Born to Irish parents in New York, Saoirse Ronan started out as an actress at the age of 8, in the Irish medical drama The Clinic. Though most of her childhood and early teens were spent in Ireland, the actress has since found a second home in the United States, where her acting career flourished. Ronan made her feature film debut in the romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007), and subsequently rose to prominence courtesy of her roles in Atonement (2007) and The Lovely Bones (2009). While her work in Atonement earned Ronan the first Oscar nomination of her career when she was just 14, her portrayal of the character Susie Salmon in the supernatural drama The Lovely Bones landed the actress the second BAFTA Award nomination of her career.
In the years that followed, Ronan underlined her immense potential through knockout performances in movies across different genres. The survival drama The Way Back (2010), the action adventure thriller Hanna (2011), the horror fantasy thriller Byzantium (2012) and the comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) were some of her notable film credits before she eventually landed the second Oscar nomination of her career with the romantic drama Brooklyn (2015). Her essayal of Eilis Lacey - an Irish immigrant who finds love and redemption in Brooklyn - was universally well-received and catapulted Ronan to A-lister status in Hollywood.
In 2017, the actress played an outspoken teen who is constantly at odds with her mother in Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age comedy-drama Lady Bird, thereby earning the third Academy Award nomination of her career even before she turned 25. Ronan also won the Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical or Comedy for her work in Lady Bird. Other significant acting credits in recent times include Loving Vincent (2017), The Seagull (2018) and Mary Queen of Scots (2019).