Dearbhla Molloy was born in Dublin, the eldest of seven children, one of whom, her brother Dara, is well-known in Ireland as a priest and education expert. As a little girl she was taken to see the plays at the Abbey Theater, Dublin, particularly enjoying the 'uniquely Irish' pantomimes. She left school at sixteen and claims that, whilst she had no burning ambitions to act, she was too young for university entry and so her parents allowed her to appear in plays at the Abbey. It was lucky for her that they were being performed in the Irish language, which she had learnt at school. Over the next few years she consolidated her stage reputation at both the Abbey and the Gate theaters, coming to England to tour with an Abbey production. She was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, has played Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet in the West End, and has lived in London ever since. In 1991 she was in the company that performed Brian Friel's 'Dancing at Lughnasa', about the sad lives of a group of sisters in pre-war rural Ireland, on Broadway, and was nominated for a Tony award, though her role went to the non-Irish Kathy Burke in the cinema version. Whilst her reputation is justly high as a stage actress, she has appeared in many television plays and series, notably as Michael Palin's wife in the hard-hitting 'GBH' and also in more populist fare like 'New Tricks' - as a murderer - and 'Midsomer Murders' - as a murder victim as well as the American 'Sex and the City'.