Early years

Gillen was born in Drumcondra, Dublin. He was educated at St. Vincent's C.B.S. in Glasnevin. He began his acting career as a teenager with the Dublin Youth Theatre, playing Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Project Arts Centre before moving to London.

Career

Gillen played Stuart Alan Jones in the groundbreaking Channel 4 television series Queer as Folk and its sequel, for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his highly acclaimed Broadway role in Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker and has also been nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for his portrayal of Teach in the Dublin Gate Theatre's 2007 production of David Mamet's American Buffalo.

In 2004, having been spotted by producers in The Caretaker, Gillen was cast as Tommy Carcetti in the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, for which he received an Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television. In 2008, he was named an "Irish cult hero" by the Sunday Tribune. He appeared in the 2009 film 12 Rounds, and in July of that year, he appeared in the one-off BBC2 drama Freefall. He co-starred as Phil Hendrick in the British drama Thorne.

In 2011, Gillen began playing Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish on the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which he received his second Irish Film & Television Award nomination. To date he has appeared in all five broadcast seasons. He starred as cop killer Barry Weiss in the British crime-thriller Blitz and in the British horror film Wake Wood. He played crime boss John Boy in the acclaimed Irish crime-drama Love/Hate, for which he received his third Irish Film & Television Award nomination and second win.

In 2012, Gillen played CIA agent Bill Wilson in The Dark Knight Rises and starred in the British spy-drama Shadow Dancer. He was announced as the new host of the music show Other Voices. He is set to star in the comedy-drama Calvary and the BBC five-part thriller Mayday. He shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the cast of Game of Thrones for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He also starred in the short film Ekki Múkk, created for the Valtari Mystery Film Experiment by Icelandic band Sigur Rós.

Aiden also starred as Janson in the second film, The Scorch Trials, in the Maze Runner trilogy.

Personal life

In 2001, Gillen married Olivia O'Flanagan; the couple have two children. In 2009, when Gillen won an Irish Film and Television Award for his role in The Wire, he dedicated the award to his wife and children, whom Gillen has stated "were a big motivation" for him. By 2015 the couple, who lived in Dingle, had been separated for some time. Gillen currently lives in Dublin and is dating musician Camille O'Sullivan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	The Drip	Young Guy	Short film
1987	The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne	Youth at Liquor Store	Credited as Aidan Murphy
1988	The Courier	Boy	Credited as Aidan Murphy
1995	Circle of Friends	Aidan Lynch
1996	Some Mother's Son	Gerard Quigley
1997	Mojo	Baby
1998	Gold in the Streets	Paddy
1998	Amazing Grace	Young Man	Short film
1999	Buddy Boy	Francis
2000	The Second Death	Pool Player	Short film
2000	The Low Down	Frank
2001	My Kingdom	Barry Puttnam
2001	Robertson Major	William Robertson	Short film
2002	The Final Curtain	Dave Turner
2003	Photo Finish	Joe Wilde
2003	Shanghai Knights	Lord Nelson Rathbone
2003	Burning the Bed	Stephen	Short film
2006	Trouble with Sex	Conor
2008	Blackout	Karl
2009	12 Rounds	Miles Jackson
2009	Spunkbubble	Dessie	Short film
2009	Runners	Terry	Short film
2010	Treacle Jr.	Aidan
2011	Wake Wood	Patrick Daley
2011	Blitz	Barry Weiss
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	CIA Agent Bill Wilson
2012	Shadow Dancer	Gerry
2012	Ekki Múkk	Little One	Short film
2012	The Good Man	Michael
2013	Scrapper	Ray
2013	The Note	Lars	Short film
2013	Mister John	Gerry Devine
2013	Beneath the Harvest Sky	Clayton
2013	Song	Dan	Short film
2014	Calvary	Dr. Frank Harte
2014	Still	Carver
2014	Song	Dan	Short film
2014	Ambition	Master	Short film
2015	You're Ugly Too	Will
2015	Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials	Janson/Rat-Man
2016	Sing Street	Robert
2017	Maze Runner: The Death Cure	Janson/Rat-Man
2017	Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur	Goosefat Bill	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	The Play on One	Harry	Episode: "Killing Time"
1992	An Ungentlemanly Act	Marine Wilcox	Television film
1993	A Handful of Stars	Tony	Television film
1993	Belfry	Dominic	Television film
1993	The Bill	Jeff Barratt	Episode: "Play the Game"
1993	Screenplay	Gypo	Episode: "Safe"
1994	In Suspicious Circumstances	James Crozier	Episode: "To Encourage the Others"
1999-2000	Queer as Folk	Stuart Alan Jones	10 episodes
2000	The Darkling	Jeff Obold	Television film
2000	Lorna Doone	Carver Doone	Television film
2001	Dice	Glenn Taylor	Television miniseries, 2 episodes
2002	First Communion Day	Seamus	Television film
2003	Agatha Christie's Poirot	Amyas Crale	Episode: "Five Little Pigs"
2004-2008	The Wire	Thomas J. "Tommy" Carcetti	35 episodes
2005	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Jimmy Colby	Episode: "Vigilante"
2005	The Last Detective	Steve Fallon	Episode: "Willesden Confidential"
2005	Walk Away and I Stumble	Paul	Television film
2009	Freefall	Gus	Television film
2010	Thorne	Phil Hendricks	6 episodes
2010	Identity	DI John Bloom	6 episodes
2010-2011	Love/Hate	John Boy Power	10 episodes
2011-present	Game of Thrones	Petyr Baelish	Main role
2011-present	Other Voices	Himself	Presenter
2013	Mayday	Everett Newcombe	5 episodes
2015	Charlie	Charles J. Haughey	3 episodes

Audiobooks

Year	Title	Notes
1994	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha	ASIN B0051H6FW4,
1995	Felicia's Journey	ASIN B000PYA4MA, ASIN B002X7UY36
1995	The Barrytown Trilogy: The Commitments	ASIN B002SQCXX6
1998	Irish Short Stories
2010	The Poetry of Ireland	ASIN B003GQ6S2O
2015	The Art of War

Radio

Year	Title	Notes
2013	The Last Tycoon	BBC Radio 4

Video game

Year	Title	role
2016	Quantum Break	Paul Serene (voice, likeness, and motion capture performance)

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	The Wexford Trilogy: A Hand of Stars	Tony	Bush Theatre
1989	Juno and the Paycock	Soldier	Royal National Theatre
1989	Blue	Ed Ache / Fred	National Theatre Studio
1989	The Long Way Round	Albin	Royal National Theatre
1989	The Water Engine	Bernie	Hampstead Theatre
1990	Lovers Meeting	Joe Hession	Druid Theatre Company
1991	The Patriot Game	Pearse	Abbey Theatre
1991	The Wexford Trilogy: Belfry	Dominic	Bush Theatre
1992	Drama at Inish	Eddie Twohig	Abbey Theatre
1993	The Wexford Trilogy	Tony / Dominic	Abbey Theatre
1993	Marvin's Room	Hank	Hampstead Theatre Comedy Theatre
1994	The Playboy of the Western World	Christopher Mahon	Almeida Theatre
1995	Mojo	Skinny	Royal Court Theatre
2000	The Tempest	Ariel	Almeida Theatre
2001	Platonov	Platonov	Almeida Theatre
2003	The Caretaker	Mick	Roundabout Theatre
2005	Someone Who'll Watch Over Me	Edward	New Ambassadors Theatre
2007	American Buffalo	Teach	Gate Theatre
2007	Glengarry Glen Ross	Richard Roma	Apollo Theatre
2015	The Dead		Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Result
2000	Queer as Folk	British Academy Television Award for Best Actor	Nominated
2000	The Low Down	Edinburgh International Film Festival for Best British Newcomer	Won
2004	The Caretaker	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play	Nominated
2004	The Caretaker	Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play	Nominated
2004	The Caretaker	Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play	Nominated
2009	The Wire	Irish Film and Television Award for Actor in a Lead Role Television	Won
2010	Treacle Jr.	British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actor	Nominated
2011	Treacle Jr.	Milan International Film Festival Award for Best Actor	Won
2012	Love/Hate	Irish Film and Television Award for Actor in a Lead Role Television	Won
2012	Game of Thrones	Irish Film and Television Award for Actor in a Supporting Role Television	Nominated
2012	Game of Thrones	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Nominated
2014	Game of Thrones	Irish Film and Television Award for Actor in a Supporting Role Television	Nominated
2015	Charlie	Irish Film and Television Award for Actor in a Lead Role Television	Won
2015	Game of Thrones	Empire Hero Award	Won
2016	Game of Thrones	Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]