Anne Gildea is a Dublin-based writer performer person head. Since Feb. 2007 she has been a featured weekly columnist with The Irish Mail on Sunday. Her by-line is ‘A Wickedly Funny Take On Modern Ireland’.  These sparkling nuggets of awesome wordage are currently being archived onto this site, under ‘COLUMNS’ (no less) – a process that will be completed when she (I) figure out how the hell to do it properly.

Meanwhile, back to blah, blah – biog. Here we go from the ad hoc get go – blah: Trained as actress and enjoyed huge anonymity as a performance artist in London 500 years ago. Moved back to Ireland mid-90s.   Made-up The Nualas with two other chicks. Fame, money etc. ensued, sort of.  Existed as a writer/performer in Nuala-land from 1995-2001.

FACTS: The Nualas – One of the most successful all-girl, short-skirted, harmonising comedy acts to come out of Ireland. Ever. Toured internationally, all over – Melbourne, Singapore, the Caribbean, Castlebar – you name it, there’s a 14% chance they (we) played there. Total of seventeen theatre runs including six total sell-outs (TOTAL – right?)  at the Edinburgh Festival + Extended runs in London, Dublin and New York + Writing and performing two radio series and a New Year’s Eve Special (1999) for BBC Radio Four + Video release with Sony in 2000  (yes, video) + Innumerable radio and TV appearances, including a double-headliner special on the first series of BBC TV’s Stand-up Show (sharing the bill with Mr. Jon Stewart of America). For her role as Nuala The New York Times called her (me)  ‘a tall, leggy brunette who is a quick-witted uninhibited clown.’

“The Nualas are the new rock’n'roll.”
The Independent (London)

“Dripping kooky, faux glamour, they will win you over with their
nutty lyrics, zany tunes and endearingly silly dresses.”
The Evening Standard

“Hilarious, stretch-sequinned, glitter-ball evening of bizarre comi
songs and febrile Irish banter.”
Time Out (London)

“The Nualas have put comedy and music in the blender and come up
with a world class soufflé.”
The Sunday Times

Subsequent to Nuala-ness Anne produced several theatre shows, including:

Me & Gildea, a stand-up show with her brother, Kevin Gildea.
(Irish Tour 2008)

Anne Gildea Goes All The Way, solo show (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2007)
Funny Girls, with comediennes Sue Collins & Pom Boyd (Irish Tours
2006/5/4)

A Nonsense of Ireland, with Kevin Gildea (Edinburgh Festival, 2001)
‘Talented, confidant and phenomenally quick-witted performers.’
Chortle.co.uk

As a stand-up Anne has toured all over Ireland and performed in the UK, US and mainland Europe. Stand-up TV appearances include The Late Late Show (RTE 1), and The Liffey Laughs (RTE 2), in which she was a featured performer.

She also starred as the sidekick of RTE puppet stars Podge & Rodge, in their Vicar Street, Dublin & Live at The Marquee, Cork performances, 2007 + Co-starred in a hit production of The Odd Couple (female version), Mill Theatre, 2008, and  M50 tour, 2009.

Anne’s first novel Deadlines & Dickheads was published by O’Brien Press in Ireland, October 2006.

‘An hysterically funny debut novel’
Irish Tatler

‘An uproarious,page-turning, razor-sharp expose of Dublin’s media
whores and the shamelessly shallow world they mix in.’
Brian Finnegan, GCN.

‘Dark, mischievous, generous and contains some of the best comic
writing I’ve read in years.’
Tommy Tiernan, comic.

‘Comic writing at it’s best’.
Roisin Ingle, The Irish Times.

‘Mary McNice is hilarious. Anne Gildea has created a kooky
character with balls of steel – a true original.’
Quentin Fottrell, The Sunday Tribune.

‘A sharply comic Irish antidote to chick-lit’,
The Tuam Herald.

Her solo TV work includes Father Ted, (Channel Four), The Green Grass of Home, Dog’s Dinner and The Gerry Ryan Tonight Show (RTE Two), Xit-Poll and two seasons of Xit-File (RTE One), on which she played spoof reporter Ocras Burke, gatecrasher of political press conferences.

She has also guested on various other telly bits and bobs, and done a load of solo radio, from sketch to book reviews.

Film work includes The Matchmaker (Working Title, dir. Mark Joffe).