Aidan Gillen

Gillen was born in Drumcondra, Dublin. He was educated at St. Vincent's C.B.S. in Glasnevin. He began his acting career as a teenager with the Dublin Youth Theatre, playing Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Project Arts Centre before moving to London.

Gillen played Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 television series Queer as Folk and its sequel, for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his Broadway role in Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker and has also been nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for his portrayal of Teach in the Dublin Gate Theatre's 2007 production of David Mamet's American Buffalo.

In 2004, having been spotted by producers in The Caretaker, Gillen was cast as Tommy Carcetti in the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, for which he received an Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television. In 2008, he was named an "Irish cult hero" by the Sunday Tribune. He appeared in the 2009 film 12 Rounds, and in July of that year, he appeared in the one-off BBC2 drama Freefall. He co-starred as Phil Hendrick in the British drama Thorne.

In 2011, Gillen began playing Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish on the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which he received his second Irish Film & Television Award nomination. He appeared in all seven broadcast seasons, until his character's death in the season 7 finale "The Dragon and the Wolf". He starred as cop killer Barry Weiss in the British crime-thriller Blitz and in the British horror film Wake Wood. He played crime boss John Boy in the acclaimed Irish crime-drama Love/Hate, for which he received his third Irish Film & Television Award nomination and second win.

In 2012, Gillen played CIA agent Bill Wilson (referred to solely as "CIA" in the film's dialogue; the character's name is revealed in the film's novelization) in The Dark Knight Rises, his first role in a major Hollywood film. Gillen said he enjoyed playing the role, but preferred low-budget lead roles to blockbuster bit-parts. Gillen's character was particularly noted by some Internet circles for his supposedly awkward delivery of dialogue in the film's opening plane scene, especially by users of 4chan. Thus, he subsequently became the subject of an Internet meme popular among users known as "Baneposting", which references the dialogue between Wilson and Tom Hardy's character Bane in said scene. The same year, Gillen also starred in the British spy-drama Shadow Dancer, and was announced as the new host of the music show Other Voices.

Gillen starred in the BBC five-part thriller Mayday in 2013, and the Irish comedy-drama film Calvary the following year. He shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the cast of Game of Thrones for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He also starred in the short film Ekki Múkk, created for the Valtari Mystery Film Experiment by Icelandic band Sigur Rós. Gillen also starred as Janson in the second film, The Scorch Trials, and third film, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, in the Maze Runner trilogy.

Gillen played Queen's manager John Reid in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was released on 2 November 2018.

Gillen married Olivia O'Flanagan in 2001. They have two children. In 2009, when Gillen won an Irish Film and Television Award for his role in The Wire, he dedicated the award to his wife and children, whom Gillen has stated "were a big motivation" for him. Gillen and O'Flanagan separated in 2014. Gillen's partner is singer Camille O'Sullivan.

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