Victoria Smurfit

Victoria Smurfit is the Irish actress who will portray Cruella on ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Biography
Victoria Smurfit is part of the Smurfit family, one of the richest in Ireland. The family, headed by Victoria's uncle Michael Smurfit, sponsors a number of sporting events including the Smurfit European Open and the Champion Hurdle. The family is also associated with Smurfit Business School in University College Dublin (UCD). She was educated at two Anglican schools, Saint Columba's College, Dublin[1] and St. George's School, Ascot, England. She did an A level in theatre studies and then went to the Bristol Old Vic theatre school.

Smurfit gained fame for her role as Orla O'Connell in the BBC television series Ballykissangel. Since 2003, she has taken over from Kate Buffery in the lead role in Trial & Retribution as DCI Roisin Connor. She has also guest starred in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi. Smurfit appeared in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple TV episode The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side. She also appeared in a small role in the movie The Beach. She most recently appeared on the NBC television network drama Dracula as Lady Jane. The show aired in the fall of 2013.

Smurfit married advertising executive Douglas Baxter on 29 July 2000, and gave birth to her first child, daughter Evie Dorothy Baxter in Dublin, Ireland on 2 November 2004. A second daughter, Ridley Belle Baxter was born in May 2007. Their third child and first son was born in November 2008 and named Flynn Alexander Baxter.

She writes an opinion blog for The Dubliner, which often features anecdotes from her personal life, and is a patron of the children's charity World Vision Ireland.