Victoria Smurfit

Victoria Smurfit is part of the Smurfit family, one of the richest in Ireland, through the Smurfit Kappa Group. 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 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 from 1998–99. From 2003–09, she played the lead role of DCI Roisin Connor in Trial & Retribution. She also guest starred in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi. In 2011, Smurfit appeared in the Agatha Christie's Marple television episode "The Mirror Cracked From Side to Side".

In 2013, Smurfit costarred as Lady Jane Wetherby in the NBC television period drama Dracula. In 2014, Smurfit began playing the recurring guest role of villainess Cruella de Vil on ABC's Once Upon a Time.

She is currently shooting for her role in Homecoming, a film she has described as a "mean girls for grownups." She plays Nikki, the "head mean girl."

Smurfit married advertising executive Douglas Baxter on 29 July 2000 in Surrey, England. She gave birth to their 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, a boy, was born in November 2008 and named Flynn Alexander Baxter.

In 2012, the family relocated to Santa Monica, California. In February 2015 it was announced that Smurfit and her husband had filed for divorce.

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.