Brenock O'Connor

Brenock Grant O'Connor (born 9 April 2000) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of Olly in the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones (2014–2016). He was part of the main casts of the British series Dickensian (2015–2016), Living the Dream (2016–2019), and, most recently, the Amazon Prime series Alex Rider (2020–).

Brenock O'Connor
O'Connor as the Artful Dodger in a 2013 stage performance of Oliver!
Born
Brenock Grant O'Connor

(2000-04-09) 9 April 2000
Worthing, West Sussex,[1] England
OccupationActor, singer
Years active2006–present

Early life

Growing up, O'Connor attended the St. Oscar Romero Catholic School in Goring and studied theatre at The Theatre Workshop Stage School in Brighton.[1] He started performing on stage at the age of six in the Hammond Pantomimes at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing, and won a theatre scholarship while attending.[1][2]

Career

O'Connor big break was in 2014 as Olly in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones. The character was introduced originally as a one episode character, to further the story between the Wildlings and the Night's Watch at Castle Black, but was kept on the show to provide more backstory surrounding the deaths of Ygritte and Jon Snow in the fourth and fifth seasons, respectively.[3][4] O'Connor appeared in seventeen episodes throughout the series, with his last appearance in the sixth-season episode "Oathbreaker," when he was hanged by a resurrected Jon Snow.

Regarding his character Olly's betrayal of Jon Snow in the fifth-season episode "Mother's Mercy," O'Connor stated that he received many negative messages from fans of the show, as well as some positive messages from people regarding his performance in the role.[5] In a subsequent interview, O'Connor stated he was content with the controversial reaction to his character, noting "It's very rare for my character to get noticed really, so I was quite happy with the reaction that I got. When you do something bad, you want a bad reaction for it."[6]

O'Connor has also appeared in several other roles, including Peter Cratchit in the BBC One series Dickensian, which premiered in December 2015. He also starred in the 2015 British children's adventure film Young Hunters: The Beast of Bevendean.[2] He's appeared in a music video with Noah and the Whale as well as several television commercials for Haribo, and as a lead character part in one episode of Holby City.[2]

On stage O'Connor has performed in front of audiences on the tour of Cameron Mackintosh's Oliver!, playing the part of The Artful Dodger alongside Iain Fletcher, Neil Morrissey and Samantha Barks.[2] In addition to acting, O'Connor is a singer and guitarist, and has posted several cover songs on YouTube.[3]

In 2019, O'Conner was cast for the part of Conor Lawlor in the musical adaptation of Sing Street based on the 2016 movie by John Carney, who also directed Once and was adapted for the stage as a musical as well. The Sing Street musical adaptation was originally presented at New York Theatre Workshop in December 2019. It was scheduled to premiere on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in Spring 2020 with an Original Cast Recording already released. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production's premiere was pushed back until the end of 2021.[7]

O’Connor auditioned for the role of Alex Rider in the 2020 television series of the same name, but was instead given the role of Tom Harris, Alex’s best friend. In an interview O’Connor stated that he did not mind not playing the lead character, saying "To be involved in this in any way is a dream come true. The books are just a major influence on my childhood."[8][9]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2015 Young Hunters: The Beast of Bevendean Sam Aldrington
2017 Another Mother's Son Rex Forster
2018 The Bromley Boys David Roberts

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2012 Holby City Angus Peters Episode: "Blood Money"
2013 Chickens Dribbler Episode: "Rebel Girl"
2014–2016 Game of Thrones Olly 17 episodes
2015–2016 Dickensian Peter Cratchit 12 episodes
2016 Casualty Peter Barnes Episode: "All I Want for Christmas Is You"
2017–2019 Living the Dream Freddie Pemberton Main role; 12 episodes
2018 The Split Sasha 3 episodes
2019 Derry Girls Jon Episode: "Across the Barricade"
2020 Alex Rider Tom Harris Main role; 8 episodes

Theatre

Selected credits

Year Title Role Venue Notes Ref.
2012–13 Oliver! Artful Dodger UK Tour
2017 Plastic Vincent Theatre Royale Original production [10]
2019–20 Sing Street Conor Lawlor New York Theatre Workshop Original off-Broadway production [11]
Lyceum Theatre Broadway production; delayed opening after COVID-19 [12]

Awards and nominations
Year Association Category Nominated work Result
2015 Saturn Awards Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Television Series Game of Thrones Nominated
2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated

References
  1. Holloway, Henry (1 April 2014). "Worthing schoolboy lands Game of Thrones role". The Argus. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  2. "Cast & Crew – Young Hunters: The Beast of Bevendean". Black Rock Films. Archived from the original on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  3. Robinson, Joanna (5 May 2015). "Jon Snow's New Sidekick on Game of Thrones Has an Insane Singing Voice". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  4. Brown, Kat (16 June 2015). "Game of Thrones' Olly is the most-hated character in television". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  5. Selcke, Dan (25 June 2015). "Brenock O'Connor talks about Olly's incredible unpopularity". Winter is Coming. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  6. Saclao, Christian (25 September 2015). "'Game of Thrones' Star Brenock O'Connor on the Fan Reaction He Got After Olly Stabbed Jon Snow". Design & Trend. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  7. Broadway.com Staff (4 August 2020). "New Musical Sing Street Postpones Broadway Run". Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  8. Harp, Justin; Berry, Jo (30 May 2020). "Game of Thrones actor Brenock O'Connor is happy he missed out on playing Alex Rider". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  9. Hill-Paul, Lucas (1 June 2020). "Game of Thrones star 'thankful' he missed out on Amazon's Alex Rider role". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  10. Web, UK Theatre. "Archive for Plastic at Theatre Royal, Bath. 2017. [PLAY]". UK Theatre Web. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  11. "NYTW / Sing Street". NYTW. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  12. Evans, Greg (3 August 2020). "Broadway's 'Sing Street' Musical From 'Once' Team Postpones Opening Until 2021-22". Deadline. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
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