Orlagh Cassidy

Orlagh Cassidy is an Irish-American actress born on August 17, 1968, in Washington, D.C., to Bryan Cassidy, a Dublin-born architect, and Dr. Marie Mullaney Cassidy, a Dublin-born biochemist. Both parents were Irish immigrants. Cassidy received her BFA in Acting from SUNY Purchase, where she was recognized as the "Queen of Dialects." During her studies, she received a 1989 Princess Grace Award to study at the National Theatre of Great Britain.

Cassidy began her professional acting career at age fourteen at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., where she performed the prologue in Troilus and Cressida. During her senior year of high school she appeared as Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and upon graduating became an apprentice company member, performing in eight shows a week for ten months in works by Molière, Shakespeare, and Chekhov. Her roles during that period included Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Anya in The Cherry Orchard.

Shortly after completing drama school, Cassidy made her Broadway debut in Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good at the Nederlander Theatre in 1991, understudying roles for Cherry Jones, Amelia Campbell, and J. Smith-Cameron. Her subsequent Broadway appearances include Tennessee Williams' Garden District in 1995, Noël Coward's Present Laughter in 1996, and Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage in 2009. The database also lists Something Unspoken and Good among her Broadway credits from the 1991–1996 period.

Off-Broadway, Cassidy has appeared in Eric Coble's Bright Ideas at MCC Theater in 2003, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's The Hundred We Are at The Cell Theatre in 2015, Penelope Skinner's The Ruins of Civilization at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2016, Shakespeare's Hamlet at The Public Theater in 2016, and Graham Moore's Acolyte at 59E59 Theaters in 2017. In early 2020 she portrayed Nancy Pelosi in the world premiere of Bill McMahon's The Adult in the Room at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. In 2023 Cassidy made her professional playwriting debut with the one-woman show It's in The Play, which she wrote and performed at The Cell Theatre as part of the Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival; the production received Origin's Femme First Award.

A long-standing company member of the Irish Repertory Theatre, Cassidy has appeared there in John B. Keane's The Field in 2006, Brian Friel's Aristocrats in 2009, Christine Evans' Can't Complain in 2011, Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa in both 2012 and 2024, and Anthony E. Palermo's It's a Wonderful Life in 2017. Her performance as Maimie Flanagan in The Field earned her a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play in 2007.

On television, Cassidy portrayed Doris Wolfe on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light from 1999 to 2009. She held a recurring role on Another World from 1992 to 1993 and has appeared in The Sinner in 2017 and Chicago Med in 2025. Her film work includes The Sisterhood of Night, directed by Caryn Waechter, in 2014; Josephine Decker's Shirley in 2020; and Kogonada's After Yang in 2021.

Cassidy is also a prolific audiobook narrator, having recorded more than 160 titles and earned 25 Earphones Awards along with two Audie Award nominations. Among her notable narrations are Frank Herbert's Dune, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, and Hernán Díaz's Trust, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Cassidy married Nico Sidoti on September 9, 1995. Together they had two sons. Sidoti died in December 2024 from stomach cancer.