Marian Quinn, trained as an actor in the innovative Piven Theater Workshop in Chicago. She has an MA in Screenwriting from The National Film School – IADT. She worked as an actress on stage and screen in  Chicago and New York.

She won an OBIE award for her work in Ecstasy by Mike Leigh.  Her acting career in cinema has covered independent features in both America and Ireland including; Heavy by James Mangold, I shot Andy Warhol by Mary Harron.

She wrote and directed her first film, a short entitled Come To, shot and cut on 16mm in New York which went on to tour festivals worldwide. She has participated in many professional training courses including the Moonstone Filmmakers Lab and Screenwriters Lab. She has had several stays in the artist’s residence at Annamakerrig and was the first writer in residence in the Model Arts + Niland Centre in Sligo. She was an active board member of Cinema North West and curated several of its programmes and festivals. 

She was one of the recipients of Screen Ireland’s The Voice fund for directors with her TV series proposal, Sally and Molly.

She set up Janey Pictures together with Tommy Weir. Their most recent feature film, TWIG, was the Opening Night Gala at the Dublin International Film Festival 2024 and is currently on tour, previous venues include Dinard for the Festival of British and Irish Cinema, on to Woodstock International Film Festival where it was nominated for five awards, including Best Picture. 

Marian won the inaugural Tiernan McBride Screenwriting Award for her debut feature, the multi-award winning 32A. She went on to win Best First Feature Award as director after its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh. 32A was nominated for three IFTAs including Best Picture, and won the IFTA for Cinematography. 32A was selected for the Berlinale ‘08 and toured to over 100 festivals worldwide from Seattle to Melbourne, from Madrid to Mill Valley.  

Together with her partner Tommy Weir, they pioneered self-distribution with 32A in a very successful run in cinemas across Ireland. On DVD and Netflix, 32A was selected for the Leaving Cert English curriculum in 2012. 32A has sold across Europe, Latin America, South America, Canada and screened on PBS in New York and San Francisco. 

Marian is currently developing a television series about an Irish American family called The McBrides as well as a feature film in development Della & Jim with development finance from Screen Ireland and the Western Development Commission. 

She lectures on screenwriting at ATU Sligo.  Marian is an active member of Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland and the Writer’s Guild. She was the chair of the Equality Action committee of the joint guilds until 2017. Marian was a board member of Screen Ireland for six years where she chaired the subcommittee for Gender Equality and Diversity.