Roma Downey is best known for playing one of the most beloved First Ladies and also for playing an angel. But perhaps her most well-known part will be the one she has coming in her personal life, with her recent engagement to Mark Burnett, creator of many reality television series, including Survivor, The Apprentice, and Rock Star.

Born on May 6, 1960, in Derry, Northern Ireland, Downey’s unusual first name comes from her two grandmothers’ names, Rose and Mary, combined. Downey’s mother died when she was just 10, leaving it to her father to encourage her to explore that creative side of herself, and pursue piano and Irish dancing, but it was painting that really interested her, while her much older brother became a Roman Catholic priest. She also has another brother and two sisters. Downey earned her bachelor’s degree at Brighton Art College in England.

Drawing on Vincent Van Gogh’s quote, “It is no longer enough to be the painter; I want to be the paint,” Downey enrolled in the London Drama Studio and won the Most Promising Student of the Year award. After graduation, she joined Dublin’s famous Abbey Players and toured the United States, winning the Helen Hayes Best Actress award for her work in The Playboy of the Western World. She moved on to appearing in several off-Broadway productions, as well as the Broadway production of The Circle, having been cast by Rex Harrison.

Downey turned to television where she joined the cast of the daytime drama One Life to Live for a short time. She followed this by landing the part of one of America’s most prominent First Ladies in A Woman Named Jackie. She appeared alongside Stephen Collins and William Devane after spending just three weeks losing her strong Irish accent, although she has also been turned down for an Irish Spring soap commercial, because her accent wasn’t strong enough. After this, she appeared in three made-for-television movies, Getting Up and Going Home, Devlin, and Hercules and the Amazon Women.

Although she was offered the lead role in Xena: Warrior Princess, she turned it down allowing Lucy Lawless to accept the part, in order to then accept the role of Monica in the television series Touched By an Angel, which also starred Della Reese. Although the series kept her busy enough, she still found time for several other projects, including the made-for-television movie, A Child is Missing, starring Henry Winkler. In the televised movies Borrowed Hearts, starring Eric McCormack, and Monday After the Miracle, about the college years of Helen Keller, Downey acted as well as produced. 

After Touched By an Angel ended its nine-year run, Downey starred with Jacqueline Bisset as rape survivors in The Survivors Club, another movie in which she acted as producer. Returning to episodic television for three episodes of The Division, she then starred in the movie Funky Monkey with Matthew Modine, and once again acted as producer. Aside from her acting and producing pursuits, Downey has also recorded an album, Healing Angel, which features a combination of spoken word and Celtic music.

In her personal life, Downey had eloped to Rome, Italy, to marry her first husband, Leland Orser, then married her second husband, David Anspaugh, in a Utah ceremony with Della Reese officiating. This union produced one child, a daughter named Reilly Marie. After her second divorce, Downey became engaged to Survivor producer Mark Burnett.