Dean O’gorman Biography

Dean O’Gorman was born on 1 December 1976, he is an actor, artist, and photographer from New Zealand. He played the dwarf Fíli in the Hobbit trilogy and the Norse God Bragi/Anders Johnson in the fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons.

Dean O’gorman Age

O’Gorman was born on 1st December 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand, to parents Lance, a landscape painter, and Christine O’Gorman. He has a younger brother, Brett, who is also an actor as well as a comedian. He has Irish and English ancestry; his maternal grandfather was an English paratrooper in WWII.

O’Gorman earned a black belt in karate by the age of ten, and attended Rangitoto College in Auckland. He initially planned to study graphic design. He married his long term girlfriend Sarah Wilson in January 2016.

Dean O’gorman Height

O’Gorman is 1.73 m high.

Dean O’gorman Wife

Dean O’Gorman is married to Sarah Wilson since 2016.

Dean O’gorman Movies and TV Shows

Film

At 12 years old, O’Gorman was discovered by a casting agent during a school speech competition. After acting in a number of television roles he got a starring role in 1995 teen romance Bonjour Timothy, a performance which earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy.

Subsequent roles included co-starring as Mark in ensemble drama When Love Comes and playing opposite Melanie Lynskey in road movie Snakeskin, the latter of which received five awards at the 2001 New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

In April 2011, O’Gorman was cast as the Dwarf Fili in Peter Jackson’s three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit. He later made a cameo appearance in an advertisement for Air New Zealand.

In Jay Roach’s 2015 film Trumbo, O’Gorman plays the part of Kirk Douglas, including a re-creation of filming the movie Spartacus. He plays a demoralized writer in the 2017 film Pork Pie, winning praise at Cannes.

O’Gorman Television

O’Gorman began acting in television in the early 1990s. His career took off in the middle of the decade, when he won the role of Harry Martin in popular New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street and appeared in locally-shot shows Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess multiple times. O’Gorman also held a regular role as Iolaus in the short-lived Young Hercules opposite Ryan Gosling, and in Australian hit McLeod’s Daughters, as Luke Morgan, a love interest of Jodi Fountain McLeod.

He has made multiple guest appearances on several television shows including The Cult, Go Girls and Legend of the Seeker. From 2011–2013, O’Gorman played the role of Anders Johnson in New Zealand fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons. He played mountaineer George Lowe in 2016 mini-series Hillary.

Dean O’gorman Photography

In addition to acting, O’Gorman is also a photographer and artist. In an interview with Tom Cardy, he confessed to difficult times finding work during his first year in Los Angeles. He was almost broke, but was soon discovered by his friend’s agent and thus began to receive more work, dividing his time between painting, photography and acting.

In 2012, he held his first exhibition at the Page Blackie Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand between 19–23 June. The theme of the exhibition focused on the Vietnam War. In order to obtain accuracy in his work, O’Gorman sought the advice of a New Zealand Vietnam veteran. Preferring to dress and set up shoots himself, the models for this gallery included other cast members from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Almighty Johnsons. O’Gorman’s photographs were displayed at the 2015 Berlin B3 Biennial.

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Dean O’gorman News

Westside: New Zealand’s favourite crime family returns

Stuff.co.nz-27 Jun 2018

Time to call in the big guns as West Side returns, badder than ever. Looking at Antonia Prebble’s mullet-style hairdo, it’s hard to believe it’s not her real hair.

Sitting in the boardroom at South Pacific Pictures in West Auckland, where local drama Westside is filmed, Prebble is wearing a fluffy robe and thick make-up. She is on a break between filming scenes that feature her character, family matriarch Rita West.  Underneath her robe she is decked out in clothes that are meant to reflect West Auckland 1983 – the region and the year in which the show is set.

” Funnily enough, my hairdresser has said that four or fuve people have asked for Rita’s mullet hairstyle.” – Antonia Prebble. Westside, a comedy drama about a criminal family and their friends, is now in its fourth season. The Outrageous Fortune prequel series also stars David de Lautour, as Rita’s husband Ted, and Will Hall as moustachioed police officer Mike McCarthy.

The show’s promotional posters typically show Prebble wearing a stern expression and tight, dark clothes and, of course, the infamous mullet wig. “Funnily enough, my hairdresser has said that four or five people have asked for Rita’s mullet hairstyle,” laughs Prebble whose real hair is a brown bob. The 34-year-old actor has been with the show since it began when its first season was set in the 1970s.

Much has been made of the way the series reflects notable events in New Zealand history, such as the 1981 Springbok tour.

So what can we expect this year?

“Out of all the seasons we’ve done, I reckon this one most closely resembles the style of Outrageous Fortune,” says Prebble.

She insists these latest episodes are her favourite so far.

“This time it’s actually just more focused on the characters,” she says.

“Of course we are set in a time – it’s 1983. There are still a few historical references, but it’s mainly just about the characters so, therefore, it feels a bit more serialised like Outrageous did and the (Wests’) house is just busy and full of people all the time. Westside doesn’t have to be hinged on anything other than itself.”

Fans of the show are no doubt looking forward to the wedding of Rita’s son Wolf (Reef Ireland) to Cheryl (Ashleigh Cummings). Rita and Cheryl openly dislike each other, although Prebble hints that Rita is making an effort.

“This year she actively tolerates Cheryl in the house and at some point they are bonded by a tragedy,” says Prebble.

“But after that they go back to life as normal – which is they are not each other’s best friends by any stretch but they are kind of on the same team now.”

Making guest appearances in the show are Rima Te Wiata (The Breaker Upperers), Ilona Rodgers (Gloss) and Nicole Whippy (Outrageous Fortune, Nothing Trivial), among others.

Also having a guest role is Grant Kereama, the former Lotto host who hosts a radio show in Wellington with his now ex-wife Polly Gillespie. For Prebble, who grew up in the capital city, having Kereama on set was a huge deal.

“I was so excited,” she says. “I grew up listening to Grant and Polly. He’s the nicest person.

“I’ve been interviewed by him a few times, but it was only ever over the phone so I hadn’t met him.

“But he’s so famous. We were like, ‘Oh my god. Grant Kereama is on our show.’ ”

Outside of acting, Prebble is an ambassador for the Auckland department store Smith & Caughey’s. Last year she qualified as a marriage celebrant because it would be a, “Good thing to have as a job between acting jobs”.

So far she has officiated at only one wedding because of her busy acting schedule.

“But I’ve got quite a few booked so my next one is in August and then I’ve got a couple at the end of the year and even some for next year and even 2020,” she says. “I’ve had to say to those people, ‘Look I have no idea what life is going to look like then but we’ll pencil it. I won’t give the date to anyone else should I be able to do it but let’s talk in 18 months.’ ”

Westside, Three, returns July 9