“You should not be confined to any box just because of your ethnicity”

Jimmy Doherty, a young Irish Traveller, talks to the Travellers’ Times’ Liza Mortimer about forging ahead with his career as an actor 

“I used to study the way the actors would portray the characters. I'd see actors in different projects, but then the characters would be different. So, I'd try and understand how they could actually do that and do it convincingly.” 

Jimmy Doherty, 18, has dreams about forging a career as a professional actor – dreams that are starting to become a reality. Photographs by Bela Varadi. 

Jimmy has been interested in acting throughout his childhood and time in school, studying actors in films and acting in as many school performances as possible. 

“Wait, you have to understand, I only really started all this about a year and a half ago,” he says.  

For Jimmy his acting career started in October 2022, as an extra in a Bollywood film. Jimmy says: “I was literally just in the background, and the amount of anxiety I felt for doing something so small was insane.” 

A year later Jimmy moved onto a bigger role. In October 2023 he stared in a short drama called “Ice Cream”. Jimmy talks about the challenge of that role: “I had to be a character that I wouldn't usually be; a protective older brother, a Romany boy. That stands out to me more than anything I've ever done.” 

Prior to this Jimmy had only taken part in one acting lesson, led by award-winning film and TV director, producer and actor, John Connors, at the Misleór Festival of Nomadic Cultures in Galway, Ireland. Jimmy talks about his experience:  

“Me and John improvised together. I never thought I could become an actor just based off being a Traveller, but watching John made me believe I could, so it was an honour to get to meet him, and to do a scene with him,” adds Jimmy. 

“As soon as I came back from Galway, John said, ‘Jimmy, you got to get some acting lessons to better your performance’. So, that's exactly what I did; I got a six-week acting course at City Academy in Leicester Square.” 

A couple of months after that, Jimmy then starred as the lead in a short film called “Wipe it over”, one of seven shorts from a research project called “Realities Checked”.  

Jimmy is continuing to take part in acting lessons and continues to study films to perfect his craft and to make his dreams of a career in front of the camera become a reality. Jimmy is also attending a creative media course in college, where he is learning to make short films. 

“Your abilities should be transferred into any role that you can play, not only ones that help promote the community, but beyond that,” says Jimmy. “You should not be confined to any box just because of your ethnicity. 

If there's something that you can't stop thinking about, and if this is the only kind of life you view, and you can't see any other option, then you have to do it!” 

It is evident that Jimmy Doherty means business, and Travellers’ Times wish him all the best of luck! 

By Liza Mortimer 

(All photos © Bela Varadi) 

This article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of the Travellers’ Times Magazine. You can subscribe to the next issue – which is out in November – by following this link.