Mary-Ellen trained as an actor and spent the first 10 years of her professional career navigating the stage and screen working as an actor.

Her passion for casting came about in the active and diverse Northern Irish Short film scene. From Cathy Brady's, 'Wasted', Stacey Gregg's 'Mercy', Andrea Harkin's 'The Party' (BAFTA Nominated) to Mike Lennox's 'Boogaloo & Graham' (BAFTA Winner & Oscar Nominated), Mary-Ellen has been championed for her contribution towards finding, working with and continuing to develop new and emerging talent.

Mary-Ellen worked with Carla Stronge Casting since 2015 to 2022 - Working across film and television. She is extremely grateful for the projects she has worked on since embarking on her career in casting, some standout productions for her are 'Game of Thrones', 'Derry Girls', 'The Dig' 'Silverpoint' 'My Mother & Other Strangers' 'Ups & Downs' 'The Secret' 'Secret Life of Boys' and 'Krypton'.

She has always created a safe space for actors to work, not only believing that any good production stands upon its treatment of all creatives, but that this is also the most creatively rewarding way to work. She is now under mentor ship with Ita O'Brien, Intimacy On Set, and is using her skills and experience developing her work as an Intimacy Practitioner.

Alongside the Intimacy Practitioner work and her Casting work, she has been focusing on arming our actors with the tools to move forward in their career. She is an acting/performance coach and loves working with actors and creatives in preparation for work and on set, in which she encourages safe practice, process, performance, open clear communication and the beauty of storytelling.

Mary-Ellen is a big believer in daily learning and practice. Our industry is forever evolving and pushing forward and with that we must all be striving to move with it.