Eva Birthistle

Eva Birthistle is an Irish actress and writer born on 16 April 1974. She is best known for her television and film roles, including her work in Bad Sisters, Ae Fond Kiss..., and her depiction of Hild on The Last Kingdom from 2015 until 2022. Over the course of her career, she has received two IFTA Best Actress in a Leading Role awards for film, alongside a London Film Critics Circle Award.

Born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, Birthistle relocated with her family to Derry, Northern Ireland, at the age of 14. Raised Catholic, she received her education at the non-denominational Foyle College. Following her GCSEs, she formally trained in dramatic arts at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.

Birthistle made her television acting debut in 1995 as Regina Crosbie in the series Glenroe, remaining with the show until 1998. She secured her first feature film role in Alan Gilsenan's All Souls' Day in 1997, which was followed by appearances in Drinking Crude alongside Colin Farrell, the television movie Miracle at Midnight with Mia Farrow, and the 2002 dramatization Sunday, written by Jimmy McGovern. After appearing in the television series Trust in 2003, she played Roisin Hanlon in Ken Loach's film Ae Fond Kiss..., earning the London Film Critics Circle Award for British or Irish Actress of the Year.

Throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, Birthistle took on film roles in Breakfast on Pluto, Imagine Me & You, Save Angel Hope, and Middletown. Her television appearances during this time included the political drama The State Within as Jane Lavery, an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, the BBC drama The Last Enemy, and an episode of Ashes to Ashes. She also featured in Peter Greenaway's historical drama Nightwatching as Saskia van Uylenburg, as well as the horror films The Children and Wake Wood.

Birthistle's acting work in the 2010s included her award-winning role in The Rendezvous, which earned her Best Actress at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival, as well as roles in Five Daughters, Waking the Dead, Strike Back: Project Dawn, and The Psychopath Next Door. She portrayed Sarah Bailey in the miniseries Amber, appeared as Georgina in the feature film Brooklyn, and co-starred in The Delinquent Season opposite Cillian Murphy.

In addition to her long-running portrayal of the warrior nun Hild in The Last Kingdom, Birthistle expanded her career into writing and directing. She made her directorial debut with the 2020 short film Kathleen Was Here, which she subsequently adapted into her 2024 feature-length directorial debut, Kathleen Is Here, with both projects starring Hazel Doupe.

Birthistle is married to acupuncturist Ross Barr. The couple has two children: a son named Jesse, born in 2013, and a daughter named Joni, born in 2017.