Fairley appeared in a number of British television shows, including The Bill, Holby City and Casualty. Some of her earlier roles were as Cathy Michaels on ITV1's Inspector Morse in the episode titled "The Way Through The Woods" and as Nancy Phelan in Lovejoy in the episode 9 of Season 3 titled "Smoke Your Nose". She took over the role of Mrs. Granger from Heather Bleasdale in the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films. She played the role of Catelyn Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones, replacing Jennifer Ehle who played the character in the original pilot episode. She joined the cast of the USA Network series Suits for its third season, playing the recurring role of Ava Hessington. In 2017, it was announced that Fairley would appear in a revival of Jim Cartwright's play Road at the Royal Court Theatre In 2018, she played Cassius in Julius Caesarat the Bridge Theatre, alongside David Calder, David Morrissey and Ben Whishaw. As of June 2020, Michelle Fairley's most recently released work is her role as Marian Wallace in the new Sky Atlantic series, Gangs of London.
Personal life
Fairley was born in Coleraine to Brian and Teresa Fairley, and is the second oldest of 6 children. Her father was a popular publican, owner of Fairley's Bar and several off-licenses, in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, but Michelle remembers both Catholics and Protestants frequenting the pub. Fairley has been based in London since 1986, and keeps a low public profile. She said in an interview with The Telegraph in 2015, that she made the decision to separate from her boyfriend of seven years in 2012. Since then, Fairley has had no known partners. Michelle said, in the same interview, that she "missed the gene" for motherhood. She never had the desire to have children like some of her siblings did. While Fairley has worked on various American projects in the past, she has no love for Hollywood, and the West End theatres remain her home. She said that television and movies challenge her in a different way and make her "use a different muscle," but theatre is where she feels her best work is done, where she started her career, and where she hopes to "end up."
