Nico Mirallegro

Nico Mirallegro
Mirallegro in 2011
Born	Nico Cristian Mirallegro (1991-01-26) 26 January 1991 Manchester, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2007-present

Nico Cristian Mirallegro (born 26 January 1991 Manchester, England)^{[citation needed]} is an English actor who played the role of Barry "Newt" Newton in the British soap opera Hollyoaks between 22 October 2007 and 25 June 2010. He currently plays the role of Finn Nelson in the British E4 television series My Mad Fat Diary and Joe Middleton in the BBC series The Village. Most recently, he can be seen in the feature film, Spike Island.

Early and personal life

His father is Sicilian and his mother is Anglo-Irish.^[1] He has a younger sister called Claudia Marissa, born in 1992.

Career

A native of Manchester, he portrayed Newt, an emo teenager who is the foster child of Jack and Frankie Osborne in Hollyoaks. In a backstage video produced by Channel 4, Mirallegro insisted that he was nothing like his character. He wore a wig and fake lip-piercing to portray him.^[1] Prior to winning the role, he was a student, starting in February 2007, at the Manchester School of Acting. At the same time as filming for Hollyoaks, he was also playing Cam Spencer in web series LOL, which explores sex, drugs and relationships.^[2]

In March 2010 the new producer Paul Marquess axed a string of characters in a bid to shake up the show. Mirallegro was not part of this cull; he quit in September 2009 to work on other projects.^[3] His last day of filming on Hollyoaks was 29 April 2010. His character "Newt" left the show on 25 June 2010, in a storyline about moving to Scotland to live with his mother and baby brother Jensen.

Mirallegro appeared in a short film by Plato Films and All-Seeing Eye Productions, called Six Minutes of Freedom,^[4] in July 2009, between filming for Hollyoaks. Mirallegro stars as a troubled teenager called Chris who is training to be a boxer. His sister Claudia also makes an appearance. This film was entered into four film festivals. On 31 August 2010, Plato Films announced that Six Minutes of Freedom won Best New Wave Short Film at the Yellow Fever International.^{[citation needed]}

Six Minutes of Freedom was released for download at Mi Shorts on 12 January 2011, following a successful festival run in the summer of 2010.

On 10 November 2010, Mirallegro appeared as a gay character called Jamie, who suffers bullying (because of his sexuality) in an episode of series 2 of the BBC drama series Moving On.^[5][5] The episode is called "Losing My Religion".

Mirallegro recently appeared as a guest in nine episodes of the regular BBC series Doctors; this was announced on 7 June 2010 in an article by Digital Spy.^[6] He appeared in the role of Italian foreign exchange student Giovanni Mannasorri, who arrived in Letherbridge to study at university. His first episode in this role was shown on 24 September.

He finished filming for his role in McQueen the Movie by Bitter Sweet Pictures in the summer of 2010. He played Sam, a young Jewish lad (one of the two main protagonists of the story: Sam and Nick). The film is set in suburbia in the North of England in the 1990s.

From 26 to 28 December 2010, Mirallegro appeared in series 1 of BBC1 1930s period remake of Upstairs Downstairs. He played a young footman called Johnny Proude, who took up a position in service to escape the poverty of the northern mining town where he was born. In the first episode, Proude got into trouble with the police within his first week of service at 165 Eaton Place, and was sent away to a borstal, but returned in the third episode.

On 10 February 2011, the BBC Press Office announced that the series has been re-commissioned for a further six episodes, which would be shown in 2012.^[7]

In May 2011, Mirallegro appeared in the BBC's 3-part psychological thriller Exile,^[8] playing the teenage version of leading character Tom Ronstadt (played by John Simm). Later that same year, Mirallegro played the role of Sam, a gay heroin addict in the BBC drama The Body Farm.^[9] Sam was a key witness in the central murder plot of the story.

From Sunday 19 February to Sunday 25 March 2012, Mirallegro appeared again as Johnny Proude in Series 2 of BBC's remake of Upstairs Downstairs.^[10] The episode which featured Mirallegro's character the most was "All The Things You Are"; which showed Johnny Proude in training to take part in a boxing competition, and gave some hint of his fears about becoming a soldier in World War II.^[11]

Mirallegro completed filming in a new film about The Stone Roses called Spike Island, which was released in November 2012.^[12][13]

He is appearing as Finn in E4's new teenage comedy My Mad Fat Diary, which began airing from 14 January 2013. In the 2013 BBC drama The Village, he plays Joe Middleton, a farmer's son who leaves his Derbyshire village to fight in World War I.^[14]

In January 2014 he appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in new drama The Pass, starring Russell Tovey as a football player coming to terms with his homosexuality.^[15]

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nico Mirallegro.

Nico Mirallegro at the Internet Movie Database

• An interview with Mirallegro
• An Interview with Mirallegro about his role in Six Minutes of Freedom (Plato Films)
• Article by The Mail Online