How To Get To Heaven From Belfast Cast: Where You've Seen The Stars Before
The hit Netflix dark comedy thriller How To Get To Heaven From Belfast reunites the creator of Derry Girls, Lisa McGee, with some of the sitcom’s main stars – plus a host of familiar faces from the world of TV.
The critically-acclaimed series follows three women in their 30s, who reunite in the wake of the death of the estranged fourth member of their teenage friend group.
After a sinister discovery, the trio embarks on a quest to find out what really happened to their late friend, becoming tangled in a web of conspiracies in the process as they attempt to keep their own skeletons firmly in the closet.
How Tom Get To Heaven From Belfast is full of recognisable performers – and here is where you might have seen them before…
Roisin Gallagher
Roisin Gallagher plays screenwriter Saoirse in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast. Her first notable role was playing DC Emer Taylor in The Fall alongside Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan.
In 2022, she landed the leading role in ITV’s The Dry, where she portrayed a woman who returns home to Dublin amid her recovery from alcoholism.
The following year, Roisin appeared alongside Johnny Flynn in Sky’s romantic drama The Lovers, playing a supermarket worker with a secret past who fell in love with a well-known political journalist.
More recently, Roisin played the romantic love interest, Laura in Harlan Coben’s Netflix series Lazarus.
Sinéad Keenan
Sinéad Keenan, who plays Robyn in the Netflix show, is best known as DCI Jessica James in ITV’s Unforgotten.
Before that, she first found fame in Irish soap Fair City, where she played Farrah Phelan.
She later portrayed the werewolf Nina Pickering in the BBC supernatural drama Being Human alongside Russell Tovey, and has also had roles in Doctor Who, playing the captain of a Vinvocci salvage team in The End Of Time, Jimmy McGovern’s TV movie Care and the BBC’s 2021 legal drama Showtrial.
Caoilfhionn Dunne
You may recognise Caoilfhionn Dunne for her playing Lizzie in the Dublin-set crime drama Love/Hate, VP Jackie Walsh in Industry, or, more recently, Anne Glover in A Thousand Blows, alongside Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty.
Caoilfhionn also appeared in one episode of the BBC sitcom Ghosts, appearing as film director Petra O’Keefe, as well as Britannia and the Star Wars spin-off Andor.
Bronagh Gallagher
Iconic Irish actor Bronagh Gallagher is the main antagonist of How To Get To Heaven From Belfast.
Bronagh has consistently been on our screens since the 1990s and was listed at number 33 on The Irish Times’ list of Ireland’s Greatest Actors Of All Time.
She is probably best recognised from playing Sandra in the sitcom Pramface, appearing in the Sky miniseries You, Me and the Apocalypse, and most recently as Carol in comedy/drama Brassic.
She rose to fame in 1991, playing a singer in the musical drama The Commitments, which began a long and illustrious career, ranging from playing a captain in the Judicial Forces in Star Wars to starring in The Personal History of David Copperfield as Mrs. Micawber.
Her TV credits are almost as long as her filmography, ranging from Scottish crime drama The Field Of Blood to sketch comedy The Peter Serafinowicz Show.
Josh Finan
If Josh Finan, who plays Jason in the new Netflix drama, looks familiar to you, it’s quite probably from his Bafta-nominated role as the young, vulnerable Marco in The Responder.
He later played Dixon’s assistant Jethro in Netflix’s The Gentleman, a bartender who works with Donny in Baby Reindeer and Gerry Adams in Irish historical drama Say Nothing.
Most recently, Josh has played the lead in BBC drama Waiting For The Out, which sees an educator try to teach philosophy to prisoners.
Ardal O’Hanlon
Ardal O’Hanlon is undoubtedly best known for playing Father Dougal in the iconic sitcom Father Ted, but he also played the lead, George, in the BBC comedy My Hero, which follows an alien superhero who tries to adapt to life after falling in love with a human.
More recently, Ardal appeared in Death In Paradise between 2017 and 2020.
A mainstay of British and Irish TV for the last three decades, Ardal also played a cat person in the Doctor Who episode Gridlock, a politics teacher in the third season of Skins and Mary and Sarah’s cousin Eamon in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast creator Lisa McGee’s other hit series Derry Girls.
Emmett J. Scanlan
The Irish actor continues his run of playing bad boys with his role in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast.
Emmett found fame playing Brendan Brady in Hollyoaks between 2011 and 2013, and has had a prolific TV career since leaving the soap, often playing villains.
He later had a recurring role in police drama The Fall, as D.C. Glenn Martin, before appearing in BBC supernatural drama In The Flesh, Harlan Coben’s Safe and five episodes of Peaky Blinders between 2017 and 2019.
Michelle Fairley
Michelle Fairley will already be known to Game Of Thrones fans for playing Catelyn Stark in the fantasy series, although she had a long career in both film and TV before joining Westeros.
Since appearing as the mother to the Stark children in the fantasy show, Michelle has appeared in Suits, 24: Live Another Day and The White Princess, in which she starred as Henry VII’s mother Margaret Beaufort.
More recently, she played a terrifying matriarch in Gangs Of London, Princess Augusta in Bridgerton prequel Queen Charlotte and Mrs Wilson in the 2024 Cillian Murphy film, Small Things Like These.
Natasha O’Keeffe
Natasha O’Keeffe is best known for her role as Lizzie Shelby in Peaky Blinders.
However, her first TV role came years earlier, in 2010, when she played Abby in the BBC drama Lip Service. Following this, she joined the cast of Misfits, playing Abby in seasons four and five.
Her other TV credits include The Abominable Snowman, Strike and the fantasy series The Wheel Of Time.
Saoirse-Monica Jackson
Saoirse-Monica Jackson has teamed back up with her former Derry Girls collaborator to appear in a small but memorable role in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast.
She played the always-opinionated Erin Quinn in all 19 episodes of Derry Girls, and has since gone on to join the cast of the BBC crime drama The City Is Ours, as well as appearing in the TV film The Trial, where she played a crime investigator.
On the big screen, she appeared in the American coming-of-age romantic comedy Finding You, before having a blink-and-you-miss-it role as Barry’s housemate in the critically-panned DCU project The Flash.
Darragh Hand
Darragh is best known for playing the geeky Michael Holden in the Netflix teen show Heartstopper, but fans of the Netflix teen drama will no doubt find him recognisable in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast as he sports a very different look.
His other TV credits include minor appearances in Grace and Silent Witness.
Emma Canning
Emma Canning – who plays the young Greta in flashback scenes in How To Get To Heaven From Belfast – is definitely a star on the rise, with an already-impressive resume.
Most recently, she starred alongside Paul Mescal in Josh O’Connor in The History Of Sound, but she also played a young Domina in Britannia, before going on to join Apple TV+’s star-studded Masters Of The Air.
She also appeared in Irish historical drama Say Nothing and recently appeared in Dune: Prophecy as a Young Tula.
Watch all episodes of How To Get To Heaven From Belfast on Netflix now