Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968, Aidan Gillen is probably best known to audiences from his lead role in the rather controversial television series Queer as Folk, in which he played (in his own words) "a man slut." Some of his other high-profile performances include the villainous Carver Doone in the A&E/BBC production of Lorna Doone, and more recently as the villainous Lord Rathbone in the Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson action-comedy Shanghai Knights.

He's also played Peter O'Toole's rival game show host in The Final Curtain, a detective opposite Richard Harris in the British gangster film My Kingdom (2001), the character Baby in Mojo (1997), Helen Mirren's imprisoned son in the IRA drama Some Mother's Son (1996), Geraldine O'Rawe's love interest in the romance Circle of Friends (1995), and a homeless youth in Antonia Bird's debut film Safe (1993) for the BBC. In 2000, he was named Best British Newcomer at the Edinburgh Film Festival for his leading performance in the film The Low Down (2000). The same year, he was also nominated for Best Actor for Queer as Folk at the BAFTA Awards.

In addition to his film work, Gillen is a seasoned theatre actor—notable roles include the titular character of Chekhov's "Platonov" (2001), Ariel in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (2000), and Skinny in Jez Butterworth's "Mojo" (1995). Other theatre credits include Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World," "Marvin's Room," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Gillen also narrated the 1995 audio book version of Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (a great read, incidentally), by fellow Irishman Roddy Doyle. Some of his television credits include "A View of Harry Clarke," Danny Boyle's "Killing Time," "Debs," "The Visitor," and "First Communion Day", all for the BBC, as well as "Suspicious Circumstances" and "The Wexford Trilogy."

The Gallery contains over sixty images, and is constantly being updated. It's also interspersed with snippets from reviews (even some of my own!), interviews, and links to movie trailers.

• 13 Nov 03: Even more flattering comments for Aidan in "The Caretaker": The New Yorker, New York Newsday, New York Post, New York Daily News, Newark Star-Ledger, TheaterMania. Could a Tony be far away? :)
• 10 Nov 03: Aidan's receiving rave reviews for his Broadway debut: NYTimes (free registration required), Associated Press, USA Today.
• 08 Nov 03: The film "Bite" has been listed on the IMDB, with Aidan first-billed.
• 10 Oct 03: Aidan's doing his first Broadway play: from Oct-24-03 to Jan-04-04 at the American Airlines Theatre, he'll play "Mick" in Harold Pinter's 1959 play "The Caretaker", directed by David Jones and co-starring Patrick Stewart and Kyle MacLachlan.
  
  (See the Roundabout Theatre Co. for ticket information.)
• Aidan on t.v. in the U.S. (not useful for me, but oh well...)
• The Guardian Interview (2000): "Nowt as queer as Gillen"
• Running a search on Aidan Gillen at Wire Image brings up a photo shoot from The Low Down (some of the images are also available at the IMDB). They're all of him with bleached hair, outside Johnny Depp's Viper Room.
• Biography at Hollywood.com
• IMDB: Aidan Gillen

This is just a little fan site I made about Aidan Gillen, whose career I've been following since 2000's Lorna Doone (yes, I am a sucker for costume dramas). The site is meant for entertainment purposes only, it's completely unofficial and it isn't associated with Mr. Gillen in any way. That said, thanks for dropping by, and I hope you enjoy the site! If you have any feedback, I'd be glad to hear it. (If you run an Aidan-related site and would like to exchange links, just holler.) Cheers!

Note: This site relies on CSS and JavaScript, so it looks and works best in a web standards-compliant browser. I'd recommend Safari or Firebird on Mac OS X, Internet Explorer 5 on Mac OS 9, and Firebird on Windows.

© 2003 aidanfan@lycos.com