David Conolly

David Conolly is a writer, director, comedian and actor whose production company, Mansion Pictures, produced two feature-length films, Mothers & Daughters and The Understudy,

Conolly was born in Leeds. His father, Michael, worked as a Chaplain in a mental hospital. After following the family tradition and working in psychiatry, David was selected to join the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, which in turn led to him making his West End debut at age 17. David went on to study performing arts at Leicester Polytechnic where he directed Mobil Winning New play, Woundings and won outstanding contribution to the National Student Drama Festival with Ode to St Cecilia. Having completed his degree, David began training as an actor at Mountview Theatre School before returning to the West End with the much acclaimed A Passionate Woman and the award winning A Last Bus From Bradford.

Between acting jobs, David and Hannah Davis met whilst running Lunacy, an alternative comedy night on the London fringe. They then worked their way up the production ladder, producing the pilot of Lunacy, which led to work in BBC Drama and Documentary. Breaking out from the TV production treadmill, they created festival nominated shorts and community films for the Red Cross, the Teenage Cancer Unit Trust and the National Schizophrenic Foundation. They also developed their writing skills with screenplays for Hartswood Films, Quentin Morrissey, Buffalo Pictures as well as working on Shakespearean productions at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, London.

Having spent a few years in constant development it was decided to combine their many skills and create a feature film, entitled Mothers & Daughters. Six months were spent with actors devising and rehearsing the screenplay, followed by intense bursts of filming with breaks so that cast and crew could earn money to live on during production and so that Hannah and David could earn money to finance the next phase of filming! Finally producer and writer Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect) saw a rough-cut of Mothers & Daughters and became their post production fairy Godmother. Mothers & Daughters was invited to film festivals worldwide, debuting at Cannes then playing at São Paulo, Montreal, Quebec, Barcelona, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, The Hamptons, London and Dinard "Great performances, good pacing, sharp script", Variety declared, they were nominated - The Golden Hitchcock Award for Direction. Mothers & Daughters was selected as one of the top six British Films of the year.

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