Jamie-Lee O'Donnell

“Even as a kid, I would practice characters.”

“Within the industry - I can only speak for myself - but I think everybody has different goals and ambitions and different versions of success. So, it's individual how you think about it and what you want out of it.”

“A lot of people pretend to be me if they have a Derry accent and curly hair.”

“Even as a young girl, if I had something to say, I was always listened to.”

“It's weird. I find it more vulnerable and scarier to show people your writing as opposed to your acting.”

“No matter what the situation is - even if it's something that's not overly funny - people in Derry can always find a silver lining by laughing about it. We're a very resilient people.”

“Derry Girls' did really well really quickly, so we didn't even have to wait for the season to finish before we saw the impact.”

“Have I ever dated a Protestant? Probably, without realising.”

“It's what every actor wants to hear: that you do a piece of work that you really love, that you're really passionate about, and people globally respond so positively. It's the dream.”

“I don't go into my DMs that often but when I do I don't usually open pictures because you just don't know what's there, same with videos and voice notes.”

“I get a lot of people asking me out and shooting their shot like you wouldn't believe, there's a lot of, 'Are you in Belfast do you wanna go out? 'Fancy a game of pool and a pint?'”

“Humour is almost like a coping mechanism and everybody's up for having a bit of craic to try and pull through and see the brighter side of things.”

“Particularly because of the Troubles, there was a real pull-together of communities. We had a lot of young women that were representing us in Parliament and things like that.”

“Being able to go and buy shopping the first couple of times, and not having to check what anything cost and tally it up in your head as you're going around, that was a big moment for me in realising that things had shifted.”

“I was a very dramatic child.”

“I feel like I'm doing really good projects and working with really great people; I just hope that it continues.”

“If you grow up in a certain place where you are afraid of the police, it definitely does something to your decisions, how you feel about yourself, if the people who are supposed to protect you and look after you, you are brought up afraid of them and not trusting of them.”

“When I was coming up as an actor, even when I was going to Irish roles, I was advised to pick a different accent because mine was so strong.”

“I feel like creativity seems to rise up wherever there's been sadness or conflict as a coping mechanism.”

“Being a struggling actor was a huge part of who I was. Now I've realised I'm not terrified of what comes next any more. And that's great, but in its own way, scary, too.”