Gold Derby Presents...A Week with Ted Lasso: MJ Delaney

MJ Delaney is a BAFTA-winning director. She recently directed the final two episodes of season 1 of TED LASSO, the hit Apple TV+ series starring Jason Sudeikis, which earned her a DGA nomination. She is currently directing a block of episodes for season 2. Last year she directed all six episodes of new series FRANK OF IRELAND, produced by Sharon Horgan’s Merman for Channel 4 and Amazon. The show, which is created & written by and stars Brian & Domhnall Gleeson, premiered on Amazon Prime in the US and Channel 4 in the UK in Spring 2021. MJ is due to direct the final block of the UK remake of CALL MY AGENT (Bron Studios/Headline Pictures/Amazon) this summer.

MJ graduated from Oxford University with a Double First in English in 2007. At 26, she created the parody music video Newport (Ymerodraeth State Of Mind), which became a YouTube sensation, and one of the biggest viral hits of 2010. She was named as one of Broadcast Magazine’s ‘Hotshots’ in 2012, having been commissioned to create content for BBC Comedy, Channel 4 and Funny Or Die. Her first long-form film, BEN & LUMP, an original half-hour drama starring Thomas Turgoose, was broadcast on Channel 4 as part of the network's Coming Up talent scheme. This was soon followed by her debut feature film, POWDER ROOM, which was picked up at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and theatrically released by Universal Pictures later that year.

2016 brought MJ’s second viral hit, What I Really Really Want – a global re-make of the Spice Girls Wannabe video promoting gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals, which quickly amassed over 200 million views. By 2018, MJ was collaborating with Michelle Obama for the Obama Foundation’s Global Girls Alliance. That same year MJ won a BAFTA for her short film DREAMLAND, which was penned by Sharon Horgan and stars Morgana Robinson and Sheridan Smith.