Dominic Monaghan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2007)

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available. (May 2007)

Dominic Monaghan
Monaghan at the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Wellington, New Zealand
Born	Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan 8 December 1976 (1976-12-08) (age 31) Berlin, Germany
Years active	1996 - present
Awards won Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Best Ensemble - Drama Series 2005 Lost

Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan^[1] (born 8 December 1976) is an English actor. He has received international attention from the success of playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Monaghan was born in Berlin, Germany. At the age of twelve, his family moved from Germany to Heaton Moor in Stockport, England,^[2] and later to Manchester. Monaghan's first language is English, but he also speaks German and is well known for his ability to impersonate others and replicate accents. He attended St. Anne's RC High School (where his uncle taught and later became head teacher) and Aquinas College, where he studied English literature, drama and geography.

Although he had many occupations when he was younger, he always wanted to be an actor. After his second year at Aquinas, he became a regular in school plays such as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Bugsy Malone. Monaghan then went on to join Manchester Youth Theatre where he was scouted for Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. He played Hetty's under-aged sidekick, Geoffrey Shawcross, for four seasons. He made his feature film debut as Russian sailor Sasha in TV film Hostile Waters.

[edit] Personal life

Monaghan is an adamant nature lover, and has been active in the planting of trees, cacti, and the pod-seeds of mature hedge-row bushes. He owns a small forest in India, and has worked with the animal rights group PETA.^[3]

Monaghan narrated Ringers: Lord of the Fans, a documentary about Lord of the Rings fandom. On his right arm, he has a tattoo of the Elvish word "nine" written in Quenya-mode Tengwar, a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Several other cast members also got similar tattoos during the film's production. On his left arm is a tattoo saying "Living is easy with eyes closed", a line from The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever". He also has two stars tattooed on his left ankle.^[4]

Has been dating his former Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly since 2004, but it is rumored that Monaghan has been recently seeing a new "close" friend named Nataly Blair.

Monaghan resides in Los Angeles, California. He is currently working on a script with LOTR co-star Billy Boyd.^[5]

Monaghan has been confirmed to have been cast in the X-Men movie spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Barnell Bohusk / Beak.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

[edit] Television

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Dominic Monaghan at the Internet Movie Database
• Dominic Monaghan interview
• Dominic Monaghan television appearance handling wild animals