Jamie-Lee O’Donnell: "I was really struggling mentally – and I had to take a bit of a pause to figure it out”

Boldly approaching new chapters and challenges has been the defining theme of Jamie-Lee O’Donnell’s 2025. But life changes, major relocations and fresh career opportunities paled in comparison to the year’s biggest test of all: having to keep her mouth shut every time someone mentioned RuPaul’s Drag Race UK for the guts of 10 months.

“I did it back in January, so I had to wait so long to talk about it,” she says of her recently aired appearance as a guest judge on the hugely popular series, which she had to keep top-secret. “Every time the show would come up in conversation, I’d just have to sit there and say nothing…

“It was brilliant craic,” she adds. “The hair and make-up staff were wonderful – I said I wanted to look like a sexy alien! You have to go all out for Drag Race obviously, so we really went for it, and I felt super, super glam.”

Following a relatively quiet 2024, Jamie-Lee has enjoyed “a really busy year, thankfully” – carving out a path beyond the brilliantly mouthy Michelle in Derry Girls, with recent roles in the acclaimed TV adaptation of Rónán Hession’s Leonard and Hungry Paul, and season two of Baz Ashmawy’s dramedy Faithless. While details are currently under wraps, she’s also landed a role in Rebel Wilson’s upcoming feature film Girl Group, alongside the likes of Jennifer Coolidge and Nicole Scherzinger.

“Michelle is always going to be the iconic part, and I’ll always be really proud of that, because she’s such an interesting character,” the Derry-born star reflects. “But I always knew that there were different parts that I wanted to play. That’s happened in bits and pieces, but this year it’s really kicking off, with the variation of characters. It’s been really positive.”

Jamie-Lee O’Donnell

Jamie-Lee, who’s now based in Barcelona, also views this year as a new chapter in her own personal life, particularly when it comes to looking after her mental health.

“I was doing therapy for a while back home, trying to unpack a lot of stuff from my childhood,” she tells me. “It was sort of running after me for a while – like, I suppose, a lot of people. It was a few years, trying to figure it all out, and come to terms with everything. I finally felt like this year was the time to put it to bed for now, and start looking forward.”

Has it come naturally to her, to be so open about that journey?

“That’s definitely something that came out of the therapy,” she reckons. “Because it wasn’t something that I’d have ever discussed. I don’t think it’s a traditional Irish characteristic, unfortunately. There is that culture sometimes, especially up North, of just saying: ‘Get on with it.’ Yes, that’s beneficial for survival, and I understand why people have that mindset – because I did, for a long time. But it got to a point that it was quite difficult, and it was working against me.”

All of that, of course, was coinciding with the global success of Derry Girls.

“Things just weren’t clicking,” Jamie-Lee says. “I was really struggling mentally, and I had to take a bit of a pause to figure it out. Because those feelings and issues don’t go away – they just sort of hang about.

“And I’m not saying it’s all done,” she adds. “That’s another thing you realise – there’s no end to the ‘healing’. It’s a journey. You grow and expand and evolve.”

Relocating to Barcelona in February proved to be an important part of that journey.

“The big move away was a big thing I did for myself,” she resumes. “I love travelling, and obviously with this job you travel a lot – that’s part of the excitement. But this is one that I’ve done for myself. I didn’t have a job out here, there was nobody else out here… I did all the research I could, sold my house, and said, ‘I’m going to go try this for myself, and see what comes of it.’

“It was about taking a chance, and starting a new chapter of my life – and not being afraid of it, or worried about ending up with a negative outcome.”

Jamie-Lee is now gearing up for her first Christmas in Barcelona – though she’s currently “looking out the window, wondering where the cold is...”

“I didn’t realise how instinctual that was,” she notes. “I’ve been waiting for it, even though it’s not coming! Something happens to your body, I think, if you grow up in a different sort of climate, or if you grow up quite coastal, which a lot of us do in Ireland. So it’s a wee bit jarring, because all the shops here have Christmas stuff in. I can’t imagine living in Australia…

“But it’s a really lovely, laidback city,” she says of Barcelona. “There’s a real mix of Catalan and Spanish, which I’m still trying to figure out. I thought when I first got here that everyone could speak French, because they were saying ‘merci!’ But the people are really wonderful. There’s so much to do, and the architecture is absolutely stunning – so it’s really hard to ever be in a bad mood. And even though it’s technically autumn, I still go to the beach – and people are like, ‘That’s insane…’”

Thankfully, it’s only a two-and-a-half-hour flight back to Ireland, where a lot of her work has been based this year – including the Dublin-shot Leonard And Hungry Paul.

“I was living just behind the Gaiety Theatre,” she says of filming the series. “It was interesting actually, because the last time I was working in Dublin would’ve been 2019 [for The Cripple Of Inishmaan], at the Gaiety. It’s also a great spot, across from Dunnes! As soon as I get back home, I’m straight to Dunnes. I’m obsessed.

“And I do love Dublin,” she continues. “The people are really nice – I always get a free pint in a bar, which is lovely!”

Like the book before it, the Leonard And Hungry Paul TV adaptation – in which Jamie-Lee plays Shelley – has been praised for its wonderfully understated depiction of quiet, gentle people going about their lives in their own way.

“I really loved the relationship between the guys in it, and how that friendship develops,” she says. “I think it’s important to show different types of masculinity on TV. Audiences want to see nice men getting along with each other, and caring about each other and the people around them. It’s a really welcomed tone, when it comes to TV and film.

“I also thought it was just an adorable show, and I thought it would be gorgeous to work on,” she adds. “And I was right. Everyday, as hard as everybody in the cast and crew were working, there was a real cosy, lovely feel to it. There’d be certain scenes, like Leonard and Shelley having a wee bit of romance – and when the director shouted cut, everyone was like, ‘Aw, that’s so cute!’ Everybody was on the same page, and it was so nice.”

Jamie-Lee O’Donnell and Alex Lawther in Leonard and Hungry Paul

Despite being set and shot in Dublin, the series features some familiar international faces, including recent Hot Press interviewee Alex Lawther, of Alien: Earth, Andor and The End of the F***ing World fame. You might also notice an even more familiar voice – with Julia Roberts, a noted fan of Rónán Hession’s original novel, serving as the narrator.

“It’s crazy,” Jamie-Lee says of the Oscar winner’s involvement. “Her voice is perfect for it as well. The perfect tone, the perfect accent.”

In a dramatic change of pace from the world of Leonard And Hungry Paul, this year also saw Jamie-Lee star in the music video for ‘Sayōnara’, KNEECAP’s collaboration with Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll – with her defiant performance celebrating rave culture as an escape from office ennui.

“It was mad craic,” Jamie-Lee recalls. “We had two days to get it together. Obviously Finn [Keenan] the director had a whole thing organised, and was ready to go. But everyone was full of ideas – and it was a ‘yes’ to everything, which felt really nice. I’m glad it turned out the way it did, because we put a lot of work into it.

“I remember meeting them years ago with Saoirse [Monica Jackson of Derry Girls] and Hector [Saoirse’s husband, aka Denis Sulta], I think at an Irish thing,” she says of KNEECAP. “But it just came through like a regular job, through my agent!”

Although she had been learning Irish in Derry in recent years, relocating to Barcelona complicated things slightly.

“I have to stop myself from doing everything at the same time – that’s just my personality,” she tells me. “Learning Irish, learning Spanish, and then lines for work would get mushed up in my brain, so I had to pause the Irish, and focus more on Spanish for now. But I’d love to go to the Gaeltacht for a couple of weeks.”

Still, she makes the effort to use her cúpla focal when she can.

“I think it’s important,” she states. “It’s a goal of mine to use Irish as much as possible. I think it’s very important to have Irish in the household – I think I’d want a non-English-speaking house.”

The recent explosion of interest in Irish history and culture, across the island and far beyond, comes down to a combination of factors – but the success of Derry Girls undoubtedly contributed. In response, Jamie-Lee created her own Channel 4 documentary, The Real Derry, in 2022, to give audiences an insight into contemporary communities in the city, and explore how younger generations have lived with the legacy of the Troubles.

“After Derry Girls, there was obviously massive interest in Irish history, and what happened in the Troubles,” she remarks. “I remember we were getting messages from people from all over the world, saying, ‘We’re now studying it as part of our history section in school.’ It was because of that big interest that I got the opportunity to speak about it, from my own perspective. It was important for me to do that. And it was interesting – I think people got more information from it, on the reality of Derry.”

Derry Girls

That huge international appetite for Irish creative talent has gone nowhere. She describes the ongoing “Irish invasion” – of homegrown actors, musicians and authors making their mark on the world stage – as one of her highlights of the past year.

“It started to kick off before this year, but it’s really picked up speed,” she notes. “It’s really happening around the world now.”

As for next year, what Jamie-Lee’s most looking forward to in her own life is “letting go, and trusting the process.”

“Even when everything seems to be going tits-up!” she resumes. “Trusting the process, and seeing things as a lesson. Swapping the perspective from ‘this isn’t going well’, to, ‘let’s see what’s going to happen today.’ Because I can get caught up in a spiral, if it’s not working out the way I wanted it to work out.

“Adjusting my perspective has really helped with the ups and downs in my life,” she adds. “So that’s something I’m looking forward to next year – not having to practise it as much, because it’s happening naturally now.”