Roma Downey

At 64 years old, Roma Downey has this physical status:

Roma Downey (born 6 May 1960) is an actress, producer, and author from Derry, Northern Ireland.

She produced the mini-series, The Bible, for the History Channel and also starred in it, as Mary, mother of Jesus.

For nine seasons she played Monica, the tender-hearted angel and employee of Tess (played by Della Reese), on the CBS television series Touched by an Angel, for which she earned multiple Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award Best Actress nominations.

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, she has performed on stage with the Abbey Theatre and has appeared both on and off Broadway.

She played the leading role of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the miniseries for NBC, A Woman Named Jackie. Downey starred in and was executive producer for a number of hit television movies for the CBS network.

Downey is an ambassador for Operation Smile.

On August 11, 2016 Downey was honored for her work as an actress and producer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her star to the people of Derry and anyone who ever "walked Hollywood Boulevard with a dream in their hearts." As President of Lightworkers Media, the family and faith division of MGM, Downey and her husband, Mark Burnett, produced the Emmy-nominated miniseries The Bible for History channel which was watched by over 100 million people in the United States.

Downey and Burnett also executive produced the feature films, Ben-Hur starring Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell and Morgan Freeman, Son of God (2014), Little Boy, and Woodlawn.

Variety recognized Downey and Burnett as "Trailblazers" and listed Downey as one of Variety's "100 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood".

The Hollywood Reporter included the couple in their "Most Influential People of 2013" and Downey as one of the "100 Women in Entertainment Power" in 2014.

She was honored on Variety's "Women of Impact in 2014".

Downey and Burnett also produced The Dovekeepers based on the best selling book by Alice Hoffman for CBS and A.D. The Bible Continues for NBC, Women of the Bible for Lifetime, and Answered Prayers for TLC.

Downey is executive producer of the documentary "Faithkeepers" about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Early life

Downey was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the Bogside district. Roma is named after her two grandmothers, Ro from Rose and Ma from Mary, joined to make Roma. She attended Thornhill College, a Catholic girls school. Her mother, Maureen O'Reilly Downey, a housewife with an interest in the performing arts, died from a heart attack at age 48 when Downey was 10 years old. Her father, Patrick Downey, was a mortgage broker. Her father died when Downey was 20. Originally, she planned to be a painter and earned a Bachelor of Arts at Brighton College of Art. Roma studied BA (Hons) Expressive Arts at Brighton Polytechnic. Based at the Falmer campus, she combined Art and Drama for her degree. She then went on to study acting in London at The Drama Studio.

Personal life

Downey is married to television producer Mark Burnett. She has two step-sons, James Burnett and Cameron Burnett, and a daughter, Reilly Marie Downey Anspaugh (born 3 June 1996) from her previous marriage to director David Anspaugh. She was also previously married to actor Leland Orser. Reilly is named after her grandmother, Maureen O'Reilly Downey. On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Burnett proposed to Downey during a family vacation in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. They wed on 28 April 2007 in their Malibu home. Her Touched by an Angel co-star, Della Reese, officiated at the wedding.

Downey is a "Smile Ambassador" for the non-profit organization Operation Smile which provides surgeries for children around the world who were born with severe cleft lip and palate. She has traveled on several international missions with the group to Vietnam, Honduras, and Jordan.

She supported the unsuccessful candidacy of Martin McGuinness for President of Ireland in 2011. Downey received the Sally Award by the Salvation Army for her contribution to entertainment and helping those in need on 1 October 2015.

Downey was raised a Roman Catholic.

On 18 April 2009, Downey and Burnett delivered the keynote address and accepted honorary doctorate degrees at Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management commencement ceremony.

In Feb 2016 Downey and Burnett gave the keynote address at the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington DC by President Obama

Downey also has a Doctor of Fine Art (DFA) honorary degree from the University of Ulster for her outstanding contribution to acting and philanthropy, and she and Burnett received honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Nyack College in 2014.

In 2010, Downey graduated from the University of Santa Monica with a master's degree in Spiritual Psychology.

Downey was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to the arts, drama and the community in Northern Ireland.

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Career

She joined the Abbey Players, based in Dublin, and toured the United States in a production of The Playboy of the Western World. Downey moved to New York City after an agent who she encountered on the tour of The Playboy of the Western World, suggested that she had a chance to do well there. She began working as a coat checker at a restaurant on the Upper West Side before being cast in Broadway shows.

During the 1991 Broadway run for the Helen Hayes Best Actress Award, the performance resulted in a nomination. She appeared on Broadway in The Circle with Sir Rex Harrison, as well as at the Roundabout Theater and The Public Theater in New York City.

In the American television miniseries A Woman Named Jackie (1991), which received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries in 1992, Downey portrayed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Downey's appearance on CBS' Touched by an Angel, opposite singer-actress Della Reese, and John Dye, which ran from 1994 to 2003, was her most popular role as the angel Monica.

She received one nomination and one win at the Television Guide awards for best actress, as well as two Emmy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nominations. Monica was attracted by the actress because it was a good female role, "few and far apart" and for its spiritual aspects, according to Downey.

Downey has also shared her deep and lasting love for and friendship with Della Reese. Both the two stayed close until Reese's death on November 19, 2017. Reese had "such an influence on my life," she said. She was my mother. I was a child without a mother, and God brought her right into my life. She was one of Touched by an Angel's most cherished gifts."

Downey and his partner Mark Burnett announced on May 24, 2011 that they were preparing The Bible, a 10-hour docudrama based on Bible stories that were not supposed to air in 2013. They began planning it in 2009 and lined up their own funding. The total construction cost was US$22 million. Downey and Burnett wanted to stay as faithful to the Bible as possible, so they brought together a large number of pastors and scholars to review the script and filming. For example, they worked with Pastor Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, as well as scholars, such as Craig A. Evans and Mark Goodacre.

Over 100 million viewers in the United States alone have watched the Bible. The series has been the most popular downloaded series in iTunes and ranked as one of Amazon's top sellers in movies and television. On February 28, 2014 in the United States, under the heading Son of God, a theatrical release was announced. The Bible was nominated for the 2013 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Film. Mary, Jesus' mother, was played by Downey. In Morocco, the Bible was shot in 2012.

Downey and Burnett, the sequel to The Bible, was revealed in July 2013. A.D. was ordered by NBC in December 2013. The series explored the spread of Christianity after Jesus' death and resurrection.

Borrowed Hearts and Second Honeymoon were both produced and performed in television films. She released the spoken-word album Healing Angel during the run of Touched by an Angel. Love Is A Family, a children's book, was written. "A Story of God and All of Us" is her husband's book. On the Pax Network, she produced It's a Miracle (TV series), and appeared on stage in A Picasso at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles. Annie Sullivan was the main protagonist in the television film After the Miracle (1998). She has appeared on People magazine as one of the most beautiful people in the world. She is a spokeswoman for Operation Smile, a volunteer group. She appeared in the film Come Dance at My Wedding with John Schneider in 2009. On July 16, 2011, she appeared in the made-for-TV film Keeping Up with the Randalls, a Hallmark Channel broadcast on June 16th. Downey is the executive producer of the animated video game Little Angels, which was released on DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on February 14, 2012.

Downey and Burnett, The Dovekeepers, CBS announced a new miniseries in December 2013 based on Alice Hoffman's New York Times Bestseller The Dovekeepers. In 2015, the miniseries premiered. MGM acquired a 55% interest in One Three Media and Lightworkers Media in September 2014. United Artists Media Group, a new film and television company, has merged with United Artists Media Group. Burnett became the CEO of the United States and Downey became president of LightWorkers Media.

MGM acquired the remaining 45% of Hearst's, Burnett's, and Downey's interest in United Artists Media Group (UAMG), which was acquired under MGM Television Group's umbrella in December 2015. Downey is the current President of LightWorkers Media, which later became MGM's Faith & Family unit.

A Downey executive produced a re-telling of Ben-Hur starring Jack Huston, which was released in August 2016.

On Nov. 16, 2016, Roma Downey and her partner Mark Burnett were the first to start the religious-themed television network Light TV, which was broadcast on Fox stations and affiliates. Light TV will not be broadcasting and will be replaced by TheGrio.TV, according to the manufacturer on December 5, 2020.

Downey is the author of several books, including "Unexpected Blessings" and "Box of Butterflies," which became a NY Times best seller.

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