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.

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

As actress

She returned to acting in 2017, 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 theatre producer and company owner

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

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