Owen O'Neill was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone and educated at Trinity College Dublin.

He made his TV debut on Saturday Live in 1985 and has since performed on numerous TV shows including The Empire Laughs Back for BBC Northern Ireland and his own TV stand-up special for the BBC. In New York he has guested twice on the Conan O’Brien show and has appeared at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival.

As a writer, his debut feature film Arise and Go Now, a black comedy about poets, priests and the IRA was broadcast in the BBC 2's Screenplay series in association with BBC Northern Ireland. The Fitz, a sitcom for BBC2, was screened in 1999.

Owen wrote and starred in Shooting to Stardom, a short film for Channel4, which was adapted from his short story Night Bus. It won best film at the Cork Film Festival and was shown at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.

During the past nine years, Owen O’Neill has written seven one-man shows for the Edinburgh Festival. Some of these shows have won several awards, including two Fringe Firsts, the Edinburgh Critics award for Best Comedy and the LWT Writer’s Award for Best Comedy. Volcano Dancing, his new book of poetry and extracts from his one-man plays is currently on sale. He has currently been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to adapt six of his stage plays for radio.

Film, TV and Theatre Credits

2004: Dale Harding. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. (Theatre). Dir Terry Johnston
2003: Juror No 8, Twelve Angry Men. (Theatre). Dir Guy Masterson.
2003: Jonjo Mickeybo. (Feature Film). Dir Terry Loan.
2002: Paradise Heights. (TV Drama). BBC1
2001: The Bill. TV Drama. (ITV)
2001: A Sense of Death. (Feature Film). Redwood Films C4. Dir Nicolas Ferrin.
1999: The General. (Feature Film). Dir John Boorman.
1998: Much Ado about Nothing. (Theatre). Dir John O'Hare.
1998: The Matchmaker. (Feature Film). Dir Mark Joffe.
1997: Michael Collins. (Feature Film). Dir Neil Jordan.
1996: Shooting to Stardom. (Short. Film). Dir Kieron Walsh)