The 2025 Creative Arts Emmy Awards took place this past weekend, with one nominee in particular standing out to the Irish LGBTQ+ community. Bea O’Sullivan, a trans woman from Wicklow, was in the running for Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour) alongside her team for their work on The White Lotus.

Season 3 Episode 8, entitled ‘Amor Fati’, was being recognised in particular. O’Sullivan is credited as Production Mixer, with Christian Minkler and Ryan Collins as Re-Recording Mixers, Jamison Rabbe as ADR Mixer and Michael Head as Foley Mixer.

While the trophy was awarded to the Severance team for the episode ‘Cold Harbor’, it was still a massive achievement to be nominated.

Speaking about the experience, Bea O’Sullivan told GCN, “It was actually kind of funny because the nominations had just been released and I saw, I think it was on the RTÉ News website or something, that a bunch of Irish actors had been nominated. So I went looking to see who had been nominated in the sound category, completely not expecting to see my name in there.”

She continued, “It was a real shock, but it was also such a fantastic feeling. I definitely walked away from work with the hugest smile that day.”

As mentioned, O’Sullivan worked as a Sound Production Mixer on The White Lotus, but what exactly does the role entail?

“Basically, what I and the rest of my department are concerned with is to record both dialogue and sound effects as we’re shooting… That’s kind of the simplest way to put it.

“It can be challenging in a lot of instances because you’re often dealing with background noises or special effects or whatever, and we’ve all seen movies where the dialogue has clearly been replaced later because sometimes you just get beaten—there are too many things going on. But not always! Thankfully, we tend to get pretty good results these days.”

According to O’Sullivan, she “fell into” sound mixing. She started doing music after she left school, making front-of-house mixes for bands. Then, while she was still living at home with her parents, they moved house, and one of their new neighbours worked in the film industry.

“They got me onto a job, a film that came in needed a trainee for the sound department, and they asked me did I want to do it,” she shared. “That was like 1993 and I’m still going!”

Explaining what about sound interests her so much, she said, “It’s just something that I’ve always identified with and loved and enjoyed. I think you can create so much with a soundtrack.

“You can make such an atmosphere, and I think a lot of people often don’t even realise, and in some ways, that’s the trick…. People don’t even realise why suddenly it’s really scary. And while the image itself obviously has an important part to play in that, the sound also creates that, and in some ways, often on a much more visceral level that people don’t realise or aren’t aware of at the time.

“That’s really it, I’ve just forever been fascinated by and enjoyed sound in one way or another,” she concluded.

Bea O’Sullivan has enjoyed plenty of success during her 30 years in the industry. She has credits on blockbusters like The Conjuring: Last Rites, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and Black Widow, as well as TV hits like Homeland.

Of course, there is also The White Lotus, which she said was a “huge honour” to be asked to do. “Working with such fantastic actors and a fanstastically well-written script—you know, Mike is such a fantastic script writer—that’s obviously been one of the highlights,” she shared.

O’Sullivan also noted that she’s “been lucky enough to work with the Wachowskis on a few projects”.

“It’s fantastic to be able to work on films at that level with such incredibly talented directors, writers, cast… Lana is a fantastic filmmaker, and you see something happen in those occasions that you just don’t see in a lot of places. There is a little touch of magic in those experiences.”

The Wachowski sisters are some of the most prominent trans filmmakers in the world. Lana came out in 2012, with Lilly following suit in 2016.

When asked about her own experience navigating her gender identity while working in the industry, O’Sullivan said, “I feel very fortunate, everybody has been fantastic, welcoming, in some ways it’s almost like it never happened if you know what I mean?

“We’ve just continued on… People just accepted me and have all been supportive and lovely, and I’m sure there are people who don’t agree with my life choice and trans people’s life choice in general, or the whole LGBTQ+ community, but at the very least, I’ve had no negative experiences.

“Everyone has either treated me as a regular person or, in a lot of cases, have been fantastically supportive and helpful. So I do consider myself fortunate. I know not everybody has such an easy time when they transition.”

Concluding the interview, she wanted to send a message to trans people working or hoping to work in the industry: “I have no qualifications, nothing formal, but I’d be happy if anybody felt that I could be of any help in any way as they move forward, particularly in this industry, I’d be happy to have a conversation.”

If anyone would like to be put in touch with Bea O’Sullivan, please contact [email protected].

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