Geraldine Hughes

Geraldine Hughes is an actress from Belfast who grew up in the Divis Flats during the Troubles and took part in her school drama club. At 14 she was chosen from hundreds of children auditioned in Ireland for Children of the Crossfire (1984). She studied at the University of California in Los Angeles, earning a BA from its School of Theater, Film and TV, and in 2009 Queens University in Belfast awarded her an honorary doctorate. After a theater performance, a casting director asked her to try out for the part of Marie in Rocky Balboa (2006). Her other films include Duplex, Gran Torino (2008) and Killing Lincoln (2013), in which she played Mary Todd Lincoln. She wrote and performed the solo play Belfast Blues. She won a Los Angeles Ovation Award in 2003 and the Garland and Drama Critics Circle Awards in 2004, and was nominated for a Drama League Award for her acting in Belfast Blues in 2004.