Leading the way for a new generation: the ones to watch in 2022

Emerging talents in culture, the arts and fashion are poised to shine in 2022. Esther McCarthy spoke with some of the new names breaking through

Sun, 02 Jan, 2022 - 17:51

Esther N McCarthy

The singer/songwriter: Megan O’Neill

Already finding a fanbase with her unique blend of ambient rock, roots and pop, Megan O’Neill is set to embrace the next stage of her creative career.

She has been busy making new music - and is very enthused at sharing her new sounds. “I’ve kind of gone in a totally new direction, which is really exciting,” she says. “Initially I was thinking I started in this folky Americana, singer songwriter vein, and I can’t exit it because sometimes in life, when you’re on one path, you think you have to stay there.”

But Covid and family circumstances made her reassess, and Megan moved back near her family home in Ballymore Eustace in Co Kildare after years abroad. She has treasured the chance to be near family and friends, and valued the time to really explore her music.

“I love when a song actually tells a story. That is something I’m bringing in from folk and Americana, that love of storytelling, but there’s just a bit more of a pop and electronic production around it for the new stuff.

“I got into production this year, which I never had time to do before because I was out gigging. I’ve a beautiful little studio setup and spending a lot of time just exploring sounds. I’m really excited, it feels like a new era for me and I can’t wait for people to hear it.” Megan was always encouraged to be creative and after performing musical theatre as a child, she started writing songs at the age of 13. 2021 was a good year for her musically, with the release of her first full-length album, Getting Comfortable with Uncertainty, a Late Late Show performance of her track Time in a Bottle and her single Ireland being shared by none other than Olivia Newton John.

Her goal is to build on that with her new music and there will be lots this year – she hopes to release a single every eight weeks beginning with Wildfire in February. She is thrilled at the prospect of people hearing what she’s been working on.

“I think as a creative, whether you’re acting or painting or whatever you’re doing creatively in your life, in whatever form that takes, it has to excite you. It has to set your heart on fire.”

The author: Mia Doring

Her accounts of trauma, rape and sexual exploitation have already caused conversations about how we view sexual violence. Now Mia Doring has written an intensely personal account of her experiences of the sex trade in Ireland in her first book, Any Girl.

The memoir has a strongly feminist approach in exploring male violence and the systems which support it. Benefiting from her experience as a psychotherapist specialising in sexual trauma, Any Girl is by turns radically honest and compassionate.

It took Mia many years to write the book she wanted to write - she tried writing it anonymously and as a novel before realising it needed to be in her own voice.

“I resisted it for as long as I could. But it just became unbearable not to tell the truth, what happened to me in my own words,” she says. “I started writing a blog about my experiences — I’ve always been writing. And so it was really natural for me to start a blog, it was anonymous. That got really popular and from that the idea of a book came about. It’s a memoir about my experiences of sexual violence and sexual exploitation and my involvement in the sex trade. It’s also about recovery from trauma – it’s informed by my experience as a psychotherapist. Also to highlight the impact of the story and the impact of trauma on us, and how we react to it.

“What I needed to do was tell my own story, and be true to myself, and then let the impact of that be whatever it is,” says Mia, adding that she hoped that would help effect positive change.

“I’m very passionate about cultivating compassionate awareness and understanding about how the trauma of sexual violence and sexual exploitation does happen, how insidiously it can happen, and the impact it has on a person.

“And also to have a stand against the normalisation of male violence that we have, the resignation we have of, ‘Well, this is just how it is’.”

Any Girl: A memoir of sexual exploitation and recovery will be published by Hachette Ireland on February 17th.

The actor: Ericka Roe

It’s been an exciting year for Ericka Roe, who shone in a leading role in the Irish hairdressing comedy Deadly Cuts. Never mind that her co-stars were established stars like Angeline Ball and Victoria Smurfit – the film’s young cast shone among the big names, with Ericka showing a natural knack for comic timing. It was her biggest role to date but there’s plenty more on the way.

“We all knew that we found it funny but to actually to hear an audience laugh back at it, that was amazing,” she says of the movie’s recent Irish premiere. Written and directed by Rachel Carey, the movie is set in the fictional working-class Dublin suburb of Piglinstown. There, a group of sassy hairdressers are forced to take on a local criminal gang who pose a huge threat to their business and their community.

“I’d done a few smaller parts in Taken Down, Dublin Murders and Herself but this was my first lead role. I was quite nervous about doing it. But with the cast and Rachel as director it was made easy.” Ericka’s character Stacey and her co-stars aren’t quite ready to put down the blowdryers just let.

A TV series spin-off a la The Young Offenders is being mooted and a pilot from Carey already written. “It’s looking promising anyway, and I’d love to be part of that.” She will also star in director Claire Dix’s much anticipated drama feature Sunlight, which was penned by Kerry screenwriter Ailbhe Keoghan. Ericka grew up in the west Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot and is passionate about seeing more working-class Irish representation on our screens.

She remembers hearing Imelda Quirke’s working-class accent while first watching The Commitments and was thrilled to work with Ball on Deadly Cuts.“I saw Eternals a few weeks ago. I actually got a bit emotional as I was watching it because of Barry Keoghan using his Dublin accent in it. I just hope that that’s seen more in film and TV and not just Dublin accents, all accents.”

Deadly Cuts in now available on various rental platforms.

The fashion model: Laju Uwatse

He’s quickly becoming one of our best-known exports in the fashion world, but Laju Uwatse was a shy teenager when it was first suggested he should consider modelling.

“I was working in retail in Lifestyle Sports and one of the ladies who booked the models for spotted me in the shop one day. She said: ‘I think you have a really good look and you could do well in the modelling industry in Ireland,” said Laju, adding that he hadn’t considered modelling as a career.

But it took off, as the company brought him to London and Berlin to take part in shoots for brands like Nike. “I had my first ever poster in Lifestyle Sports in Galway. And then it kind of hit me when I saw my first ever poster, maybe I can make something of myself in this industry.” Since then, the Nigeria-born, Limerick-raised Laju has been flying the fashion flag here and internationally. A stint in the UK saw him landing an agent and work for brands like Scott’s Menswear and Liverpool Football Club. Last year he returned home and signed with top Irish fashion agency Morgan the Agency.

His look has put him on the industry radar, but he believes that’s just one element of what you need for a successful career in modelling.

“Maybe a look will get you to a casting and that's cool. But who you are as a person and what you stand for will take you so much further. Every casting director that I meet, I want to show myself and my personality because I'm getting booked for who I am. If clients really like you and they feel like they can relate and they feel comfortable working with you a lot, that will take you so much further than just being a good-looking person.”