Kerry Condon

Kerry Condon came out of Tipperary and into the Royal Shakespeare Company young enough to be the youngest actress the company had cast as Ophelia, in a Hamlet that ran through 2001 and 2002. In the same period she began working with Martin McDonagh on stage, in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and later The Cripple of Inishmaan, and that partnership has shaped most of what she is known for.

Television kept her busy in between, first as Octavia in Rome and then as Stacey Ehrmantraut across seven years of Better Call Saul, a part that is easy to underrate. Stacey is a grieving daughter in law with a small child and a complicated dependence on Mike, and Condon plays her without a single bid for sympathy, which is exactly what makes the character hard to shake off. Marvel audiences know her voice better than her face: she is F.R.I.D.A.Y., the artificial intelligence running inside Tony Stark's suit.

Then came The Banshees of Inisherin, where McDonagh finally handed her a part the size of her talent. Siobhan is the only person on the island with a functioning inner life, and Condon plays her exasperation as intelligence rather than shrewishness, which is a much harder note to hit. It won her the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination, and the parts since, including the technical director in F1, have been noticeably larger.