---
name: "Elaine Cassidy"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/elaine-cassidy"
fi1m_id: "elaine-cassidy"
imdb_id: "nm0144187"
tmdb_id: 20054
wikidata_id: "Q237545"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "31 December 1979"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 72
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-10-07T17:16:08.304393+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Elaine Cassidy

## Identity

Elaine Cassidy

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/elaine-cassidy
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** elaine-cassidy
- **IMDb ID:** nm0144187
- **TMDB ID:** 20054
- **Wikidata ID:** Q237545
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Cassidy, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q237545, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0144187/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/20054

Actor. Born 31 December 1979 in Kilcoole, Wicklow, Ireland.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 31 December 1979, Kilcoole, Wicklow, Ireland
- **Active:** 2001–present
- **Also known as:** Ελέιν Κάσιντυ
- **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 80 (1), 2010s 73 (1), 2020s 63 (1)
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Mystery 3, Drama 2, Crime 1, Horror 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 3 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $210m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Cassidy, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q237545, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0144187/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/20054

## Streaming the US now

- **AMC+:** [*The Others*](https://film.one/film/the-others.md) (80)
- **Apple TV:** [*No Offence*](https://film.one/tv/no-offence.md) (73)
- **Netflix:** [*The Wonder*](https://film.one/film/the-wonder.md) (63)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Elaine Cassidy

> Elaine Cassidy does her best screen work from inside a closed room, as young women cut off, held too close or watched. In *The Wonder* she is the one face nobody can read, and it is the right face for the film.

Rosaleen O'Donnell sits at her daughter's bedside in *The Wonder* (2022), kisses the child, and the English nurse hired to watch the girl cannot tell what the kiss is for. Neither could we. Elaine Cassidy plays the mother so that love for the daughter and faith in God look exactly alike from the outside, and she never lets the camera see which one is in charge. Toby Jones's doctor wants the girl to be a marvel and Ciarán Hinds's priest wants her to be a saint, and you can read both of them in a scene. Rosaleen you cannot read in an hour.

That is where Cassidy has mostly worked: young women cut off, or held too tightly by one other person, inside houses that do not let much light in. Atom Egoyan cast her as the pregnant Irish teenager Felicia in *Felicia's Journey* (1999), opposite Bob Hoskins. Kirsten Sheridan gave her Runt in *Disco Pigs* (2001), from Enda Walsh's play, with Cillian Murphy as the other half of a pair who cannot be separated. The same year she was Lydia in Alejandro Amenábar's *The Others*, a film we rate highly and in which we did not single her out, which is fair to the film, since it belongs to Nicole Kidman and the dark, and not quite fair to her. Then *Fingersmith* (2005), as Maud Lilly in the BBC's Sarah Waters adaptation: another period house, another woman kept in it.

Television took her for most of the next decade. She led *Harper's Island* (2009) in America, played Katherine Glendenning in *The Paradise* (2012–2013), and spent three series as DC Dinah Kowalska in Paul Abbott's *No Offence* (2015–2018). The word that attaches to that ensemble work is solid, and it is meant kindly, though it is not the word anyone hopes for. Her reputation rests on the early leads and on the intensity she brought to them, and there has been less talk since about what else she can do.

*The Wonder* is the answer, or the beginning of one. The girl in the bed is played by her daughter, Kíla Lord Cassidy, and for the film's first hour the two of them are the only relationship on screen that does not announce its terms. We watched that bedside kiss and could not decide whether it was comfort or something colder, and it unsettled us more than anything in the film's noisier last half hour. That is a supporting part in a film we scored 63, and it is still the performance of hers we would send a stranger to.

Someone should give her a lead in a film again. It has been a long time since *Disco Pigs*.

## Biography

Elaine Cassidy is an Irish actress. She was born on 31 December 1979 in Raheny and moved with her family to Kilcoole, County Wicklow, as a child. She began acting in school productions and took drama classes during secondary school.

Cassidy's film roles include Felicia in *Felicia's Journey* (1999), Lydia in *The Others* (2001), Runt in *Disco Pigs* (2001) and Ellie Seacord in *The Loft* (2014). On television she has appeared as Abby Mills in *Harper's Island* (2009), Maud Lilly in *Fingersmith* (2005), Katherine Glendenning in *The Paradise* (2012), Louisa de Clermont in *A Discovery of Witches* (2018) and Rosaleen O'Donnell in *The Wonder* (2022).

She has won two Irish Film and Television Awards, for *Disco Pigs* and *Harper's Island*. Cassidy married actor Stephen Lord in 2007.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

- *The Wonder* (2022), Fi1m 63, as Rosaleen O'Donnell — [page](https://film.one/film/the-wonder.md)
- *No Offence* (2015), Fi1m 73, as Dinah Kowalska — [page](https://film.one/tv/no-offence.md)
- *The Others* (2001), Fi1m 80, as Lydia — [page](https://film.one/film/the-others.md)

## Complete filmography (40)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Salvable* (2025), as Elaine
- *The Colour of My Room* (2024), Actor
- *Belgravia: The Next Chapter* (2024), series, as Davison
- *Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale* (2024), series, as Sarah Fenn
- *The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die* (2023), as Queen Eadgifu
- *The Wonder* (2022), as Rosaleen O'Donnell — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/the-wonder.md)
- *Intruder* (2021), series, as Rebecca Hickey
- *The Dark Tower* (2020), as Gabrielle Deschain
- *Strangeways Here We Come* (2018), as Steph Nolan
- *A Discovery of Witches* (2018), series, as Louisa de Clermont
- *Acceptable Risk* (2017), series, as Sarah Manning
- *Mum's List* (2016), as Rachel
- *Property of the State* (2016), as Margaret
- *National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses* (2016), as Madame de Tourvel
- *The Program* (2015), as Betsy Andreu
- *No Offence* (2015), series, as Dinah Kowalska — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/tv/no-offence.md)
- *The Loft* (2014), as Ellie Seacord
- *Hannah Cohen's Holy Communion* (2012), as Rachel Cohen
- *The Paradise* (2012), series, as Katherine Glendenning, Katherine Weston
- *Just Henry* (2011), as Maureene
- *Harper's Island* (2009), series, as Abby Mills
- *Little White Lie* (2008), as Annie Mulcahy
- *A Room with a View* (2008), series, as Lucy Honeychurch
- *A Room with a View* (2007), as Lucy Honeychurch
- *And When Did You Last See Your Father?* (2007), as Sandra
- *The Truth* (2006), as Candy
- *The Ghost Squad* (2005), series, as Amy Harris
- *Fingersmith* (2005), series, as Maud Lilly
- *Uncle Adolf* (2005), as Geli Raubal
- *Watermelon* (2003), as Anna Ryan
- *The Bay of Love and Sorrows* (2002), as Carrie Matchett
- *The Lost World* (2001), as Agnes Cluny
- *The Lost World* (2001), series, as Agnes Cluny
- *Disco Pigs* (2001), as Runt / Sinead
- *The Others* (2001), as Lydia — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/the-others.md)
- *Felicia's Journey* (1999), as Felicia
- *The Sun, The Moon and The Stars* (1996), as Shelley
- *Mission Top Secret* (1993), series, Actor
- *The Night House*, as Jenny
- *The Reformation of Sister Edith*, as Mathilde

## Gallery

- ![Elaine Cassidy](https://film.one/media/person/97433/gallery-8cb6d68f573f.png) Elaine Cassidy — Simon Richards, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Elaine_Cassidy_2012.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022](https://film.one/media/person/97433/gallery-24b102383417.jpg) The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/TheWondeBFI071022_%2810_of_17%29_%2852415543894%29.jpg/1280px-TheWondeBFI071022_%2810_of_17%29_%2852415543894%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022](https://film.one/media/person/97433/gallery-9058fee03468.jpg) The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/TheWondeBFI071022_%2811_of_17%29_%2852415772243%29.jpg/1280px-TheWondeBFI071022_%2811_of_17%29_%2852415772243%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022](https://film.one/media/person/97433/gallery-d86af05e8771.jpg) The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/TheWondeBFI071022_%2812_of_17%29_%2852415262556%29.jpg/1280px-TheWondeBFI071022_%2812_of_17%29_%2852415262556%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022](https://film.one/media/person/97433/gallery-2e8fdf8c95cc.jpg) The Wonder - BFI LFF Gala - Royal Festival Hall - Friday 7th October 2022 — Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/TheWondeBFI071022_%2813_of_17%29_%2852414747342%29.jpg/1280px-TheWondeBFI071022_%2813_of_17%29_%2852414747342%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/elaine-cassidy