Dublin native Stephanie Kelly has made her name as Sash Bishop on Fair City over the last 15 years, but there’s more to her than her Carrigstown persona. She talks to Janice Butler about resilience, her favourite role as a mammy and learning to believe in herself.
From the streets of Carrigstown to the glamorous lights of the ballroom in this year’s Dancing With The Stars, actress Stephanie Kelly has spent over 15 years cementing her place as one of Ireland’s most beloved soap talents. Best known as the fierce, no-nonsense Sash Bishop on Fair City, the Ballymun native has navigated some of the show’s biggest storylines.
Her own life has been an eventful one, too, with ups and downs along the way, but she has retained her sunny disposition through it all. For our shoot, the actress stayed northside, with a trip to the seaside suburb of Malahide, where she remarks that her father-in-law is from.
She admits that she “loves to chat”, adding that she sometimes worries that she annoys her castmates with all her banter. “I can be a bit much. I don’t stop talking, and I’m always cracking jokes. I imagine that I’m a bit annoying sometimes, but no one ever tells me that – you never feel you can’t be yourself on Fair City,” she laughs.
Photo Credit: RTÉ Guide
Stephanie is a joy to talk to, particularly because she’s so chatty; she’s generous with her time and her life story. Away from the dramatic scripts and television schedules, Stephanie’s most cherished role is being a Mammy to her three children (Zach, 13, Rosie, 6, and Finn, 4).
Balancing a busy home with her husband, Craig Hopkins, she’s delighted to be on a few weeks’ break from filming, to spend time with the kids during their summer holidays. “That’s the great thing about being a Mam in Fair City; you don’t work every week, it’s scattered throughout the year, so it’s the best of both worlds. I feel very lucky to get that in my job,” she says.
“The weeks I’m at home, I get to be a stay-at-home Mammy, and I love that, and the kids love it. I know that a lot of people don’t get that; you’re either feeling guilty because you’re working, or you see the other side, where people can’t go to work and they have to be at home with the kids because they can’t afford the childcare or they don’t have the family support. So I really appreciate it,” she adds.
Stephanie grew up in Ballymun with her mother. She credits her granny for being a second parent to her.
“I moved around quite a bit when I was young with my mam, it was just the two of us. We were always based in Ballymun, and my nan was like my mam as well. My mam was 17 when she had me, so in my head it was like I had two mams growing up,” she recalls.
She thinks the constant moving was one of the reasons why she turned to drama and performing. “When I look back, I just loved watching TV, and I don’t know if that was because we moved about so much. It was hard for me to make friends. I loved singing and acting, and I joined Dublin Youth Theatre when I was 12 and it changed everything for me,” she says.
Photo Credit: RTÉ Guide
Between working as a lounge girl in the famous Towers Pub in Ballymun and taking part in the Roundabout Youth Theatre, she says her teenage years were filled with performances and making connections.
“We did lots of Dublin Fringe Festivals and other festivals around the country. I had access to the industry, and from a young age. Actually, a lot of the actors, including the lads that play the Bishop boys, came from Roundabout too,” she comments.
In her early 20s, she and some friends made their way to RTÉ to audition for Fair City. It was December 2010, which many will remember for the ‘big snow’. Stephanie says they feared they wouldn’t make the audition, but it was getting home afterwards that proved more difficult. The journey was worth it, though, as she got the role as Sash Bishop. While the core Bishop family (mother Vivienne and her children Decco, Denzo, Zumo and Charlotte) originally arrived in Fair City in 2009, Sash was introduced two years later as Vivienne’s niece. “I remember ringing my nan to tell her I got the part. She was so excited, she said ‘I’ll call you back, I’m off out to tell the neighbours’,” she laughs.
It was her dream role; billed at the time as Carrigstown’s new “brassy blonde” and she made quite an impression during her first appearances by walking the streets wearing her pyjamas paired with boots and giant hoop earrings.
Two years later, Stephanie welcomed her first child, son Zach, and life took a turn. Her character was written out of the soap temporarily, and Stephanie struggled to find permanent accommodation for her and her son. Around the same time, her dear nan passed away, and it seemed nothing was going her way.
“It was an awful time. It was a multitude of things at that time, like a conveyer belt,” she recalls. “I lost my grandmother, who had raised me, I lost my grandfather, I was living in emergency accommodation; that all happened in the space of a year.
Photo Credit: RTÉ Guide
“But I remember when I eventually got an apartment in Ballymun with Zach, I was probably only in it for a month or two and the phone rang and it was Fair City asking was I available to come back. I actually cried, because I’d been through so much and it felt like things were starting to look up a bit for me. My nan loved Fair City and me being in it, so I felt like it was her looking after me in some way,” she says, adding that going through the hard times made her appreciate the good.
“But going through that stage in my life really made me appreciate things and realise what’s important. I used to get stressed out over small things, but now I’m so much more laid back. Once everyone is healthy and happy, nothing else really matters.”
A few years later, she met Craig, a fellow Ballymun native, who she knew to see around and thought he was “gorgeous”.
“I used to see him walking up and down the Ballymun Road when he was going to GAA club, and I always thought he was beautiful,” she laughs. “Years later, I found him on Facebook, and I messaged him and the rest is history.”
The couple are 12 years together this August. They got married in 2022, and the family expanded with the arrival of Rosie in 2019 and Finn in 2022.
“We’ve always had the craic, we’re best friends. We’ve a great relationship and I think what helps us is that we both never shut up!” she laughs.
“We don’t hold anything in, so there’s never a build-up of resentment. As soon as we annoy each other, we just say it.”
Photo Credit: RTÉ Guide
She credits Graig for supporting and encouraging her during her recent appearance on this year’s Dancing With The Stars, something she never thought she would partake in. “I wasn’t sure I’d be able to commit to it and handle the kids and work, but Craig was great, he really encouraged me and took over the reins at home,. ’ve never seen him do that much housework,” she laughs.
Stephanie surprised herself by how well she did in the competition. She was the sixth celebrity to be eliminated in the season. “I cannot believe I got that far. Every week, I thought I was going home. It’s like you’re standing there on The X Factor waiting for the elimination, I kept getting a fit of the giggles,” she laughs.
“I was probably one of the least competitive people there, but the more the weeks went on, the more I wanted it. I started to believe in myself a little bit more.”
She adds that it’s given her confidence going forward to try other things and challenge herself. “I think I believe in myself a lot more now. Dancing was not something I would have considered my forte, so now I’m like, if I could do that, I can do anything,” she says.
While she’s on a break from filming for a few weeks, she’ll be back on set in August, just before Fair City turns 38 in September. Stephanie admits she sees parts of herself in Sash. “When you play a character for so many years, it would be hard not to add elements of yourself to them. There’s definitely elements of Sash in me.
“What I love about Sash is she’s resilient. She grew up in the flats in the inner city, with her mam who was a drug addict and then passed away. There’s never been much mention of Sash’s dad. I don’t know if that’s something they’d look at in the future, but I would love that to come in and be a storyline.
“I love that despite what she’s been through, she always wants better for herself and her family.”
As for upcoming storylines, as always, the actors are not allowed to say much, but she does reveal Sash will be in a big storyline involving E-scooters, a very topical subject at the moment and one she’s looking forward to delving into.
“I think it’s a fantastic storyline and really relevant to the times we’re living in, and I haven’t seen it addressed on any other soap,” she says.
“I won’t say too much…everyone tune in.”