Lara McDonnell

Lara McDonnell (born 7 November 2003) is an Irish actress. She starred as the alternating titular role in the West End production of Matilda the Musical from 2015 to 2016. She has since landed roles in a number of films. McDonnell appeared on the 2021 Irish Independent list of actors to go stellar. McDonnell is from the Luttrellstown area of Castleknock, a suburb west of Dublin. The eldest of three to parents Hazel and Ciaran, she has a sister and a brother. McDonnell attended St Brigid's National School, Castleknock. She took after school drama classes at a parish centre near her school. McDonnell made her first acting appearance in 2014, playing an adolescent Rosie in the romantic comedy-drama film Love, Rosie. The following year, she was cast as one of four girls playing Matilda Wormwood in the West End musical Matilda the Musical. After this, McDonnell played a young Anne Brontë in To Walk Invisible (2016) and then as Alannah in The Delinquent Season (2018).