Conleth Hill

Conleth Seamus Eoin Croiston Hill (born 24 November 1964) is a Northern Irish film, stage and television actor. He has performed on stage in productions in the United Kingdom and the United States. He won the 2001 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and has received two Tony Award nominations. He is best known for his role as Varys in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Early life Conleth Hill was born in Ballycastle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He had an older brother who works as a cameraman, a sister who is a producer, and a younger brother, Ronan, a sound engineer who has won three Emmy Awards for his sound mixing on Game of Thrones. Conleth Hill graduated from St MacNissi's College and later attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's acting program, graduating in 1988. Career Hill made his Broadway debut in Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets. He played German professor Max Staefel in a 2002 television adaptation of Goodbye, Mr Chips (2002). He played "Mum" to Peter Kay's character "Geraldine McQueen" in Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, a spoof on the talent show genre of programmes. Since April 2011, he has appeared as Lord Varys in the television series Game of Thrones, based on the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Martin hinted, in a February 2013 post on his website, that he thought Hill would be a good choice to play the title character in a TV show based on Martin's science fiction novel Tuf Voyaging. He appeared in the second episode of the second series of Peter Kay's Car Share as Elsie, the drunk deli counter supervisor. Personal life Hill maintains a full head of hair when he is on hiatus from Game of Thrones, which he is required to shave during filming. Hill has never been married.