The 22-year-old from Cork, Ireland, is the lead in the
highly anticipated adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut
novel, Conversations with Friends. Just as Normal People
made overnight stars of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal,
this series, from the same team, is set to propel Oliver into
the stratosphere when it hits screens in the spring.
“It was the best feeling in the world,” says the Irish
newcomer, who graduated from the same Dublin drama
school as Mescal, of being cast as the “cerebral and sharp”
Frances. “I was ecstatic but completely shocked.” The 12-part
series, which also stars American Honey’s Sasha Lane, Jemima
Kirke from Girls and The Favourite’s Joe Alwyn (aka Mr
Taylor Swift), follows Frances and her ex-girlfriend Bobbi as
their lives become entwined with an older married couple.
Does Oliver feel the pressure to repeat the success of
Normal People? “I feel so lucky to be working with a lot of
the people who were behind it,” she says. “Sally Rooney
has such a distinct tone, which both shows share, however
I think Conversations with Friends is very much its own
thing with its own characters, telling a different story.”
Oliver GradyFrom TikTok’s funniest comedian
to the hot new hairdressers – meet
the people to namedrop in 2022
NEW
FACES
TO
KNOW
NOW
...The
The small-screen star
Alison Oliver
The Sunday Times Style • 9