Could Oscar glory be next for Jessie Buckley and Hamnet?

From a TV talent show to the pinnacle of film acclaim – could this be the year Jessie Buckley writes her name into history with an Academy Award?

The Irish actor is now a hot favourite for an Oscar, after winning a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama for her portrayal of William Shakespeare’s wife in Hamnet, which was also named best film.

And there could be a double Oscar success for the island of Ireland as Northern Ireland-born author Maggie O’Farrell, who wrote the award-winning novel the film is based on, could be in line for recognition as co-writer of the screenplay.

Hamnet was co-produced by Steven Spielberg, who told the Golden Globes audience he “loved” O’Farrell’s book.

Accepting her award, Buckley said: “This is a real honour, I love being part of this industry.”

She added: “It was such an extraordinary set to be part of, because we were telling the story of probably the most famous Brit that ever lived, and we had a Chinese director, a lot of Irish, a mostly Polish crew, beside our British family.”

Her Irish co-star Paul Mescal, who took on the role of Shakespeare, was nominated in the best supporting actor category but lost out to Stellan Skarsgård.

Buckley, who first came to attention as a teenage contestant on the BBC West End talent show I’d Do Anything 18 years ago, was previously nominated for an Academy Award in 2022 for her role in The Lost Daughter.

But the Golden Globe win means she is firmly in the frame to become just the fifth Irish actor to take home the famous gold statuette, after Barry Fitzgerald, Brenda Fricker, Daniel Day Lewis and Cillian Murphy.

The awards are a major milestone of the film awards season, taking place less than a fortnight before the Academy Award nominations on 22 January.

Buckley, who grew up in Killarney, County Kerry, has been working in film and theatre for almost two decades, and is known for her musical talents as well as her acting ability.

She is a former pupil of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin, where she studied singing, piano, clarinet, saxophone and the harp.

As a young girl, Buckley was chosen out of about 40,000 performers to receive RIAM’s nationwide High Achiever award in 2001.

She was just 17 when she auditioned for the BBC TV show I’d Do Anything, about the search for an actress to play Nancy in a West End production of Oliver!

She was the runner-up in the competition, losing out to Jodie Prenger.

Last week, reflecting on her time on the show, she said she was “brutalised”, claiming there was a “lot of body shaming and bringing me to femininity school” during the production.

Buckley later turned down an offer to be the understudy to Prenger’s Nancy, instead going on to pursue her own role on the London stage.

She secured a role in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre.

Staying in London, Buckley enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London, graduating with a degree in acting in 2013.

In the years since, her star has been on a consistent rise – TV roles in Taboo, Fargo and Chernobyl; an acclaimed turn opposite Jude Law in a West End production of Henry V; and a steady stream of film work, such as Beast, Men and Wild Rose, in which she was also able to highlight her singing skills.

In 2022, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Academy Award for The Lost Daughter and won an Olivier Award for her role in Cabaret.

She got married in 2023 and welcomed her first child last year.

Buckley’s first cousin Brendan Fuller was among her family members who stayed up late to see her collect her award on TV.

He told BBC News NI that witnessing her “mentioned in the same category as Julia Roberts” made him realise how far she had come.

“I remember watching Ocean’s Twelve with Jessie when I was 12,” Fuller recalled.

“And seeing her then being nominated in the same category, and then winning the category ahead of a Hollywood icon… we’re just so, so proud of her.”

As a schoolgirl, Buckley performed in stage productions at Ursuline Secondary School in Thurles, County Tipperary.

“From the moment she took to the stage in the school hall here in the Ursuline, it was clear Jessie had a special talent,” the school said in a statement on Monday.

“It is an inspiration for Ursuline students to see one of their own recognised on the global stage.”

Teachers at RIAM in Dublin are also “very proud” of their former pupil, according to the academy’s head of artistic programming, Ciara Higgins.

However, she stressed Buckley had “carved her own pathway” and achieved success “on her own terms”.

“I don’t think we can claim any of that, but it’s just wonderful to be a little of a part of that Golden Globes history and fingers crossed, a little bit of that Oscar history in the weeks ahead,” Higgins added.

Buckley attended stage school in Killarney as a young girl – and the school’s founder Fiona Crowley told BBC News NI’s Evening Extra programme that her success was “so well deserved”.

“I was very privileged and lucky – I was bringing her to and from rehearsals, guiding her along as best I could, even though she didn’t need much guidance,” Crowley said.

“Jessie has risen to heights nobody could have dreamt she would go to,” she added.

Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel, Hamnet is a fictional account exploring the lives of William Shakespeare, his wife Agnes and their family.

It portrays the death of the couple’s son Hamnet, and explores how it may have influenced Shakespeare’s theatrical masterpiece, Hamlet.

It received six Golden Globe nominations and won two, including best film.

“I think what’s very different about winning an award like this is [that] it signifies a really communal effort, you know?” O’Farrell said.

“It’s a kind of family – it’s the Hamnet family and we all made the film together and everybody has been recognised which is just really, really lovely.”

O’Farrell was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, to Irish parents, but grew up in Wales and Scotland.

Earlier this month she told BBC News NI that her native country had a huge influence on her life.

“I mostly grew up in Britain but we would visit Ireland all the time throughout my childhood, it is a very important part of my identity and who I am,” she said.

O’Farrell researched Shakespeare’s life extensively for her novel, but said there is still an “awful lot about his biography we don’t know”.

“There is not a lot written about Shakespeare’s wife or his mother or his daughters,” she said.

“They are people whose history has been written in water and they are very much footnotes in his story.”