Olwen Fouéré

Olwen Fouéré is an actor and creative artist who works internationally in English and in French.

In 2024 Olwen will perform opposite Hugo Weaving in The President (Dir. Tom Creed), a co-production between Sydney Theatre Company and The Gate Theatre, Dublin.

Her most recent stage work includes her solo performances of iGirl by Marina Carr at the Abbey Theatre in October 2021; the role of Winter in The Last Season by Force Majeure (Sydney Arts Festival 2021); the role of Mother in Marina Carr’s adaptation of Blood Wedding by Lorca (Young Vic Theatre,London, 2019); “Nous l’Europe, Banquet des Peuples”written by Prix Goncourt winner Laurent Gaudé and directed by Roland Auzet for the Avignon Festival 2019 ; the role of 3 in Ballyturk written and directed by Enda Walsh (Abbey Theatre,Dublin and St Ann’s Warehouse, New York 2018) and Unwoman III by Melbourne based company The Rabble (Dublin 2018).

Her acclaimed adaptation and performance of the voice of the river in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake – riverrun - has toured internationally since its premiere in 2013, receiving many awards including the Edinburgh Herald Archangel Award 2014, The Stage Award and the Irish Tiimes Special Tribute Award 2013.

Recent film work includes The Watchers (Dir. Ishana Night Shyamalan), All you Need is Death (Dir. Paul Duane), Sunrise (Dir. Andrew Baird); Horrorscope (Dir. Anna Halberg and Spenser Cohen), The Actor (Dir. Duke Johnson), The Northman (Dir. Robert Eggers), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Dir. David Blue Garcia), Violet Gibson, the woman who shot Mussolini (Dir. Barrie Dowdall), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald (Dir. David Yates), Sea Fever (Dir. Neasa Hardiman), Mandy (Dir. Panos Cosmatos), Beast (Dir. Michael Pearce), This Must Be The Place (Dir. Paolo Sorrentino) and The Survivalist (Dir. Stephen Fingleton) for which she received an IFTA nomination.

Television work includes The Tourist S2 (BBC/Netflix), The Crown S5 (Netflix), Holding (ITV), Derry Girls S3 (Channel 4), The Head S2 (HBO).

Recent collaborations with visual artists include The Tower and Tremble Tremble by Jesse Jones, which represented Ireland at Venice Biennale 2017; Two Minutes to Midnight and The Undertaker by Yael Bartana.

Olwen recently co-created the short film Far Calls which has been awarded the Grand Prize in the Experimental Film category of the Rhode Island International Film Festival 2023 and she is attached to direct a feature film adaptation of a Booker nominated novel in the near future.