A prolific, award-winning actor since childhood, Hugh has gone on to write and direct a striking Series of projects in a variety of mediums—live action, animation, opera—as well as experiencing great success as a still photographer.

Hugh appeared in his first feature opposite Liam Neeson in ‘Lamb’ in 1985. He went on to play the young Christy Brown in the Oscar-winning ‘My Left Foot’, King Louis XIV in Disney’s ‘The Three Musketeers’, and films such as the Sundance-winning ‘The Young Poisoner’s Handbook’, the Oscar-nominated ‘Chocolat’, and Irish comedy hit ‘The Stag’.

He studied Drama and Theatre Studies at Trinity College, and received a Fulbright scholarship to study film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has written and directed a number of shorts for Screen Ireland, including ‘Spacemen Three’ (co-written with John Butler), ’Corduroy’ (selected for Generation 14 Plus at the 60th Berlinale), and ‘Children & Animals’ (with Young Irish Film Makers). He has directed music videos for artists including Sinéad O’Connor, Little Green Cars and I Draw Slow.

He was a writer and performer on the IFTA-winning ‘Your Bad Self’. He was an executive producer on his IFTA-nominated animated adaptation of Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’, and made his feature directorial debut with ‘Metal Heart’ from a script by Paul Murray. Both films premiered at the 2018 Galway Film Fleadh. Jordanne Jones won the Bingham Ray award for ‘Metal Heart’, and ‘The Overcoat’ won Best Animated Sequence. ‘Metal Heart’ had its international premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2019 where the Hollywood Reporter called it “an indie standout”. It screened at the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival, the 2019 Newport Beach Film Festival, the 2019 Glasgow Film Festival, and more.

His short animation Worry World (2023), directed by Jess Patterson, and voiced by Florence Adebambo and Domhnall Gleeson, won the Oscar-qualifying James Horgan award at its premiere at the 2023 Galway Film Fleadh. It went on to win the Audience Award for Best Animated Short at the 2023 Newport Beach Film Festival, and Best Animated Short at Animation Dingle, Manchester Film Festival, and Boyne Valley International Film Festival in 2024. It also won Best Animation Script at the 2024 Writer’s Guild of Ireland Zebbie awards.

Hugh recently created, co-wrote and directed the family series Showkids (2025), starring Flynn Gray, Philippa Dunne, Killian Sundermann & Amy De Bhrún for Deadpan Pictures, which aired on RTÉ1 in late 2025. He was nominated for Best Director (Drama) at the 2026 IFTAs, and the series was nominated for Best Children’s Programming at the 2026 RTS Ireland awards. Recent acting work includes Werner Herzog’s upcoming feature Bucking Fastard.

In addition to film and theatre work, Hugh has directed music videos for artists including Sinéad O’Connor, and was series director for Irish National Opera’s acclaimed 20 Shots of Opera, which was nominated for the Special Jury Prize at the 2021 Irish Times Theatre Awards. His photography has been exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Ulster Academy, and is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.

His photography has been exhibited in the RHA Dublin, the RUA in Belfast, and the National Gallery of Ireland, as well as in publications like ‘Winter Papers’.