Carrie Crowley

Caroline Anne Crowley (born 23 May 1964) is an Irish actress, Gaeilgeoir and former radio and television presenter.

She has had her own chat show, Limelight, and co-presented the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 with Ronan Keating. Her acting credits include The Clinic, School Run, An Crisis, Fair City. She has also appeared as Elisef in the first two seasons of the TV series Vikings. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress IFTA award for her performance in An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) (2022).

Crowley was born and raised in Waterford in the south-east of Ireland.^[1] Her mother, Nodhlaig,^[1] who was from The Rosses in the west of County Donegal in Ulster, was a teacher and her father, Con,^[1] who was from Cork, was a garda; she also has one sister, Bríd.^[1] She first went on stage in a local production of Oliver!.^[1] She graduated with a B.Ed. from St. Patricks College, Drumcondra.^{[citation needed]}

Before she began a career in television, Crowley was a primary school teacher.^[1][2]

Crowley began her broadcasting career on local radio in her home city of Waterford on WLR FM,^[3] and presented several different shows between 1991 and 1996 before moving to RTÉ.^[4] She started out in children's programming, co-presenting the Irish language versions of Echo Island with comedian Dara Ó Briain, and starring in the pre-school series The Morbegs as the character Liodain.^[3]

In 1997, Crowley was offered the role as presenter of the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 (hosted by RTÉ),^[3] with Ronan Keating. She also appeared before the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, speaking to Terry Wogan and wishing him and Ulrika Jonsson well before they started presenting the show.^[4]

After presenting the Eurovision, Crowley became one of the biggest stars on RTÉ in the 1990s. According to her this was a major problem at the time, she was working on several shows on RTÉ. She presented Potluck Mondays to Fridays at 5:30, on a Thursday night she had her own health show called Pulse and on Sundays she had her own prime-time chat show called Limelight.^[4] Limelight ran for two seasons.^[3]

She later left television presenting to return to radio presenting, co-presenting Fandango with Ray D'Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1. She appeared on RTÉ Radio 1 every Sunday night. Crowley has since distanced herself from her RTÉ career, describing herself as an "accidental tourist" at the station.^[3]

In 2008 she appeared in the TG4 drama The Running Mate and TV3's School Run in 2009.^[5] She appeared in The Clinic also in 2009.^[5] She has starred in Irish language short films including An Gaeilgeoir Nocht and has appeared in an episode of the Irish language television series An Crisis.^[5] She appeared in the drama series for TG4 called Anseo.^[5] In 2010 she teamed up with actors, Sorcha Fox, Jamie Carswell, writer/director Dónal O'Kelly and Kíla to work on a play called The Adventures of the Wet Senor. From October 2014 to 2018 she appeared as a cast member in Fair City.^[5]

In 2022, she appeared in An Cailín Ciúin, an Irish-language drama film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film,^[6] and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress IFTA.^[7][8]

In 2004, she married her long-time partner Ross Kelly, whom she had met in 1996.

• List of Eurovision Song Contest presenters

• Carrie Crowley at IMDb

Preceded by Morten Harket & Ingvild Bryn

Eurovision Song Contest presenter (with Ronan Keating) 1997

Succeeded by Terry Wogan & Ulrika Jonsson