Kelly O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas to an accountant mother and a father who worked in health insurance.^[2][3] She was raised Irish Catholic and attended Immaculate Conception school until eighth grade.^[2][4]

O'Sullivan always wanted to be an actor and, supported by her cinephile parents, she performed in local children's theatre plays from age five.^[5] She studied theatre at Northwestern University and is also an alumna of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's School at Steppenwolf in Chicago.^[6]

Inspired by Greta Gerwig, who directed Lady Bird, O'Sullivan wrote Saint Frances based on the experiences she had while working as a nanny to support her struggling acting career in her twenties and an abortion she had in her early thirties. She started work on the script in January 2018, already intending the film to be directed by partner Alex Thompson. She wrote the parts for the lesbian parents in the film for actors Lily Mojekwu and Charin Alvarez.^[7]

In 2024, O'Sullivan co-directed, with Thompson, Ghostlight which had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was scheduled in June 2024 by IFC Films and Sapan Studio.^{[8][9][10][11]}

O'Sullivan is in a relationship with director Alex Thompson. She is an agnostic and a feminist.^[4] She has stated that her favourite film is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).^[12]