Emma O’Grady is a theatre artist, writer, actor, film-maker and production manager based in the West of Ireland. She makes work under the name ‘Up Up Up’. There is a documentary aspect to all her works which are inspired by true events, real lives & shared histories. Her first play “What Good is Looking Well When You’re Rotten on the Inside?” based on tapes recorded by her civil-servant grandfather one month before his death was produced to critical acclaim in 2017 and toured extensively. In 2020 she created ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous – a celebration of difficult women’, a documentary series of interviews between influential Irish women over 70. She has been a MAKE artist (2016 and 2023), Druid FUEL artist (2020/2021), The Next Stage (2014) and Irish Theatre Institute Six in the (Virtual) Attic artist 2022/2023.
Emma has worked in production for many groups and artists including Macnas, Little John Nee, Donal O’Kelly, An Taibhdhearc and THEATREclub. Emma is a co-founder of Apartheid-Free Arts and is committed to the cultural boycott of Israel. She is currently one of 13 people on trial for taking direct action against the US Military’s use of Shannon Airport.