Helen O'Hara

Helen O'Hara is a Northern Irish film critic, journalist and podcaster, primarily known for working for Empire magazine, for which she is editor-at-large. She has also written for Time Out, The Guardian, The Telegraph, GQ, Digital Spy.

Early life O'Hara was born in Portstewart, County Londonderry, in Northern Ireland. 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.

Career I thought I might be able to make a move sideways into legal reporting, and gradually, somehow, work my way over to film writing, but that wouldn't have worked, I think. Changing careers takes skill, planning and a lot of luck. I got lucky then as a job came up for an internship at exactly the right time with Empire. — Helen O'Hara, 2018 O'Hara's first review was of The Triplets of Belleville, which she wrote before she joined Empire and was unpaid.

She co-hosts the Empire podcast for Empire. 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. She also contributes to The Independent and The Guardian 's film reporting. She wrote the book The Ultimate Superhero Movie Guide, published in 2020. She wrote the 2021 book Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall And Rise Of Women In Film.