Damien Molony
Damien Molony is an Irish actor now based in London. He is best known for his television roles as Hal Yorke in BBC Three's Being Human, DC Albert Flight in the BBC's Ripper Street, DS Jack Weston in Channel 5's Suspects, Jon in Channel 4's GameFace and Dylan in Sky One Original comedy Brassic.
Early life
Molony grew up in Johnstown Bridge, County Kildare, Ireland. After graduating from the Drama Centre London in 2011, he co-starred as Giovanni in a production of the John Ford play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, directed by Jonathan Munby. He won the second prize in the 2011 Ian Charleson Awards for his performance.Career
Molony's casting as vampire Hal in the BBC Three series Being Human brought him his first television credit. In an interview with SFX magazine, Molony revealed that when approaching the role of Hal he did research on drug addicts and alcoholics. He has previously starred in the short film When the Hurlyburly's Done, filmed in Germany.After the filming of series 4 of Being Human, Damien played the lead role of Motl Mendl in the National Theatre production of Travelling Light alongside Sir Antony Sher. Following the London run, the play toured England before returning to the National Theatre in late April 2012. He returned to the National Theatre in January 2015 to play Spike in Sir Tom Stoppard's The Hard Problem, which ran until 17 May 2015 and was broadcast live to cinemas across the world via NT Live on 16 April 2015. Both plays were directed by the then Artistic Director of the National Theatre, Sir Nicholas Hytner.
The fifth and final series of Being Human was screened in February–March 2013. At the same time Molony starred in the play "If You Don't Let Us Dream, We Won't Let You Sleep" at the Royal Court Theatre.
Damien's television slate grew when he joined the cast of Victorian BBC show Ripper Street in series 2 as Detective Constable Albert Flight. He appeared in 7 of 8 episodes, airing November–December 2013 on BBC One in the UK and February–April 2014 on BBC America. The crime drama was set in London's Whitechapel in the period following the Jack the Ripper murders.
Molony returned to theatre, alongside William Gaminara in the play The Body of an American by Dan O'Brien in January–February 2014 at the Gate Theatre about the conversation of a war photographer and a struggling playwright.
The actor then landed the role of Detective Sergeant Jack Weston in innovative crime procedural Suspects. The drama is shot in a documentary style, using fly-on-the-wall filming techniques. Series 1, comprising five episodes, aired in February–March 2014 on Channel 5 in the UK. The fifth and latest series of the show aired in August 2016, with a new cast line-up and a change in format with Molony taking centre stage in a six part story. All five series of the show have also reached American audiences via streaming service Acorn TV.
Molony was cast as Robert Putnam in an HBO pilot, The Devil You Know, created by Jenji Kohan and directed by Gus Van Sant in 2015, alongside Eddie Izzard and Karen Gillan. Set in 17th century New England and focusing on the Salem witch trials, the drama was filmed in Boston USA, but was not picked up by the network.
Damien's first role in a feature film was as the character Ross in Kill Your Friends, adapted from the novel by John Niven, set in the music industry in the Britpop era. The film's theatrical premiere via Altitude Films took place in the UK and Europe November 2015, followed by a US release with Well Go USA April 2016
His second feature film Tiger Raid, shot in the deserts of Jordan, saw him star in a leading role alongside Brian Gleeson and Sofia Boutella. A dark thriller about a tiger kidnapping in Iraq, the film had its world premiere at Tribeca International Film festival April 2016, with a UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival June and a UK DVD and VOD release 17 October 2016.
In September–October 2015 Molony starred alongside Aidan McArdle and Adam Fergus in the RTÉ One crime drama mini-series Clean Break.
He appeared as Anthony in new Phoebe Waller-Bridge comedy Crashing in the UK January 2016 on Channel 4. The quirky sitcom became internationally available later in the year via Netflix.
Damien also returned to the stage in 2016, appearing in No Man's Land alongside Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Owen Teale. Directed by Sean Mathias, the production toured the UK from August, before a run a Wyndham's Theatre in London until 17 December, with a National Theatre Live broadcast to cinemas worldwide 15 December.
21 February 2017 Molony was announced as cast in comedy sitcom GameFace, written by Roisin Conaty who also stars as the lead character Marcella. He played Marcella's long-suffering driving instructor Jon. The six episode first series aired October to November 2017 on UK TV channel E4 and became available in the US, Australia and New Zealand shortly after via on demand platforms.
Molony appeared on stage with Sir Ian McKellen for a second time in 2017, playing Edmund in Chichester Festival Theatre production of King Lear for a short run from 22 September to 28 October.
He appears as Bourke Cockran in feature film The Current War, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2017. Originally set for a theatrical released on 24 November 2017, the film's cinema outing has been delayed to an undisclosed date after sexual misconduct allegations were made against Harvey Weinstein.
Opening the new year in 2018, Molony starred opposite Jessie Buckley in two major BBC Radio 3 productions, adaptations of the plays 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford and The Effect by Lucy Prebble. He then played the title role in BBC Radio 4 Drama Judas, which aired every day in the week leading up to Easter. Written by Lucy Gannon, the drama told the story of disciple Judas Iscariot from his own perspective in the days leading up to the death of Jesus.
From 20 June 2018, Damien appeared in BBC Radio 4 World War 1 serial drama Home Front, playing the new character Hardy Walsh introduced in series 14, 'Needs Must When The Devil Drives'.
Damien made his first appearance in a web series in October 2018, guest starring in episode 1 of Right Now, Robert Cawsey's new online comedy based on Grindr hook-ups.
August 2018 Molony was announced as cast in new Sky One comedy TV series Brassic, co-created by Joe Gilgun and Danny Brocklehurst, starring alongside Michelle Keegan and Gilgun. Production on series 1 began in September 2018, filming completed in December, post-production completed 22 February 2019.
A second series of GameFace was announced by Channel 4 June 2018, but Damien was only revealed as appearing in the new series when show writer Roisin Conaty published behind-the-scenes of him during filming, from March to April 2019.. Series 2 aired 17 July 2019 Channel 4 in the UK and reached audiences in the US via Hulu shortly after.
In 2019, Molony also appeared in two short films with film festival premieres; Keep Breathing, a crowdfunded project written by and starring Emmeline Hartley, which is inspired by the Me Too movement and has a sexual consent theme and The Fabric Of You, an animated short, written and directed by Josephine Lohoar Self, world premiering at the 2019 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
It was announced in July 2019 that Damien had joined the cast of BBC legal drama The Split for series 2.
Molony starred alongside Joe Gilgun and Michelle Keegan in the first series of Sky One original comedy Brassic, as the character Dylan, August 2019. On the same day of the series 1 premiere, a second series was announced, which will air in May 2020. At their Up Next 2020 showcase event, Sky announced series 3 has also been commissioned ahead of series 2.
In his latest TV role, Damien plays Tyler Donaghue in the second series of legal drama The Split. The series began on BBC One 11 February 2020 with the entire series immediately available to stream on the BBC iplayer.
Blood Donation
Damien has been a regular blood donor since 2012 after someone close to him needed blood during cancer treatment. As part of National Blood Week 2013, he was interviewed in the summer edition of Blood Donor Magazine and appeared on the front cover as his Being Human character Hal Yorke, with the headline "A blood addict giving blood". He has since raised awareness of the importance of blood donation and campaigned to motivate others via his Twitter page, pledging to ReTweet his followers' post-donation photos. After his thirteenth donation in February 2017, Damien encouraged others to "consider registering to donate", "save lives", "burn calories" and "feel really proud".Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2012–2013 | Being Human | Hal Yorke | Series 4–5 |
| 2013 | Ripper Street | Detective Constable Albert Flight | Series 2 |
| 2014–2016 | Suspects | DS Jack Weston | Series 1–5 |
| 2015 | Clean Break | Danny Dempsey | Series 1 |
| 2015 | The Devil You Know | Robert Putnam | HBO Pilot |
| 2016 | Crashing | Anthony | Series 1 |
| 2017– | GameFace | Jon | Series 1–2 |
| 2018 | Right Now | Jamie | Web Series |
| 2019– | Brassic | Dylan | Series 1 |
| 2020 | The Split | Tyler | Series 2 |