Dean O'Gorman

Dean Lance O'Gorman (born 1 December 1976) is an actor, artist, and photographer from New Zealand. He is known for playing the dwarf Fíli in the Hobbit trilogy and for playing Anders in The Almighty Johnsons. He is also known for playing Iolaus in Young Hercules.

O'Gorman was born 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.

Actor

In 2012 O'Gorman starred in the first of the Hobbit Trilogy An Unexpected Journey. In 2013, he reprised his role as Fili in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He reprised his role again in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Film

At 12 years old, O'Gorman was discovered by a casting agent during a school speech competition. His acting career began in 1995 with the main role in teen romance Bonjour Timothy, a performance which earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the Giffoni Film Festival.

Subsequent roles included Mark in New Zealand drama When Love Comes and Johnny in Snakeskin, the latter of which received 5 awards at the 2001 New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

In April 2011, he was cast as the Dwarf Fili in Peter Jackson's three-part film adaptation of The Hobbit, which led to an advertisement for Air New Zealand, where he had a cameo appearance.

In Jay Roach's 2015 film Trumbo, O'Gorman plays the part of Kirk Douglas, including a re-creation of filming the movie Spartacus.

Television

He won the role of Harry Martin in New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street and appeared in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess multiple times, as well as holding a regular role as Iolaus in Young Hercules opposite Ryan Gosling, and in 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 the New Zealand fantasy series The Almighty Johnsons. He will play George Lowe in the mini-series Hillary.

Art and photography

In addition to acting, O'Gorman is also a photographer and artist. In an interview with Tom Cardy, he confessed to a recession of his career in 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, something he felt conveyed a great deal of humanity. 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.

Film

Television