Thomas McLaughlin was born in Belfast and studied acting at the Portland
[Oregon] Conservatory Theatre.
His stage plays include Cross-Country (co-author, New York, 1981); Let's All
Go Down to the Strand (Belfast, New Writers Theatre, and Dublin, Project
Theatre, 1982); Evening (Belfast, Ulster Poly Theatre, 1983); The New
Museum of Panic (co-author, New York, 1983); The Way the Buffalo Went
(Project Theatre, 1985); Peasants (Strathclyde Theatre, 1987, winner of a
Bass Ireland Bursary); Fingertips (Belfast, Tinderbox Theatre Company,
1989); The Frontline Café (Belfast, Charabanc Theatre Company, 1991);
Greatest Hits (Project Theatre, 1994, published in Greatest Hits, Dublin,
New Island Press); Iron May Sparkle (Charabanc Theatre Company, and London,
Drill Hall, 1994); and Black Ice (Dublin, Team Theatre Company, 1988).
His radio plays include The Leisure Pioneers (BBC, 1988); Red Ribbons (BBC
and RTÉ, [Irish State TV] 1990); Fingertips(RTÉ and WDR [Germany], 1990,
Prix Futura winner for best new radio drama, 1991); Golfing in Russia (BBC,
1991); Chucky the Lucky Leprechaun (BBC 1992); Seaside (BBC, 1992); The Sun
Sessions (BBC, 1993); The Triumph of Capitalism (RTÉ, 1999).
He has written sketches and sit-com for television and is one of the
principal writers of RTÉs long-running soap opera Fair City. He was
frontman and songwriter for the rock band Light a Big Fire with whom he
recorded three albums, and has played an intergalactic pirate in
the film Space Truckers.
He is a board member of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild.
He lives in Dublin