Helen O'Hara is a Northern Irish film critic and journalist, primarily known for working for Empire magazine, for which she is editor-at-large.
[5] She has said that she has always been a fan of film, with one of her earliest memories being to see Return of the Jedi in the cinema, but thought she had to choose a "sensible" career and so studied law.
O'Hara studied law at Oxford University and began a career in it, but was unhappy with it and "bored out of [her] tiny mind".
[1][6] She became an intern and then staff writer at Empire, a role she held for eleven years before going freelance and contributing to other publications.
Starting in 2012 during awards season, with David Roy of The Irish Times noting this was "long before everyone and their silver surfing granny had their own podcast", it is seen as one of the forces maintaining the success of Empire.