Holly Hayes

Born and raised in upstate New York, veteran actress Holly Hayes is known for Christmas in Rome, The Killer Beside Me, Free Rein, Living It, Emerald City, The Night Manager and 1408. Over her thirty-plus year career, Hayes has enjoyed a variety of roles in plays, television, film, commercials, and voice-overs. Graduating with a BFA in Acting and Directing from Ithaca College in 1979, she went on to earn her MFA at the Yale School of Drama in 1986. Hayes began her career in Regional Theatres in the US including Baltimore Centre Stage, Players Theatre Columbus and GeVa before starring in the record breaking long running Off Broadway hit Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch. On Broadway Hayes originated the role of Catherine de Brie in David Hirson's La Bête directed by Richard Jones, starring Tom McGowan and Dylan Baker. Hayes went on to reprise her role in London at The Lyric Theatre Hammersmith starring newcomer, Alan Cumming. For a few years Hayes split her acting career between New York and London, appearing in The Good Times Are Killing Me at Second Stage, Minetta Lane, Ford's Theatre, Washington DC and The Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Canada. In London she worked in fringe theatre and in Rep before making her West End debut in Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides directed by Harold Pinter. She then married a British theatre producer and started a family. While the children were small her husband's work took them around the globe, but Hayes finally settled in London with her family and that is where she has remained since. Hayes has also devoted over 10 years to teaching acting to hundreds of young people, but points out that they have taught her far more than she has taught them!