Kate O'Flynn is a familiar face on British television, theatre and film, but the Emmy-nominated actor had a very normal childhood in Greater Manchester. She was born in Bury in 1986, the daughter of a dentist father and a French teacher mother. Her mother's love of amateur dramatics sparked her interest in performance, while Manchester's Royal Exchange youth theatre cemented her ambition.
Training and Early Career
As a teenager, O'Flynn attended free performances and learned about production. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, moving to the capital at 18. Her first professional role after RADA was in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, playing Suzy. Leigh advised: "The most important thing he said to me was, 'You've got to be in the real world, not just talking about acting and being boring all the time.'"
At RADA she was in the same year as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, creator of Fleabag.
Notable Roles and Widow's Bay
O'Flynn has played co-lead Fiona Lewis in Channel 4's Everyone Else Burns, starred in HBO/Sky's Landscapers alongside Olivia Colman and David Thewlis, and appeared as DC Dinah Kowalska in Paul Abbott's No Offence. Film audiences know her from Bridget Jones's Baby as Alice.
Her latest role is Patricia Moyer in Apple TV's comedy-horror series Widow's Bay, created by Katie Dippold. Patricia is a sullen, awkwardly charming "final girl" whose unpredictable presence earned O'Flynn a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. The series follows a mayor trying to boost tourism on a cursed New England island. Regarding season two, O'Flynn told Awards Buzz: "I have complete trust in Katie and the writers. The series is going to become what it needs to become... There's still so much story left to tell."
Awards and Personal Life
Alongside her Olivier and Emmy nominations, she has won a Clarence Derwent Award and a TMA Award for Best Supporting Actress. Away from work, she is close friends with Bridgerton and Wicked star Jonathan Bailey. In a 2018 The Times interview, Bailey called her his 'all-time bezzie' and revealed plans to trek to Everest Base Camp. They met in the 2009 stage play The House of Special Purpose at the Minerva Theatre. O'Flynn is private about her relationships and does not use personal social media.
Widow's Bay streams on Apple TV; season two has been confirmed.
