Nuala McKeever

Early life and education

McKeever grew up in the west of the city and graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a degree in languages.

Career

After graduating from university, McKeever worked at BBC Northern Ireland for eight years, initially as a secretary before becoming a researcher.

One of the first projects she worked on after quitting her research job was The Wilsons, for BBC Radio Ulster.

This was followed by an appearance in Two Ceasefires and a Wedding (1995), a short film made for the BBC by the Northern Irish comedy group Hole in the Wall Gang. The resulting comedy television series Give My Head Peace made McKeever a household name in Northern Ireland. She played the character "Emer" for two series.

After leaving Give My Head Peace, she was hired by UTV. Here she wrote and produced McKeever, a sketch show.

Her first play, Out of The Box, directed by Andrea Montgomery, premiered at the Belfast Festival at Queen's in October 2005, and subsequently was performed at the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine at the University of Ulster and at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in April 2006. The play toured across Ireland before closing with a week as the first production in the new Grand Opera House Studio in Belfast in December 2006.

Subsequently, McKeever and Montgomery produced It's Not All Rain & Potatoes, a sketch comedy about Ireland for Terra Nova Productions, and Is It Me?, a sitcom for BBC Northern Ireland.

Personal life

Her long-term partner Australian-born Mike Moloney died at his north Belfast home in April 2013.