Biography
Deirdre O'Connell is an American character actress who has worked extensively on stage, screen, and television. O'Connell began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. She made her Broadway debut in the 1986 revival of The Front Page, and was nominated for the 1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the off-Broadway production Love and Anger. She is the recipient of two Drama-Logue Awards and a Los Angele...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Eddington
2025
as Dawn
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

Ghostwritten
2022
as Mary Laury
Clinging to the reputation of his one hit novel, writer Guy Laury accepts a winter residency on a reclusive island whose residents seem friendly at fi...

The Requin
2022
as Anne
A couple on a romantic getaway find themselves stranded at sea when a tropical storm sweeps away their villa. In order to survive, they are forced to ...

I Am a Seagull
2019
as Didi / Arkadina
Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" is interpreted by a handful of top-shelf stage actors from New York City as they converge in an upstate lakeside retreat...

Diane
2019
as Donna
Diane is a devoted friend and caretaker, particularly to her drug-addicted son. But as those around her begin to drift away in the last quarter of her...

Lez Bomb
2018
as Rose Anderson
A closeted young woman brings her girlfriend home for Thanksgiving, only to have her coming-out efforts thwarted by the unexpected arrival of her male...

The Boy Downstairs
2018
as Amy
A young woman is forced to reflect on her first relationship when she inadvertently moves into her ex boyfriend's apartment building.

The Holdouts
2017
as Annie
A comedy about New Yorkers who can’t afford to live in New York anymore

In the Radiant City
2016
A man must return home to rural Kentucky where he and his family, fragmented and haunted, still carry the stigma of a murder his brother committed 20 ...

Detours
2016
as Beth
A newly single New Yorker must re-locate to Florida for her dream job. She drives south with her widowed dad, her mom's ashes in a coffee can, and a G...

St. Vincent
2014
as Linda
A young boy whose parents just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic, war veteran who lives next door.

The Quitter
2014
as Kathleen Lembo
When a failed baseball player's ex-girlfriend moves back to the neighborhood with her seven-year-old daughter, he realizes he carries more regrets tha...

Gabriel
2014
as Meredith
Convinced that reuniting with his old girlfriend will bring his dreams to fruition, Gabriel risks it all in a desperate and increasingly obsessive pur...

Being Flynn
2012
as Frowzy Woman
Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick w...

You Don't Know Jack
2010
as Linda
Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.

A Dog Year
2009
as Donna Brady
Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answer...

The Greatest
2009
as Joyce
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, an...

Wendy and Lucy
2008
as Deb (voice)
A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

Synecdoche, New York
2008
as Ellen's Mother
A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as ...

What Happens in Vegas
2008
as Mrs. Fuller
During a wild vacation in Las Vegas, career woman Joy McNally and playboy Jack Fuller come to the sober realization that they have married each other ...

American Loser
2007
as Cynthia
A dramatic comedy about a self-induced attention-deficit disordered, learning disabled, Tourette's syndrome suffering, balance impaired, ex-alcoholic ...

Stephanie Daley
2007
as Jane
Stephanie collapses in a pool of blood while on a school skiing trip. A doctor discovers that the blood is the after-effects of giving birth. Soon aft...

Winter Passing
2006
as Deirdre
Actress Reese Holden has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father, a reclusive...

Imaginary Heroes
2004
as Marge Dwyer
Matt Travis is good-looking, popular, and his school's best competitive swimmer, so everyone is shocked when he inexplicably commits suicide. As the f...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004
as Hollis
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his me...

Secondhand Lions
2003
as Helen
The comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the b...

Dragonfly
2002
as Gwyn
A grieving doctor is being contacted by his late wife through his patient's near death experiences.

Hearts in Atlantis
2001
as Mrs. Gerber
A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.

Just Ask My Children
2001
as Landry
Based on the true story of a modern-day witch hunt, in which a couple is falsely accused and imprisoned for molesting their own children.

Relative Evil
2001
as Phyllis
Relative Evil (aka Ball in the House) - When JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home from rehab, he is greeted by a conniving family who are plotting to cas...

Just Looking
1999
as Mrs. Braverman, Lenny's Teacher
It's 1955. Lenny is a 14-year old boy who is totally fascinated by sex. He is too scared to "do it," so he dedicates his summer to seeing two other pe...

Murder in a Small Town
1999
as Kate Faxton
A widowed theatre director moves to a small Connecticut town where he gets involved in solving the murder of a millionaire, who was the most despised ...

Breast Men
1997
as Lacey
We follow the two Texas doctors who invented the modern breast implant and its surgical procedure. However, when success and money come their way, the...

A Deadly Vision
1997
as Marilyn Middleton
A waitress who has psychic visions of murders before they happen is asked by a police detective to help find a serial killer.

Lifeform
1996
as Dr. Gracia Scott
When the Viking space capsule suddenly returns to Earth from its long ago trip to Mars, it brings with it an intelligent visitor that is part "Alien" ...

Chasing the Dragon
1996
as Doris
Working class mother becomes addicted to heroin, and soon her life falls apart.

Our Son, the Matchmaker
1996
as Winona
As seen in flashback, this is the story of 43-year-old Julie a beautician who when 15 was forced by her mother to give up her baby for adoption. Her s...

Trial by Fire
1995
as Roberta
A high-school teacher tries to help one of her troubled male students, who misinterprets her interest.

Kansas
1995
as Holly
When a single mother and high-powered Chicago ad executive returns to her home town in Kansas to care for her ailing father, she rediscovers the joys ...

Smoke
1995
as Sue the Waitress
Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul t...

Fighting for My Daughter
1995
as Peggy
Unable to get the police to help, a woman launches her own investigation to save her daughter from a dangerous prostitution ring.

Fearless
1993
as Nan Gordon
After a terrible air disaster, survivor Max Klein emerges a changed person. Unable to connect to his former life or to wife Laura, he feels godlike an...

Daybreak
1993
as Mom
When a substantial portion of the nation's populace falls victim to a deadly plague, the tyrannical government quarantines them in camps, offering no ...

Cool World
1992
as Isabelle Malley
A bizarre accident lands Frank Harris in Cool World, a realm of cartoons. Years later, cartoonist Jack Deebs, who's been drawing Cool World, crosses o...

CrissCross
1992
as Shelly
Set in 1969, a twelve-year-old grows up in Key West with his mother, who is paying the bills by stripping at the local topless bar. The boy finds out ...

Leaving Normal
1992
as Ellen
Darly, a waitress with a past that's weighing her down, decides to drive to Alaska to try and come to terms with her unfortunate history. Along the wa...

Straight Talk
1992
as Lily
Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in ...

Falling from Grace
1992
as Sally Cutler
Rock singer John Mellencamp makes his screen and directorial debut in this story by "Lonesome Dove" author, Larry McMurtry. The story, not too separat...

Pastime
1990
as Inez Brice
A veteran minor league pitcher in 1957 tutors a young phenomenon.

State of Grace
1990
as Irene
Hell's Kitchen, New York. Terry Noonan returns home after a ten-year absence. He soon reconnects with Jackie, a childhood friend and member of the Iri...

Brain Dead
1990
as Mrs. Halsey
In a battle of man versus machine, Martin, a top neurosurgeon who's studying brain malfunctions that cause mental illness, delves deep into his own mi...
Misplaced
1989
as Ella
The story of a strong-minded Polish mother, Halina Nowak who desperately wants her talented son, Jacek to have a life in the free world.

Stars & Bars
1988
as Shanda Gage
A British art expert leaves New York to buy a long-lost Renoir from a Georgia eccentric.

Anna
1987
as Assistant #2
Czech refugee Krystyna travels to New York in search of her actress idol and fellow expatriate, Anna. After her own arrival in the Big Apple, Anna fin...

Tin Men
1987
as Nellie
A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.