Lisa McGee

Lisa McGee is the creator and sole writer behind Derry Girls, which she says is largely an autobiographical series. McGee was raised in Bogside, a Catholic neighborhood in Derry, Northern Ireland where, in 1969, a violent conflict between British soldiers and local Irish nationalists led to the slaughter of over a dozen men, women, and children in what is now called Bloody Sunday.

Though this massacre and the many others like it characterized Northern Ireland well into the nineties, McGee does not remember her childhood purely as a sob story. In an interview for The New Yorker, she laughs about the quirks of growing up in a war zone, the “hijinks and stupid jokes” that for a pre-teen girl were more tangible than the daily tragedies.

With Derry Girls, McGee sought to break from traditional storytelling about the Troubles by lacing relatively few bleak moments into three seasons of hilarious shenanigans.

Goldbart, Max. Lisa McGee. 2023, "'Derry Girls' Creator Lisa McGee Sets Next Channel 4 Project," Deadline. https://deadline.com/2023/08/lisa-mcgee-derry-girls-channel-4-next-project-1235523888/.

The Troubles

Screenwriters

Irish writers

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