Rory Keenan

Rory Keenan is an Irish actor, known for working extensively in stage-plays in conventional art theaters, various television series, and Hollywood films. Rory was born and brought up in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. However, he moved to London quite early in his career and continues to live in the same city. Joining theater was never a conscious decision for Rory. In his school days, he considered acting to be an extracurricular activity, something that is done in addition to regular studies.

But as he grew up, he started taking his work seriously and applied to Trinity College for higher studies in Dramatics. However, he did not manage to get enough points for admission at Trinity, so he began waiting for a call from another college in which he had applied. Surprisingly, he got an unconditional offer call from Trinity instead and was admitted into the Bachelors of Arts (Drama Theatre Course) in the same, because of his immense work experience in theater.

Rory started working a little mainstream since his days at Trinity. However, he had to hide the fact that he was acting from the teachers there because he wasn't offered the degree course to study "acting" formally, another course available at Trinity. Thus, he had to juggle between work and college, which was quite difficult for him. He earned his recognition as an actor from The Drunkard, a play adapted by Tom Murphy and directed by Lynne Parker, and staged at B*spoke Theatre Company and Galway Arts Festival. From 1998 to 2000, he worked in short films like Gun and Close and a TV mini-series, Aristocrats. Keenan got his first break in movies in the year 2002, with the role of Devon in the Reign of Fire.

However, the breakthrough for his career was the television series On Home Ground, aired in the year 2002. His role as Kevin King earned much appreciation from critics and the general public. Soon, he took a break from theater to establish himself firmly in the industry. Since 2003, he started working for the commercial cinema, doing movies, television series and short-films. He worked in films like Intermission(2003), Ella Enchanted(2004), Pride and Joy(2006), One Hundred Mornings(2009), The Guard(2011), Earthbound(2012), Grimbsy(2016), The Young Messiah(2016) among various others. The Crush, nominated for the academy award for Best Live Action Short film, hit the screens in 2010. He also worked for a myriad of television shows, like The Clinic (2003), Primeval (2011), Peaky Blinders (2014). The four episode TV series, War And Peace (2016) was a much-appreciated work of Keenan.

In the same year, Keenan played the role of Simon in the two episode series Stan Lee's Lucky Man. Rory believes that the work of an actor is not limited to physical presence on stage. Thus, he worked as a voice-over artist also in various plays like Parenting, The Tempest Click to look into! >> Read More... , The Dead School,Pied Piper of Hamlyn, etc. He has also given his voice in a game called Ryse: Son of Rome (2013). According to him, voiceover acting firmly establishes one's acting skills and improves upon a person more than drama does. He has also served as an editor for documentaries like Santa Ken: The Mad Prophet of Christmas and Guitar Man.

However, the theater remained Keenan's first love. Portraying the intricacies of his acting skills, he has worked in some of the most memorable plays ever staged, from Macbeth (2009), Liola (2013), Welcome Home Captain Fox (2016), among many others. For his role as Ronan in The Last Days of the Ceitic Tiger (2009), Rory won the Irish Times Theatre Awards for the Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His latest project includes Striking Out, a TV series for RTE, where he plays the character of Eric. His upcoming venture is Versailles, a BBC production, in which he plays the role of Leopold.