Richard Dormer

Richard Dormer (born 11 November 1969) is a Northern Irish actor, playwright and screenwriter. He was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. After to being accepted to the Royal College of Art Richard accepted a scholarship at the RADA school of acting in London. After living and working in London, he returned to Northern Ireland. He lives in Belfast and is married to director Rachel O'Riordan. --- Dormer gained notoriety following his performance as Northern Irish Snooker star, Alex Higgins in Hurricane in 2003, which he wrote and starred in. The production received praise from critics and even from Higgins himself and saw Richard win The Stage award for best actor in 2003. In 2004 Richard won the Irish Times Best Actor Award for his performance in Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and in 2005 completed a season with Sir Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal and performed Bath in the George Bernard Shaw play, You Can Never Tell, William Shakespeare's, Much Ado About Nothing, Noël Coward's play, Private Lives, and in a production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Following a run of film castings playing secondary characters, he was cast as the lead in the 2012 Good Vibrations which tells the story of Northern Ireland personality and punk rock visionary Terri Hooley. The film premièred at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded 'best film' at the Galway film awards. The film was well received by critics gaining consistent reviews, most of which highlighted Dormer's performance as a strength. Richard's portrayal of Terri Hooley saw him nominated in the 'best actor' award in the 2013 Irish Film & Television Awards.