Declan Reynolds

Declan Reynolds was the first of four children, born in Monaghan, Ireland. His father was a tradesman in the local County Council and his mother was a shop assistant. He was educated at St Macartan's Secondary School aka "The Sem" which was previously a seminary for training priests. His interest in acting started with an invite to join Monaghan Youth Theatre (MYT) in mid 1990s. He also acted in local plays in the Garage Theatre with Monaghan Dramatic Society, Drunk Monkey Theatre Company and Drumlin Players. Declan lost his father Patsy in a road traffic collision outside his family home in 1997. While finishing school he work two part-time jobs during evenings and weekends, at his local Xtravision store where his love of films grew and at weekends in a local nightclub called Applejacks in the Hillgrove Hotel. Declan attended Queens' University in Belfast where he majored in Psychology as well as studying Sociology and Anthropology. He also trained in the Irish Army Reserves (FCA) for several years at weekends or during the summer, rising to the rank of 3* Private. Declan was supposed to start in the Gaiety School of Acting full-time course but decided to study his Masters of Arts in Film Studies at University College, Dublin (UCD) where he was studied script-writing and film production along side screenwriter Kevin Jakubowski and Oscar nominated director Steph Green. He began writing his own short films and feature films, developing his first short film 'Jack' and later his feature film debut 'The Nightclub Days' based on his experiences working in nightclubs. He continued auditioning for commercials and TV roles. In between, he appeared in the Dublin Fringe Festival 2004 with "Seven Deadly Teens" by Orla Dunne and Independent Theatre Workshop. In 2005, Declan appeared in Podge and Rodge. A Scare at Bedtime (1997) story for RTE. When Grand Pictures came to Monaghan to start filming Nicolas Roeg's Puffball: The Devil's Eyeball (2007) in 2006, Declan was cast in the film as Mr Kingston, the Estate Agent - opposite Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson and Donald Sutherland. In 2007, Declan appeared in long running RTE soap Fair City (1989) when Leo Dowling's wife, Lana, goes missing, he is the last man to see her alive. Reynolds also appeared in BBC's horse drama Rough Diamond (2006) with his brother Billy Reynolds opposite Conor Mullen (Red Rock (2015), Stanley Townsend (24: Live Another Day (2014)) and Lorraine Pilkington (Human Traffic (1999)). In 2011, Declan traveled to India to perform a Brian Friel play called "The London Vertigo" as part of an international theatre festival. Reynolds starred in Eoin Cleland's comedy Free House (2011) for RTE Storyland 2011 and then applied for RTE Storyland 2012 with his own original comedy Trouble Times Three (2012) which was selected as the top 12 in 86 entries and went on to finish in the top four finalists, receiving EUR30,000 from RTE (Ireland's State Broadcaster) to make four webisodes. Declan appeared in a scene opposite Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Nidge) in RTE's critically acclaimed crime drama Love/Hate (2010) in 2012. In that same year, he also appeared in Saving the Titanic (2012) with Ciarán McMenamin. In 2013, Declan was awarded an Arts & Culture award by Monaghan County Council for his acting achievements to date. Declan has been fortunate to work with several notable Irish and British directors so far including Nicolas Roeg (Puffball: The Devil's Eyeball (2007)), Paddy Breathnach (11850 TV advert), Ian Power (Credit Union TV advert) and David Caffrey (Love/Hate). Declan has appeared in many TV commercials such as Google in UK and in Ireland for Aquafina Water, Carlsberg, Meteor, Sony Playstation 2, Invest in Northern Ireland, 11850 Directory Enquires, Lidl (Northern Ireland), the Irish Independent, the Road Safety Authority, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Irish League of Credit Unions, the Irish Cancer Society and most recently Lloyds Pharmacy. In 2018, Reynolds starred as Belfast reporter Liam Madden in the period drama "The Voting Age" set in 1918 about Women's Suffrage and Ireland's 1918 General Election. He also won Best Actor in a Leading Role at Amsterdam IFF of World Cinema 2018 for playing hunchback "Bailey" in comedy-horror The Gaelic Curse (2016) directed by Jack Conroy (Cinematographer on Oscar Winning Film My Left Foot (1989) and The Field (1990)). He has also starred in the TV pilot called "Tx" (Transmission) which was film on location in Kerry. The further episodes are planned to be filmed in Summer 2020.