Eoin Macken

Eoin Macken
Macken at the Man of Steel movie premiere in Sydney in June 2013
Born	Eoin Christopher Macken (1983-02-21) February 21, 1983 Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor, model, author
Years active	2003–present

Eoin Christopher Macken (born 21 February 1983) is an Irish actor, film maker, author, and model.

Macken has modelled for Abercrombie and Fitch, Ralph Lauren, and GQ, and has appeared in films such as The Callback Queen, Studs,^[1][2] 3Crosses and Centurion. He has also appeared on television in series such as RTE's Fair City as Gavin Cluxton and in BBC series Merlin as Sir Gwaine.

In addition, Macken has directed several feature films: Christian Blake in 2008, Dreaming For You, The Inside and Cold. Macken also directed the documentary The Fashion of Modelling.

He currently stars in the NBC series The Night Shift as TC Callahan.

Early life and modelling

Macken was born in Dublin, Ireland. He began his modelling and acting career in the University College Dublin (UCD) Fashion Show in 2002 and 2003,^[3] after which he joined the model agency Morgan the Agency ^[4] and was selected as the face of the Abercrombie and Fitch 2003 campaign.^[5] He has also modelled for Ralph Lauren^[6] and GQ, and was the face of the 2008 Braun campaign.

Acting, writing, and directing

Macken studied acting and began theatre in the UCD drama society, and with Graham Cantwell and Rachel Rath in the Attic Studio.

Macken got his first major film role in 2005, in Studs directed by Paul Mercier, also starring Brendan Gleeson and Emmett J. Scanlan.^[2] Subsequently Macken played leading roles in indie films Triple Bill and Rise of the Bricks, before moving to Los Angeles to train with acting coach Vincent Chase, once he had completed his honors degree in Psychology.

After the death of his father in 2007, Macken took a break from acting. He returned to the performing the following year in the role of drug dealer Gavin Cluxton, in the RTÉ's flagship soap Fair City. He played the part for more than four months and also appeared live on the show Fair City Sings, where he performed "Hallelujah".

Macken wrote and edited his debut feature film Christian Blake, which premiered at the Mid Ulster Film Festival 2008, before playing in the 2008 Galway Film Fleadh. It was released on May 19, 2009 with Celebrity Distribution and the sales company Around The Scenes Inc.^[7] He co-wrote and directed the song and video for Una Healy's song "Don't Leave Me Alone". The track was the title track for the no budget indie film, for which Healy wrote much of the sound track.^[8] In 2008, Macken directed, wrote, edited and acted in his second feature film, Dreaming For You. The film featured a soundtrack composed by Dublin band, The Evora. The film was selected for the 2007 Los Angeles Short Film Festival and for the 2009 Galway Film Fleadh.^[9][10]

In 2009 and 2010, Macken had roles in BBC drama Small Island, playing an American soldier named Calhoon, Neil Marshall's film Centurion opposite Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham, and the second season of RTÉ's Raw. He also appeared in Storyland, as well as Lee Cronin's film Through The Night opposite Nora Jane Noone, and Siren opposite Anna Skellern.

Macken directed an hour length documentary on the Irish fashion industry The Fashion of Modelling which screened on RTÉ 2 on May 24, 2009.^[11][12]

Between 2010 and 2012, Macken played the recurring character of Gwaine (loosely based on the image of Gawain) in the BBC One TV series Merlin. He has reprised the role in four episodes of the third series and all episodes of the fourth and fifth series.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18]} Gwaine is portrayed as a care-free and laid back man who provides a lot of comic relief for the show, but, remains brave and loyal throughout his time on the show. In the final episode his character perished after being tortured with a snake by Morgana (Played by Katie McGrath). His friend, Percival arrives to save him, but, is too late and Gwaine's final thought is that he failed after giving in to the torture and revealing the injured king's destination. Gwaine was described as a man who "deep down respects honour, valour and camaraderie above everything else."^[13]

In October 2012 Macken completed shooting for Cold. The feature film was written and directed by Macken, and he stars in the film alongside his Merlin co-star, Tom Hopper.^[19][20] The plot centres around two disconnected English brothers who are outcasts in a small village in the west of Ireland. Drawn back together by the unexpected death of their father, they are immediately at odds with each other until they find a girl dumped in the moors. The film was partially crowdfunded through an Indiegogo campaign.^[21]

Filmography

References

External links

• Eoin Macken at the Internet Movie Database