Brenda Winter-Palmer began her acting career at the Lyric Theatre Belfast in 1979 . In the 1980s she was a founder member of Charabanc the internationally successful Woman’s Theatre Collective, creating the roles of Lizzie in Lay Up Your Ends and Eileen in Oul Delf and False Teeth.

Brenda has a distinguished back catalogue of roles in theatre, television, film and radio. Screen appearances include Hush a Bye Baby (dir. Margot Harkin), Venus de Milo Instead ( dir. Danny Boyle), Titanic Town (dir. Roger Michell). Television credits include All About Me (by Stephen Knight), Fighting with Shadows (by Marie Jones) and So You Think You Got Troubles (by Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks).

Favourite theatre roles include Aunt Lizzie in Philadelphia Here I Come by Brian Friel, Ma in Donny Boy by Robin Glendinning, and Ethel in Ethel Workman is Innocent at the Royal Court London. In the course of her career, Brenda has worked all over Ireland and Scotland and in London. She has toured to the Soviet Union and the USA.

In 1989 she founded, and was the first Artistic Director of Belfast’s longest established Educational Theatre Company, Replay. Whilst at Replay she wrote numerous scripts for the company and for BBC Radio and Television. In 2005 she undertook a full-time practice as research doctorate at Queen’s University Belfast in Drama Studies. She lectured at QUB until 2015.

Since leaving Queen’s she has enjoyed renewed success as a writer. Her Showband Wives play, Keep Telling Me Lies, was performed at the MAC Belfast in 2018. Her most recent play Fortuna and Chips will be produced in 2026 by Brassneck Theatre Company, Belfast.