Geraldine Brophy was born to Irish parents in Birmingham, England, in 1961. She came to New Zealand in 1972 and lived in Naenae where she was educated at Sacred College, Lower Hutt. In 1983 she was offered her first professional role in the Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North, production of Duet for One. She went on to become a company member for Stuart Devenie.

The following year she was a member of Tony Taylor’s first Fortune Theatre Company, appearing as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Multiple Choice, Fresh Revolving Pleasures and A Christmas Carol.

In her subsequent 24 years in the industry she has played more than 150 roles on stage. She was a core member of Elric Hooper’s Court Theatre Company for over a decade, winning the Press Best Actress award several times. Her memorable work there includes leads in a range of classics, among them the title roles in Medea, and St. Joan, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Gertrude in Hamlet, Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing, Gwendoline in The Importance of Being Earnest, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire, Mae in Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, and Sonia in Uncle Vanya.

More recently Geraldine has appeared for Downstage Theatre and Circa Auckland Theatre Company in The Rivals, Flagons and Foxtrots, The Graduate and Middle Age Spread and toured her one woman show, Confessions of a Chocoholic around New Zealand. She worked extensively for Auckland Theatre Company in Middle Age Spread and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Dancing at Lughnasa and Arcadia.She also played the title role in the New Zealand Actor’s company Festival production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Leah. She won the 1996 Chapman Tripp Award for Best Supporting Actress in the Downstage production of Tzigane.

For five years from 1997 t0 2001 she appeared as receptionist, Moira Crombie on Shortland Street. She won the 1998 New Zealand Film and Television Best Actress award for her lead role in Home Movie and was a finalist for Best Actress in the 2000 awards for Shortland Street. Other television appearances include the recent Seven Periods with Mr. Gormsby, Serial Killers, Spin Doctors, Maddigan’s Quest, Insiders Guide to Love, Outrageous Fortune, Welcome to Paradise and Time Hackers.

In the Cinema she has been seen in the acclaimed film In My Father’s Den, King Kong, The Waterhorse, Underworld Three and the recent kiwi box office success Second Hand Wedding.

Geraldine directed Under Milkwood for the Court Theatre 2008, Finding Murdoch for Downstage and a sell out revival of her own work, The Viagra Monologues at Bats in 2007, the Pulitzer prize winning play Doubt for the Court Theatre 2007, and the revival of Renee’s Wednesday To Come. She directed the premiere of her play, The Paradise Package at the Fortune Theatre Dunedin in 2006.

Her career as a dramatist began with the highly praised The Viagra Monologues at the Herald Theatre in Auckland in 2003. This piece on the theme of male sexuality and its expression inside and outside of relationships, features fifteen dramatic monologues divided among three male performers who play from three to eighty three.

Mary’s Gospel premiered at the Herald theatre in 2004. It focuses on the relationship of mentally disturbed Mary and her cousin /caregiver Lizzie after the death of Mary’s son Christie. The play, set in a Hutt Valley state house, is a painful and poignant look at community care and the Irish immigrant community in Wellington.

Geraldine created the role of Karen in her best-known work Confessions of a Chocoholic, which debuted in Petone in 2004 and has since gone on to tour nationally. It tells of a teenage mother being forced to give up her baby for adoption and her search in later life for this child.

Real Estate was premiered in Petone 2005 and involves octogenarians Norma and Lottie whose relationship is strained by Norma’s reluctance to leave her family home and Lottie’s revelation of her involvement with Rocky, Norma’s late husband. This play has had rehearsed readings performed in London by Shaky Isles Theatre Co. and recently at The Court Theatre Christchurch.

The Paradise Package, premiered at the Fortune Theatre in March 2006 and is a light hearted look at marriage twenty first century style, with a gay couple making a commitment ceremony and an older man and his much younger, sexually liberal wife renewing their vows.

Her latest play, Meat about a celebrity chef and his autistic son has yet to be produced, and she has just finished a draft of the commissioned work The Merry Wives of Windsor Avenue, based on Shakespeare’s play and set in the American Embassy in Wellington.

Geraldine lives in Petone, Wellington New Zealand with her husband Ross Joblin and two daughters, Zoë and Beatrice.