Trinity graduate Ruth Negga nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress

Posted on: 26 January 2017

Trinity graduate Ruth Negga has been nominated for best actress at the 89th Academy Awards.

Ms Negga was short-listed for her portrayal of Mildred Loving in the historical drama ‘Loving’, a film that tells the true tale of a couple in Virginia who effectively changed the laws against interracial marriage with a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1967.

For this role she has also been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, and a BAFTA Rising Star Award.

The Limerick actress studied at the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity College Dublin, graduating with distinction in 2002 with a BA in Theatre Studies.

Since graduating Ms Negga has won critical acclaim for her varied roles, appearing on screen in the films 'Capital Letters' (2004), 'Isolation' (2005), 'Breakfast on Pluto' (2005), 'World War Z' (2016) and 'Warcraft' (2016) and in television series including the BBC's 'Criminal Justice', RTÉ;'s 'Love/Hate', E4's 'Misfits', and ABC's 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'.

In 2011 Trinity’s BA in Theatre Studies was reintroduced as a BA in Acting Studies. The course is taught at The Lir – National Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College Dublin. Other notable alumni from Trinity’s School of Creative Arts include Tom Vaughan Lawlor, Aaron Monaghan, Aonghus Óg McAnally, Lisa Lambe, Aoibhín Garrihy and Aaron Heffernan.