Nollaig na mBan 2023

Women’s Leadership Celebration

OUR HONOREES

Lisa McGee, Playwright, Producer, Writer, & Creator of Derry Girls

McGee is the creator and writer of Derry Girls, a comedy series that began airing on Channel 4 in the UK in 2018 – when she was also listed as one of BBC’s 100 Women.

McGee was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and studied Drama at The Queen’s University of Belfast. She was writer on attachment with the Royal National Theatre in London in 2006. Her plays include Jump, The Heights, Nineteen Ninety Two, and Girls and Dolls, for which she won the Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary 2007.

McGee’s television credits include The Things I Haven’t Told You for BBC Three, the Irish television series Raw which she created for RTÉ, time as a writer for three series of the BAFTA-nominated Being Human for the BBC, the Channel 4 sitcom London Irish, which she created, writing for the Golden Globe-nominated drama series The White Queen for BBC 1, Indian Summers for Channel 4, and The Deceived for Channel 5 co-written with her husband Tobias Beer. Her stage play Jump has been adapted into a film.

Samantha Barry, Editor-In-Chief, Glamour

Samantha Barry serves as Editor-in-Chief for Glamour. The path from Cork to New York has been a global one for Barry, who, after stints in RTÉ and Newstalk, traveled the world working for ABC Australia and the U.S. State Department training young journalists. Most recently, she worked at BBC World News in London.

Barry led news coverage from the 2016 presidential election and interviewed all the candidates. Led by Barry, the CNN coverage of received the first-ever Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in social media and a Webby Award recognizing the same 2016 campaign work. Barry has also worked as a guest lecturer at Yale University and is a Sulzberger Fellow at Columbia University.

Barry earned a degree in English and psychology from University College Cork and a master’s in journalism from Dublin City University. Her Cork roots are strong – her father’s family is from Bantry and her mother is from Bere Island. She cites her heritage as what spurred her toward her many achievements, saying, “I am extremely proud of coming from a long line of Irish people who leave, seek opportunities abroad, and are fearless travelers.”