Denise Gough as Dianna Lafferty | Under the Banner of Heaven

Irish actress Gough made headlines in 2016 starring in Duncan MacMillan’s award-winning play, People Places and Things, which earned her an Olivier Award and a Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress. Her central performance, hailed as a “tour de force,” united critics who heaped praise on her harrowing portrayal of a young addict in rehab and firmly positioned Gough as one of the most promising actors of her generation. When it transferred to New York, she earned a Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play.

Gough returned to the National Theatre in 2018 for the new production of Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning two-part play Angels in America where she won her second Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as “Harper Pitt.” The play also earned an Olivier Award for Best Play Revival. When the production transferred to Broadway, Gough earned a Tony Award® and an Outer Circle nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play, amongst the play’s many nominations including Best Revival of a Play.

She will next star in Andor, the Rogue One prequel series for Disney+ starring Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Kyle Soller and Genevieve O’Reilly. Her additional film credits include Monday, Colette, The Kid Who Would Be King, The Other Lamb, Juliet, Naked, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, Jimmy’s Hall, the BAFTA nominated ’71, A Dark Place, Hollows, Complicit, The Kid, Desire and Lecture 21.

Gough’s television credits include Too Close, the title-lead role in the BBC2 thriller series Paula, John Ridley’s series Guerrilla, Apple Tree Yard, The Fall, Sky’s hit comedy Stella, Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories, What Remains, Cuffs, New Tricks, Musketeers, Titanic: Blood and Steel, Waking the Dead, Silent Witness, The Shooting of Tom Hurndall, Messiah: The Rapture, The Commander, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Tell Me Lies and Lucky Man.

On stage, Gough played the Cardinal’s mistress “Julia” in The Duchess of Malfi, starring opposite Gemma Arterton at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Theatre. At The Royal Court, she starred in a production of Adler and Gibb and received rave reviews for her portrayal of student lecturer “Louise.”

In 2012, Gough’s performance in Desire Under the Elms saw her win the Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards. She also earned a nomination for an Evening Standard Theatre Awards’ Outstanding Newcomer for her portrayal of “Annie,” in the Bush Theatre’s production of Our New Girl. Her other theatre credits include The Painter, The Birds, Oh Go My Man, Ahasverus, The Plough and the Stars, The Birds at the Gate, The Grouch, Someone Else’s Shoes, Everything is Illuminated, The Kindness of Strangers, Robbers, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Six Characters in Search of an Author, As You Like It and By the Bog of Cats.

Outside of her theatrical career, Gough has been an enthusiastic supporter of ERA (The Equal Representation for Actresses) a collective of actresses that want to see women represented on screen, in television and theatre in equal measures to men.