Elizabeth "Lisa"McGee (born August 1980)^[1] is an Irish^[2] playwright and screenwriter. McGee is the creator and writer ofDerry Girls, a comedy series that began airing on Channel 4 in the UK in January 2018.^[3][4] In 2018, she was listed as one ofBBC's 100 Women^[5] and was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 2022.^[6]

McGee was born inDerry,Northern Ireland, toIrish Catholic parents,^[7] Anne McGee, who worked in a shop, and Chris McGee, alorry driver.^[1][8][9] She has a younger sister, Joleen.^[10]

McGee attendedThornhill College and studied drama atQueen's University Belfast.^[11]

While studying at Queen's, she wroteJump, a dark comedy play set in Derry, which was later adapted into afilm.^[12][13] She gained an attachment theRoyal National Theatre in London in 2006. In addition toJump, McGee's other plays includeThe Heights,Nineteen Ninety Two, andGirls and Dolls. ForGirls and Dolls she won the Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary 2007.^[14][15]

McGee created and wrote the Irish television seriesRaw (2008-2013) forRTÉ.^[16][17] This was followed by a sitcomLondon Irish (2013), forChannel 4.^[18]

She also wrote forThe Things I Haven't Told You forBBC Three and theBAFTA-nominatedBeing Human for theBBC. Further writing credits include episodes forGolden Globe-nominated drama seriesThe White Queen forBBC 1,Indian Summers for Channel 4, andThe Deceived forChannel 5 co-written with her husbandTobias Beer.^[19]

McGee is best known as the creator and writer ofDerry Girls (2018-2022), a comedy series about five teenagers growing up in the 1990s duringThe Troubles.^[12] The series was critically acclaimed.^[20][21]

In Summer 2023, Channel 4 green lit McGee'sHow to Get to Heaven from Belfast, which began filming in 2024.^[22][23]

In December 2022, McGee received theFreedom of the City of Derry.^[24]

In 2023, she was the winner of the British Academy Television Craft Awards.^[25]

In 2024, she was awarded theChristopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize.^[26] The prize honours work promoting peace and reconciliation.

McGee married actor Tobias Beer in 2015.^[27] They live inBelfast with their two sons.^[11][8]

• Lisa McGee atIMDb

• 1980 births
• Living people
• Writers from Derry (city)
• People educated at Thornhill College
• Women screenwriters from Northern Ireland
• Women television writers from Northern Ireland
• Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
• 21st-century dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland
• 21st-century women writers from Northern Ireland
• Women dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland
• 21st-century British screenwriters
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature

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