Saoirse Ronan (pronounced as Sersha, “like inertia,” as Saoirse would say) is a bundle of energy, talent and charisma. The Irish award-winning actress grabbed the limelight when she was only 12 years old. She answered a casting call to play the role of Briony Tallis, the 13-year-old aspiring novelist in Joe Wright’s 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel, Atonement. For her performance, she received Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar nominations. The citation made her one of the youngest actresses to receive an Oscar nod.From there, the versatile actress portrayed a string of memorable roles, from the 14-year-old murdered girl Susie Salmon in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones with which she bagged the Critics’ Choice Award, a Saturn award and another BAFTA nom, to the female lead, Agatha, in Wes Anderson’s critically-acclaimed The Grand Budapest Hotel which earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy.The young actress was also noticed as the orphan Lina Mayfleet in the science-fiction-fantasy City of Ember in 2008, which earned her a nomination from the Irish Film & Television Award. As Irena Zielinska, an orphaned teenage Polish girl on the run from Soviet Russia, in the epic true story helmed by Peter Weir, The Way Back, she won the Irish Film & Television Award for Actress in a Supporting Role in 2010.This year, the 21-year-old thespian is nominated in the Golden Globes’ Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama category for her role in Brooklyn as Eilis Lacey, the young woman from the small town of Enniscorthy in Ireland who travels and starts a new life as an immigrant in Brooklyn.The only child of former Irish actors Monica (nee Brennan) and Paul Ronan, Saoirse was born in Woodlawn, Bronx, in New York City where her parents were living at the time. Raised in County Carlow, Ireland when she moved there when she was three years old and then to Howth, Dublin, Saoirse holds dual citizenship of Ireland and the United States.Currently living in New York City, Saoirse told us that what makes her feel at home is her mother. “That’s it, really. It’s interesting because she traveled with me up until I was 18 so I never really felt an awful lot of homesickness when I was working while I was young because I always had her there,” she said. “I’m used to adapting to different places and I don’t like change necessarily but once I make that step, I’m fine with it. I adapt to whatever situation I’m in because you have to. It’s very scary but you can take home with you wherever you go.”Saoirse will be seen next in Michael Mayer’s adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull as the fresh-faced ingénue Nina Zarechnaya and in Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s feature film about the life and death of Vincent Van Gogh, Loving Vincent, as Margaret Gachet.Watch for this talented young lady as she also makes her Broadway debut in February 2016 in the revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible where she will play Abigail Williams, one of the first accusers in the Salem Witch trials of 1692.What makes her happy? “A bucket of tea and watching Veep.”