Maria Doyle Kennedy. She is an honours graduate of Trinity College Dublin (Joint Honours Politics and Business) faculty of E.S.S. In 2001, Doyle-Kennedy released music on Mermaid Records, a label she founded herself. Her debut solo album Charm was released in 2001. She coordinated Sirens which is a compilation album of female artists and which was released in 2003. She released an album Skullcover consisting of cover versions in 2005, and Mütter in 2007. Both of her solo albums have been nominated for Meteor awards and her forthcoming project sees her teamed with U.S. country music legend John Prine. Doyle-Kennedy joined a band while still in college and was a member of the Hothouse Flowers in the mid-80s. They formed originally to enter a Slogadh competition (which they won) but music quickly became a motivating force in her life. She has spent the best part of 20 years performing live all over the world to audiences ranging from the many thousands who have enjoyed her show at festivals (Glastonbury, Oxegen, Cambridge Folk Festival etc.) to the more intimate theatre concerts.
Doyle-Kennedy released her first album “When Justice Came” in 1989 with The Black Velvet Band. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1989 It reached No.4 in the Irish charts and is ranked among the best Irish albums of the Late 1980s. She then united with producers Clive Langer and Allen Winstanley to record her second Black Velvet Band album "King Of Myself" in 1992. Irish music magazine Hot Press later called her "The finest voice this country has ever produced." 'The Lady Sings The Blues' a compilation Album featuring Doyle-Kennedy alongside Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Annie Lennox, followed and proved to be a best selling album in 1994. It also established Doyle-Kennedy in new markets in Europe the US and Japan. Touring Europe for the first time, she got rave reviews from The Guardian, The Times and others.
Doyle-Kennedy produced a documentary -Golden Boy- based on the life and work of Irish artist Patrick Scott and has appeared as a broadcaster on our airwaves filling in for John Kelly on his Mystery Train show and for Tom Dunne on Pet Sounds. In 2007 and 2008, Doyle-Kennedy played Queen Katherine of Aragon (King Henry VIII's first wife and mother of Mary I of England) on The Tudors. She will return as Katherine of Aragon in a dream sequence to The Tudors for the fourth and final season in mid 2010, this was confirmed when the first promotional picture of the season showed Katherine (along with King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr) on the cover. Kennedy will appear on Irish screens early in 2011 on TG4's 'Corp & Anam' in her first Irish language acting role. Kennedy will portray the Nanny in the fifth season of Dexter.
Personal life
In 1988, she married musician Kieran Kennedy, with whom she has four children. Kennedy speaks fluent Irish.
