character layers?
“When you feel safe as an actor with your director, you make the most exciting choices because you can leap and know there’s a net there to catch you.
“Trust is important and that trust helped me to push where I could go with her character.
“And when you have fun on set with the crew, the directors and cast, you get so much better work out of it.”
Video Nasty had horror but it was also a comedy, is that what you liked about it?
“Straight out of drama school I would not have thought doing horror or comedy was my vibe – but the combination of the two just works so well in the show.
“I’ve been very lucky in that way that I’ve got to do a little bit of everything with theatre and then this, with comedy and horror.
“Horror is so much fun. Chris, the director, was great at directing horror.
“It’s very specific because you don’t want to let the tension out too soon. You’ve got to build up to the scare and get the audience on the edge of their seats and then have the release.
“I remember Valerie (O’Connor) who played my mum on it – Chris had shown her one of the early shots while we were still filming and the sequence builds up to this big scare.
“Val was watching it on the iPad for the first time, and she just let out this massive scream, and we were all laughing like, ‘Oh, we’ve got it. It’s there’.
“Stuff like running through the woods and running people over and running away from a burning pyre, it’s really great to do that dramatic stuff.”
What was it like filming Small Town, Big Story with someone like Christina Hendricks? Were you statrtruck at all?
“Yeah, totally. That was my first day as well, a scene with Christina Hendricks.
“That was nerve racking because that was my first job out of drama school.
“I had done stuff before, but I hopped onto that straight after I graduated from The Gaiety, so it felt quite big.
“I was very nervous going in and she fluffed a line or something in the rehearsal or one of the takes and then I was like, ‘Okay, if she can make a little mistake, I can make a mistake and it’s gonna be fine’.”
Eileen Walsh and Paddy Considine played your parents in that, do you learn from everyone on a job like that?
“Yeah, it’s honestly such a pleasure getting to work with people with that much experience.
“There’s a lot you can only learn on a set or on stage.
“There’re great skills you get from drama school but there’re so many things you really don’t understand until you’ve gone and done it and watched other people do it, watch actors like Paddy Considine and Eileen Walsh do their thing.
Another of your credits is Call the Midwife..
“That was for the Christmas episode just gone, we filmed that last summer. I couldn’t believe how hot the summers in London are.
“Obviously, for the Christmas episode we were all in our woolly jumpers and coats and hats.
“My character gives birth in a caravan. I thought I was going to melt.
“That was really tough, but it was a great experience.”
Another job you were involved with was Angels in the Asylum with Simon Pegg and Minnie Driver but it ran into difficulties..
[The film, halted in February 2025 when the producers ran out of money, was inspired by a 2008 BBC Newsnight exposé about nearly fifty women incarcerated at a secure unit in Long Grove Asylum in Surrey between 1907 and 1992 because they were typhoid carriers. Many remained locked up for life, with their mental health deteriorating in prison-like conditions until the former mental hospital’s closure.]
“Yeah, that film was unfortunately cut short due to lack of funds.
“We were right in the middle of filming, and everybody was just called in in the middle of the day. We were all sent home.
“It was bit of a disaster but it’s in talks for production to continue so I’m really, really hoping we get to finish that film maybe this year or next year because it’s based on a true story.
“Most of them ended up spending the rest of their lives there treated like asylum patients even though most of them didn’t have any mental health issues to begin with but developed them there.
“I really, really hope we can get back on set and finish that one because it felt really, really important.”
How did you enjoy the experience of working with great names..
“Yeah, Minnie Driver and Simon Pegg – they were brilliant.
“I was starstruck going on to the set, but they were all so kind to me.
“It’s quite an emotionally heavy film.
“It’s uplifting but it’s also very emotionally heavy because we’re trying to reflect the stories of these real people so it feels like a big task but there was a lot of levity in between takes with Simon Pegg especially, and Minnie, everybody just keeping spirits up and still being very friendly and making jokes.
“That’s always nice when you’ve got some tough scenes, to have the chats and a cup of tea in between.”
What else have you got coming up?
“I worked on a short film that will probably be out later this year called Fat, by Dolores Rice.
“She’s doing great work and she’s got a lot of stuff in development. It’s cool, like a psychological thriller, maybe body horror style.”
You’ve done Video Nasty and Fat which have horror themes and Small Town, Big Story had a supernatural element..
“Yeah, I thought that was quite an interesting view for a show.
“When I read the Small Town, Big Story scripts I was like, ‘Oh yes, family drama’, because most of my character’s storyline is contained within the family dynamic, ‘Mam’s doing this, Dad’s doing this…’
“Then you flip through the pages to the end and it’s like, ‘And then there’s an alien ship’.
“And you’re like, ‘Wait, what? How is this the same show?’
“That’s brilliant.”
Did you always know it was acting for you?
“Yeah. I grew up going to stage schools and doing singing lessons.
“I just always loved going to the theatre and some of my earliest memories are of just sitting in the Gaiety Theatre or wherever watching these shows and my eyes would just light up.
“I just always felt a magic there and then it was more of a hobby. In school I really liked English and art and I left the stage school for a little while.
“When you’re a young teenager you’re like, ‘I need to be cool.’ but I really, really missed it so I went back then did about a year on Fair City just when I left school.
“From when I was really little, I’ve just got the bug, and I’ve never been able to shake it off.”
You did Fair City before you went to the Gaiety School of Acting. T hat must have been an apprenticeship in itself what with soap actors working so hard to pump out so many episodes per week..
“For sure. Fair City, and probably soap acting in general, is like a baptism of fire. You’re just straight in there, bashing out so many scenes in a day and so many story lines going on.
“I was quite young, but it gave me a lot of resilience because you don’t have time to second guess yourself, you just must jump straight in there.
“It was great experience.”
What jumps out as a highlight of your career so far?
“(Playing ‘Dorothy’ in a youth production of) The Wizard of Oz was a big moment for me.
“One that’s more recent was when we went to Cologne in Germany for a screening of Video Nasty.
“We hadn’t seen any of the show at that point, so me and Cal and Justin went to Cologne.
“The first episode was screening in this new work festival, and it was full of German people who probably most of them didn’t fully understand the show because Irish humour is sometimes a little tricky to keep up with, even with subtitles.
“Just sitting in that cinema and seeing the show come up on the big screen I was nervous I would feel insecure watching it.
“It’s easy to pick apart your performance when you’re watching stuff like that back, but I just felt immersed in the world because the costumes, the set and everything are so good I felt I was watching the characters, not us.
“I remember turning to the two boys and us all looking at each other and being like, ‘Oh my God, this is our show’.
“That was a nice highlight.”
How do you feel about being called ‘one to watch’?
“I don’t really think about it. I don’t think success in this career is linear. There’re a lot of peaks and valleys.
“It’s obviously nice to be recognised but it’s more important to just find your own love and keep the trust in yourself whatever stage you’re at in your career and enjoy it for the craft and for the people rather than any of the red carpets or any of that kind of thing.
“Obviously it’s nice.
“I love reading stuff like this. My granddad used to send me newspaper articles – he still does – about Irish actors that made me feel, ‘This is a real thing people do and people from where I’m from are on the world stage doing it’.
“It is important to share that as well and share your successes to inspire younger people.
“I thank my mam and my dad just for being such an important support system for me because there’re a lot of times in this business where you can feel down if it’s quiet periods or if you get a certain rejection.
“They’ve just been there for me time after time to remind me, they’re so proud of me and they want me to keep going.
“That’s so important to have a support system like that.”