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A seasoned actor of
screen in his native Ireland, Colm Ó Maonlaí joined the cast of
BBC Eastenders in April 2002 playing the sexy fireman, Tom Banks.
He quickly captured the hearts of a legion of fans, who felt sad
when he left the show in November 2002 after his character's death
in a house fire.
Before landing his role in Eastenders Colm had starred in numerous
films and made several TV appearances, including popular series
Ros na Run on TG4, this one in gaeilge (Irish language). In fact
Colm is a fluent Irish speaker.
Born in Dublin, in a talented family (Colm's mother Eithne Lydon
was an actress and his brother Liam is Hothouse Flowers lead
singer), Colm grew up in Dublin and West Kerry, one of the
Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas of Ireland. He trained at Trinity
College, Dublin, where he studied theatre arts.
Colm did a few plays and some TV commercials but his big
breakthrough came when he was noticed in a London café by the film
director Marcus Thompson who offered him a role in the movie "Middleton's
Changeling", which starred, among the others, Ian Dury.
Click on
Filmography
for details about his works.
In addition to his acting talents, Colm is also a musician, he can
play tin whistle and bodhrán (a celtic drum). In the 90s he joined
Shane MacGowan's band The Popes for the album "The Snake".
It's also worth mentioning Colm did the backing vocals on "Waking Ned Devine original
soundtrack" and Maire Breatnach's "Angels Candle",
beside working with many other artists.
In 2002 Colm teamed up again with director Marcus
Thompson. Set against the magical landscape of Wiltshire, "A Place
To Stay" movie, is a romantic story of love between a traveller and a
gypsy woman, starring Colm Ó Maonlaí and Amanda Ray-King as the
star-crossed lovers.
After several guest TV appearances and a short Irish movie (Rógairí),
Colm joined the cast of RTE's TV show Fair City. His character was
Rory Goff, an undercover cop.
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Name: Colm Tomas Ó Maonlaí
Place and Date of Birth: Dublin, Ireland, December 10th, 1966 |
