Carol Murphy is an artist, writer, filmmaker and performer from Belfast. She studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Northumbria, and video installation on residency at Ateliers ’63 in Amsterdam and exhibited in Europe. An MA in Film Theory; work in radio at BBC London and film journalism for magazines such as Film Ireland, Flux Magazine and Filmwaves brought her on the road to short film production. Murphy produced the short films Automaton and Tell it to the Fishes starring Dylan Moran and Gerry McSorley. She production managed Anja Kirschner’s Polly II: Plan for Revolution in Docklands. She also established and performed in a band called California Roll, writing songs, singing, and playing the fiddle.

After attending the 2006 Berlinale Talent Campus, Murphy wrote, directed, and produced numerous shorts, many of which were internationally co-produced with French producer, Jennifer Sabbah. Mustard premiered at The European Film Festival in Munich in 2007; Nightclubbing won the RTÉ/Filmbase Short Film Award and the Ille De France Finishing Fund 2009; The Dissenter, was funded by NI Screen; Painkiller is part of the Collabor8te 2013 slate run by Rankin Film & TV and was long listed for a BAFTA.

In 2008 Murphy attended the Rutger Hauer Filmfactory in Rotterdam and the Script Development Programme at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam with a feature project, now completed and called Golden Boy. In 2009 she attended Script & Pitch at the Turino Film Lab with the same feature project, which was also part of EAVE. 

In 2011 Murphy wrote and produced Finbar’s Private Netherland for the Pick N Mix Theatre Festival at the Mac in Belfast. In 2012 she completed a residency at Digital Arts Studios in Belfast where she made a body of fashion films, working with Let Them Eat Cake magazine, Neu HQ, Blow Fashion PR, and Blick Studios. She also established FUGI: The Fashion Filmmaker’s Blog. Her fashion film Mary Me Jimmy Paul vs My Bad Sister, made together with stylist Britt Kcamroc and Cult Mountain, was featured in the #untaggable AUDI advertising car campaign. 

Since 2015 Murphy has worked in production roles for film and TV, including two seasons of Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Venom 2, The Northman, and Dungeons & Dragons amongst others. She has also taught in third level education including short film screen writing at Queens Open Learning; workshops on the creative process at the Architecture Department at Queens University; attended Queens Film Studies and University of Ulster Media Studies courses as a visiting lecturer and presented films at Queens Film Theatre.

Murphy finished her feature script Golden Boy in 2016. In 2018 she completed the First Draft & Beyond screenwriter’s lab, run by Screen Training Ireland, with a feature period drama script, now complete, called Sailortown. She also has a comedy feature project called Unreadable. Murphy is currently writing the 3rd draft of her horror Sci Fi Thriller feature, The Silent Tide with Fantastic Films in Dublin, development funded by NI Screen and Screen Ireland.

In 2020, after watching Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix during lockdown, Murphy returned to The Body & Blood, an idea she had in 2008, and wrote it in verse. In 2021 she shot it in her bedroom on her iPhone. She launched it here, online in January 2022 after an online video campaign. The first live one woman performance was at The Black Box in Belfast in May 2022. In Feb 2023 she performed The Body & Blood at VAULT Festival in London before performing it at The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival; The Open House Festival at The Courthouse in Bangor; The Lyric Lounge in Belfast and at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin all in 2023.

Murphy performs music and verse in Belfast performance and Art Spaces as The Vigilante Cannibal Nun with a growing body of songs. In September 2024 she launhced The Vigilante Cannibal Nun as Agony Aunt comedy horror podcast on Spotify. It is currently sitting at number 2 in Comedy Fiction podcasts on Apple Podcasts in Ireland. In 2025 She will launch another new fictional comedy podcast called THe Revolutionary.

Murphy has been selected to take part in Screen Ireland’s 2025 Mentoring Scheme.