Geraldine Hughes

Geraldine Hughes is an actress born in 1970 in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, who has built a career spanning film, television, and theater, including multiple Broadway productions between 2007 and 2018.

Hughes grew up in the Divis Flats during the period of sectarian conflict known as The Troubles. She attended St. Louise's Comprehensive College in Belfast in the 1980s, where participation in the school drama club served as her primary outlet and her only acting training before her professional debut. At fourteen, she was among three children selected from hundreds auditioned across Ireland for the 1984 American television film Children in the Crossfire, which brought her to the United States for the first time. Colleagues from that production later funded a private scholarship covering her tuition at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts from the School of Theater, Film and TV. Hughes covered her own living expenses during her studies. In 2009, Queen's University Belfast awarded her an honorary doctorate for her contributions to the performing arts.

During her early years in Los Angeles, Hughes worked part-time as a nanny for Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. Her film career includes appearances in Duplex, Rocky Balboa, and Gran Torino, as well as the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in Killing Lincoln. Following a theater performance, a casting director approached her to audition for the role of Marie in Rocky Balboa. Hughes lived in Los Angeles for sixteen years before relocating to New York City.

Hughes wrote and performed Belfast Blues, a solo play drawn from her experiences growing up during the Troubles. She dedicates performances of the work to children living in conflict zones. The production earned her the Los Angeles Ovation Award in 2003, the Garland Award and Drama Critics Circle Award in 2004, and a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance in 2004.

Her Broadway credits include Translations, Jerusalem, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Hughes left Belfast at eighteen and continues to return regularly for visits. She was married to Ian Harrington, an American from Pennsylvania.