Neil Jordan

Early life and education

Jordan was born in Sligo, the son of Angela (née O'Brien), a painter, and Michael Jordan, a professor. He was educated at St. Paul's College, Raheny. Later, Jordan attended University College Dublin, where he studied Irish history and English literature. He graduated in 1972 with a BA in History. He became involved in student theatre there, where he met Jim Sheridan, who was also later to become an important Irish film director. After graduation, in 1976 Jordan produced his first collection of short stories: Night in Tunisia and other Stories.

Of his religious background, Jordan said in a 1999 Salon interview: "I was brought up a Catholic and was quite religious at one stage in my life, when I was young. But it left me with no scars whatever; it just sort of vanished." He said about his current beliefs that "God is the greatest imaginary being of all time. Along with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, the invention of God is probably the greatest creation of human thought."

Career

Jordan's career began in the late 1970s working for the Irish television channel RTÉ. His work included writing storylines for the children's fantasy series Wanderly Wagon.

He also worked on his own writing. His first book, a collection of short stories, Night in Tunisia, was published by Dublin's Irish Writers Co-operative in 1976. It won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979.

In 1981, when John Boorman was filming Excalibur in Ireland, he recruited Jordan as a "creative associate". A year later, Boorman was executive producer on Jordan's first feature Angel, a tale of a musician caught up in the Troubles. The role was played by Stephen Rea, who has subsequently appeared in almost all of Jordan's films to date.

During the 1980s, Jordan directed films that gained acclaim, including The Company of Wolves and Mona Lisa, both made in England. The Company of Wolves, a dark and sexually themed reimagining of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, based on short stories by Angela Carter, became a cult favourite.

As a writer/director, Jordan has a wide variety of to his body of work, ranging from mainstream hits like Interview with the Vampire to commercial failures like We're No Angels to a variety of more personal, low-budget arthouse pictures. He was also the driving force behind the cable TV series The Borgias.

Unconventional sexual relationships are a recurring theme in Jordan's work. He often explores a sympathetic side to characters that audiences would traditionally consider deviant or downright horrifying. His film The Miracle, for instance, follows two characters who struggle to resist a strong, incestuous attraction. Interview with the Vampire, like the Anne Rice book it was based on, focused on the intense, intimate relationship of two undead men who murder humans nightly. (Although the pair never have sex, they are clearly lovers of a sort). They are accompanied by an equally complex vampire woman, who is eternally trapped in the body of a little girl. While Lestat (Tom Cruise) is depicted in an attractive but villainous manner, his partner Louis (Brad Pitt) and the child vampire Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) are meant to capture the audience's sympathy despite their predatory natures.

Personal life

Jordan has five children: Anna and Sarah from his marriage to solicitor Vivienne Shields; Dashiel and Daniel from his current marriage to Brenda Rawn, and Ben, from a relationship with architect Mary Donohoe. Jordan lives in Dalkey, Dublin.

In 1996, Neil Jordan was honoured with receiving the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has received many honorary doctorates, including from Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and Queen's University Belfast.

In 2009, he signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after he was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.

In 2018, he donated his archives to the National Library of Ireland. Jordan's donation included TV and film scripts, production files, notebooks, storyboards and personal correspondence with artists and political figures.

Works

Film

Producer only

Creative associate

Excalibur (1981)

Bibliography

Night in Tunisia (1976, short stories)

The Past (1980, novel)

The Dream of a Beast (1983, novella)

Mona Lisa (1986, screenplay) co-written by David Leland

Angel (1989, screenplay)

A Neil Jordan Reader (1993) collects A Night in Tunisia, The Dream of a Beast, and The Crying Game (screenplay)

Sunrise with Sea Monster (1994, novel) published in the US as ‘’Nightlines’’

Michael Collins: Screenplay and Film Diary (1996, screenplay)

Shade (2004, novel)

Mistaken (2011, novel)

The Drowned Detective (2016, novel)

Carnivalesque (2017, novel)

The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small (2021, novel)

The Well of Saint Nobody (2023, novel)

The Library of Traumatic Memory (2026, novel)

Awards and nominations

In March 2026, he was awarded the Golden Seal of the Yugoslav Film Archive.

Literature

Guardian Fiction Prize for Night in Tunisia (1979)

Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1981

2004 Irish PEN Award

Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award for 'Shade' (2005) and Mistaken (2011)

2011 Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year for 'Mistaken'

UCD Alumni Award in Arts & Humanities 2021

Directed Academy Award Performances

Under Jordan's direction, these actors have received Academy Award nominations for their performances in these respective roles.