15 Facts About Brendan O'Carroll

Brendan O'Carroll was born on 17 September 1955 and is an Irish actor, comedian, director, producer and writer.

Brendan O'Carroll is best known for portraying foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown on stage and in the BBC and RTE television sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys.

In 2015, O'Carroll was awarded the Irish Film and Television Academy Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Irish television.

The youngest of 11 children, Brendan O'Carroll was born in Finglas, Dublin on 17 September 1955.

Brendan O'Carroll's mother, Maureen, was a Labour Party TD and his father, Gerard O'Carroll, was a carpenter.

Brendan O'Carroll's father died in 1962 when O'Carroll was seven, and Brendan's mother raised their eleven children with little money.

Brendan O'Carroll attended Saint Gabriel's National School and left at the age of 12.

Brendan O'Carroll had a string of occupations; these included being a waiter and a milkman.

Brendan O'Carroll wrote the screenplay to Sparrow's Trap, a boxing movie.

Brendan O'Carroll presented a quiz show, called Hot Milk and Pepper, on RTE One, with long-term collaborator Gerry Browne.

In 1992, Brendan O'Carroll performed a short radio play titled Mrs Brown's Boys and shortly afterwards he wrote four books titled The Mammy, The Granny, The Chisellers and The Scrapper.

Brendan O'Carroll then decided to put together his own family theatre company, Mrs Browne's Boys, and dressed up as a woman to play his part, as the actress he had originally hired didn't show up.

Brendan O'Carroll revealed plans to adapt his first ever written play, patser grey into a television sitcom.

Brendan O'Carroll was married to his first wife from 1977 to 1999.

Brendan O'Carroll lost a son called Brendan, their first child, shortly after birth in 1976.