From the minute I knew what the word meant, I've always wanted to be an actress. I've always had an interest in making up plays. Acting has always been my hobby. If I can make my hobby my work, it will be brilliant and a dream come true. I absolutely loved school - particularly my primary school, St Brigid's National School, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow. I never wanted to miss a day and I never wanted to be sick. I enjoyed secondary school, Loreto College, Bray, too, particularly because I got to see my friends every day.

I slacked off in third year, though. I still did my work, but did only just what needed to be done. School's not that bad once you get your homework out of the way and don't let it all pile up. I absolutely loved maths and English.

I did my Leaving Cert last year and did much better than I expected. I got 355 points. I was only doing it to pass. I thought I'd just get about 280 points. I knew there was nothing in college that I was as passionate about as acting.

I got my first role in a play way back, when I was four years of age. I was cast as an angel and I was really chuffed about it. All the other little girls playing angels had blond hair so the teacher decided to cast me as Pinoccio. I hated it and was really disappointed - I wanted to be one of the beautiful angels. Eventually, though, I realised Pinoccio was a really good part and gave me a great chance to act.

When I was eight, I started speech and drama classes with Rita Morrissey, just 10 minutes away from home. She was brilliant. We did exams and put on a play each year. I loved it. When I went to secondary school, I had to change to the Gladys Sheehan drama group in Greystones, and when I got too old for that I moved to the Bray branch. We did a play each year and I always got a role.

Acting is brilliant. It's so much fun being able to be someone else for a while. It's really about dressing up and playing makebelieve. The most exciting thing about it is that I'm still learning. Every time I do a different project I learn something new from someone. I'll never get to the stage where I know everything. Stage work is great because you get immediate satisfaction, but if you're filming and you've done a good day's work or played a difficult scene well, that's also very satisfying.

The audition for Felicia's Journey took place during my Leaving Cert exams. I had to leave the bus.org exam 15 minutes early. Mr Denny, our school principal, tried to persuade me to stay 'till the end. I know he was only doing his job, but I'm so glad I went - the outcome was exactly what I wanted and I ended up doing well in the exam. Getting to the audition was a rush and I turned up for it half in school uniform and half in normal clothing.

I absolutely loved every single minute of making Felicia's Journey. Everyone was fantastic and really friendly. Bob Hoskins was brilliant. It was so good to work with someone with such high acting standards. When I first met him I thought he was too nice to play the Hilditch role.

I'm not in any rush to do another job. I only want to do things I feel passionate about - I don't want to work for the sake of working. I'm hoping that my visit to the New York film festival, where Felicia's Journey is showing, will result in some interesting scripts.