Julie-Anne McDowell

Also billed as Julie-Anne McDowell Hegarty

Biography

She was born in Belfast, Ireland, and trained with RADA both in classical ballet and speech and drama, has a Joint Hons Degree in languages (French and Spanish ) from The University of Manchester (1988 - 1992), an International Marketing Diploma (Boston University, 2017) and a Masters with Distinction in Script and Screenwriting. from Falmouth University (2020 - 2022), plus various one-off courses in performance.

She performed in numerous musical and repertory theatre productions around Northern Ireland before coming to Johannesburg in 2006 to marry her now husband.

Some roles in that period include "Elizabeth Proctor" in The Crucible, "Model" in Beauty (NI Best Supporting Actress Award), "Julia" in Me and My Best Friend (NI Best Actress Award), "Catherine" in The Memory Of Water, "Elvire" in Don Juan, as well as countless pantos.

Besides her acting, her career has included stints in marketing with Denman Inc (Boston, 1992- 1996), Denman International Ltd. (1996 - 2006). When she settled in South Africa, she initially worked as Managing Director of Autograph PR, a beauty brand agency, from January 2007 to February 2015. Then she became the Owner and Creative Director of Shake Your Tail Feathers, a boutique beauty brand agency (February 2015 to august 2020).

In 2018 she returned to acting and joined Elysian Management (Pty) Ltd as Professional Actress and Writer.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

As actress

In 2017 she returned to acting, appearing in Couplet at the National Arts Festival and the Theatre On The Square. Other appearances that followed have been in The Revlon Girl (2018-2019), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1922-1923), My Name is Lucy Barton (2024),

As a writer

In June 2022 she was awarded The Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA) Muse Award for the Best Produced Short Film Script for The Hive. In 2021, she was a winner at the Los Angeles Festigious monthly Film Festival and received a Special Jury Award for The Hive. The same month The Hive was awarded an Honorable Mention at the New Jersey Film Awards as one of their winners, was a semi-finalist in the London Indie Short and the Hollywood Just4Shorts Festivals, a quarter-finalist in the Wiki Screenplay Competition and is selected for the Madrid International Film Festival.

As theatre producer and company owner

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, she co-founded the theatre company How Now Brown Cow, with Daniel Galloway, serving as joint General Manager and Producer.

Based in South Africa, the company is committed to presenting a range of world-class productions which particularly aims to commission, enable and empower South African theatre practitioners.

Sources

https://za.linkedin.com/in/julie-anne-mcdowell-hegarty-51a238103

https://www.hownowbrowncow.co.za/aboutus

Go to the ESAT Bibliography

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