Susannah Doyle

Susannah Doyle (born 5 July 1966) is an English actress, playwright and film director, best known for her roles as Joy Merryweather in Drop The Dead Donkey and as Avril Burke in Ballykissangel. The daughter of the Irish actor Tony Doyle, she realized that she wished to follow in his footsteps when, aged about five or six, she was taken to see him work, often in tiny theaters with audience and actors close together. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Her big TV break came in 1991 with the role of Joy, the intelligent, acid-tongued secretary and foil to her corporate-speak boss, in the Channel 4 comedy Drop The Dead Donkey. Other TV roles followed, including two episodes of Soldier, Soldier in 1996 and A Touch of Frost in 1997. When her father died in 2000, the producers of Ballykissangel asked whether she would join the cast. She had reservations over her ability to cope emotionally but took on the part of Avril Burke. In 2001, she also appeared in an episode of Cold Feet and one of Pie in the Sky. In 2012 she appeared in an episode of Lewis. In 2012 she appeared in an episode of police comedy Vexed. Since 2001, she has been pursuing parallel careers of script-writing and acting. In 2016, she appeared in "Shut Up and Dance", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.