John McCarthy is a writer, actor and director living in Cork.
His brand-new work SNUG enjoyed a sold-out run in two of Cork’s most characterful pubs at the start of October 2022. Two recent shows premiered as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival 2022 – WHALE at the Cork Opera House and HUMANS: A Robot Musical at Graffiti Theatre in a co-production with The Everyman. These projects were supported by the Arts Council Theatre Project Award, a YPCE Bursary, the RTÉ Toy Show Fund, Cork Opera House, Cork Midsummer Festival and UCC. His play The BelleVue was selected for the Pavilion Play Platform in Spring 2021 and won a Project Creation Award 2022 from the Arts Council to develop the play towards production in 2023.
As an actor he appeared in Blackwater Babble (Brokencrow), This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing (Graffiti Theatre), The Big Chapel X (Asylum, Kilkenny Arts Festival), Evening Train (The Everyman and Rosa Productions), The Lonesome West (The Everyman) – for which he was nominated Best Supporting Actor at the Irish Theatre Awards, Bluetooth (The Everyman) and The School (RTÉ, 2017).
Recent directing includes WHALE (Cork Opera House, Midsummer Festival 2022) and In One Eye, Out the Other by Tadhg Hickey (Cccahoots, Dublin Fringe Festival and First Fortnight Festival 2021).