Joseph Gilgun Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Creator , Executive Producer
Pseudo Joe Gilgun
British nationality
Birth March 9, 1984 (Chorley – Lancashire, England)

BIOGRAPHY
Born in Chorley, a small town in the north of England, Joseph Gilgun grew up in a working-class family. At the age of 8, his parents agreed to enroll him in theater workshops. While attending the Laine Johnson Theater School , he was diagnosed with dyslexia and hyperactivity. Despite the reluctance of his teachers, who did not think he could become an actor, the young man landed a contract with ITV for the soap opera Coronation Street .

With this experience, Gilgun refuses to continue his dramatic studies, which are too academic for him. He went on stage several times and notably donned the costume of Charlie in the play Borstal Boy . But the end of the tour was a very violent shock for the actor, especially since it coincided with his parents’ divorce. Completely lost, he decides, against all odds, to abandon his dream of cinema to become a plasterer.

This turnaround only lasts for a while. His return to the screen materializes in the person of Paul Abbott , the creator of Shameless who offers him a role in the series. His passion rediscovered, he crossed paths with director Shane Meadows . This meeting will be decisive since the latter offers him to join the troupe of the cult film This Is England . His character, Woody, skinhead and dandy, will have a strong impact on British spectators, allowing him to return for This Is England ’86 , ’88 and ’90 .
In 2011, the producers of Misfits called on him to succeed Robert Sheehan . Despite the pressure of replacing a very popular character, he holds up to the screenwriters’ bet, thanks to Rudy, a marginal capable of splitting himself in two which allows him to offer a wide and subtle range of play.

Often cast as deranged and disturbing characters, he plays a psychopathic prisoner in the space prison of Lock Out . However, in 2015, it is in a role against the grain that we find him: in Pride , he becomes the shy activist Mike Jackson, founding member of the LGBT group who came to support minors in 1983. The real Mike Jackson has also praised Gilgun’s performance on several occasions. Subsequently, Vin Diesel and Rose Leslie welcomed him alongside them for The Last Witch Hunter and he was also in the cast of The Infiltrator with Bryan Cranston .

In 2016, Gilgun auditioned to join the adaptation of the comic bookPreacher on AMC. Immediately, Seth Rogen , the creator, saw in him the perfect incarnation of Cassidy, a vampire as talkative as he was insolent, angry and alcoholic. Thanks to this anti-hero who looks a lot like him, he confirms his talent to the general public.

Margaux Boichard