Ashley O'Connell

Ashley O'Connell is a professional actor. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and currently resides in Vancouver, Canada. He is a citizen of both Ireland (EU) and Canada. Ashley's gifts as an actor were first spotted when he was very young - he was noticed for his ability to stand very still during an elementary school production of a Christmas nativity play. He was thus deemed to be one of the finest and most impressive trees on stage. Hopefully, Ashley's performances have been less wooden in the last few years. Ashley went to University College Dublin (UCD), where he was heavily involved in the UCD Drama Society (Dramsoc), performing, stage managing, writing and directing in over 30 different theatre productions from 1992-1997. He achieved a BA in English & History in 1996 and an MA in History in 1997/8. Ashley did reserve service with the Irish Army Reserve (FCA) from 1993-1999 and as an officer with the Canadian Army Reserve (2009-2013). He also worked as a continuity announcer on Irish national television (RTE) from 1996-1997 and took part in theatrical productions whenever he could. From 2000-2003, he lived and worked in Fukushima, Japan. After that, he decided to pursue acting professionally and moved to Vancouver, Canada to pursue a BFA in acting at UBC. He graduated in 2006 and since then has been a fairly regular presence on Vancouver and Canadian stages, and indeed on TV screens as well. Ashley has been nominated for the Vancouver professional theatre Jessie Richardson Awards 4 times - 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019 - and was a winner of said award in 2017. He is a massive Manchester United fan, as well as being a huge fan of soccer generally and of all things fantasy, sci-fi and gaming-related. He currently (2021) acts whenever he can and teaches World Cinema at Alexander College.