Biography for
Martin McDonagh More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 March 1970, Camberwell, London, England, UK

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Trade Mark

Frequently integrates dark comedy into his films

Frequently collaborates with Brendan Gleeson

Trivia

Won the 2003 Olivier Award for best new comedy for his play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore".

Won the 2004 Olivier Award for best new play for his play "The Pillowman".

Has twice been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as author of a Best Play nominee: in 1998 for "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" and in 1999 for "The Lonesome West."

In 1997 he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy for his play "A Skull in Connemara".

He used to spend his summers in Ireland. he divided his time between Easkey in Co. Sligo where his mother was from and Connemara Co. Galway where his father was from

Brother of screenwriter John Michael McDonagh.

In 1998 he won the 1997-1998 Drama Desk Award for Oustanding play for "Beauty Queen of Leenane".

In 2005 he was nominated for the 2004-2005 Drama Desk Award for Oustanding Play for "The Pillowman".

Won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play in 1998 for his Play "The Beauty Queen of Leenane".

He was nominated for the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play for "The Pillowman". He lost out to John Patrick Shanley for "Doubt".

His Tony-nominated play "The Pillowman" was based on his own collection of short stories.

His favorite music is Nirvana, The Clash and The Pogues.

His greatest influences are not in theatre but film. He cites Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Terrence Malick and Quentin Tarantino.

In 2006 he won an Obie Award for Best Play for "The Lieutenant of Inishmore".

He was nominated in 2006 for the Drama Desk Award for Best Play for the Broadway production of "The Lieutenant of Inishmore".

In 2006 he was nominated for Best Play at the Tony Awards for The Lieutenant of Inishmore

In July 2006 he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)

At the age of 27 he was the first playwright since Shakespeare to have four plays running simultaneously in London's West-End

For his first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane he won the 1996 Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright

He began his writing career by scripting radio plays. None of them were ever produced but they taught him he could write dialogue and storytelling and in his own opinion that was all you needed for Theatre

In 1996 he won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright for his first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane

It took five years to stage his Broadway and West-End hit The Lieutenent of Inishmore because all the major Theatres in London passed on it. In the case of the National Theatre according to McDonagh it's artistic director Trevor Nunn refused it on the grounds that it's staging might be inflammatory and disrupt the Northern Ireland peace process

In his first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane there is a section where the main character Maureen tells Pato of the racist abuse she received while working as a cleaner in England. McDonagh has been quoted on saying that this was inspired by the stories he would hear from his own mother who heard similar abuse while she worked as a cleaner in London.

Although all his plays except for the Pillowman are based in Ireland and he regards himself as an Anglo-Irish playwright he has never lived full time in Ireland.

His father was a construction worker and his mother was a cleaning lady in London when he was growing up

Along with other modern day playwrights Conor McPherson and Jez Butterworth. McDonagh is seen to be one of the key innovators of a new genre of theater that has become known as " In your Face " Theatre. It's function is to present the the audience with vulgar, shocking, and confrontational material on the stage.

When his first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane and its follow-up plays became instant hits on both sides of the Atlantic, McDonagh had the reputation of being a wild man. Whenever asked a question he was never afraid to tread on toes and he replied with provocative answer. This got him the title of being the enfant terrible of theater. After a couple of run-ins with the tabloids most notably the Sean Connery incident at the Evening Standard Awards in 1996, he now rarely gives interviews and these are given only when they are really necessary.

In 1996 he won the Writers Guild Award for Best Fringe Play at the Edinburgh Fringe festival

In 2002 he won the Czech Theatre award entitled The Alfred Radok Award for Best Play. He won for the final installment in his worldwide famous Leenane trilogy. The final installment is entitled The Lonesome West.

In 2003 he won his second Alfred Radok Theatre award for best play. This time He won for his political West End hit The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

In 1998 he was won the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play. His play, The Beauty Queen of Lenane, tied with Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

He won the 1998 Outer Critics Award for Best Broadway Play for The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

At the 64th Annual Drama League Awards he won the Best Play category for his Broadway hit The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

In 1997 his play The Beauty Queen of Leenane was nominated for the BBC Play of the year award at the Olivier Awards.

His play, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," at the Northlight Theatre was nominated for a 2009 Joseph Jefferson Award for Production of a Play (Large).

His play, "The Pillowman," at the Redtwist Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2010 Joseph Jefferson Award (Non-Equity Division) for Production of a Play.

Personal Quotes

I can't stand up in front of people. It just fills me with horror.

I've been on a treadmill of plays in London and here [New York]. It's a great treadmill to be on, but I finally had to step back and maybe live a little bit more and grow up and travel and see what kind of writer or person I've become.