Dan Gordon

Dan is a qualified and registered Teacher but doesn't do it as its too hard, so is chiefly an actor - director - writer - documentary maker - newspaper columnist (Sunday Life) - social commentator - presenter - after dinner speaker and occasionally stand up. He wants to live and work in Ireland, so has diversified in recent years because acting roles are limited.

He is on the board of the Lyric Theatre Belfast and the NI Actors Equity Committee, is an Artist in Residence for the Prison Arts Foundation, a member of the Arts & Business Advisory Committee and a Patron of Bruiser Theatre Company (along with Duke Special and Sue Townsend). Dan is Vice Chair of 'Friends of the Academy' (Belfast Royal Academy - oldest school in Belfast), an advisor in Drama to CCEA (Exam Council) for GCSE - and involved with the Thomas Devlin Trust , Brooke Advisory Services and The David Ervine Trust.

Dan is probably best known for his portrayal of lovable (?) psychopath Red Hand Luke in 10 series of the BBC NI television programme Give My Head Peace. Viewers may be interested/glad to know that under the terms of the Good Friday agreement he has recorded his last episode ever and hopes to return from Spain just as soon as the Assets Recovery Agency is disbanded.

In Theatre his performance in the one man show by Marie Jones, A Night in November, was a major contribution to the Irish stage. He has a long theatrical career as an actor and has garnered many plaudits and awards for best production, supporting and leading actor along the way.

He has many directing credits to his name most recently The Hypochondriact by Molière adapted by David Johnston for the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness in a prison, which was the subject of a 4 part documentary series for the BBC.

Over the last few years, as well as acting and directing, he has presented and co-authored many documentary and factual programmes for BBC Television and Radio. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Ulster programme schedules including programmes as diverse as Thought for the Day and The Book Programme.

He won the inaugural BBC NI Radio Drama Playwriting competition with We didn't just build the Titanic you know. He has written extensively for BBC NI Education with two series for children and many other stand alone programmes.

He was nominated in the Best Actor category in the 2007/8 Irish Times Theatre Awards for his multi-role performances at the Lyric Theatre in Tim Loane's hit comedy To be Sure. Last year he completed a two month run in Spokesong by Stewart Parker for Rough Magic/Lyric Theatre Productions in Dublin and Belfast.

His documentary for BBC NI celebrating the restoration of the Crown Bar in Belfast has just been broadcast and he is presently producing and directing a documentary on the 2 year rebuild of the Lyric Theatre. Dan has just directed Women on the Verge of HRT by long time collaborator Marie Jones, which he also starred in alongside Marie at the Grand Opera House Belfast in August 2008 and is being brought back in June this year.

He has just been trampled by a bull in a new Hammer House of Horror film, appeared in the Belfast Festival in a series of Stewart Parker play readings and starred as the Dame in 72 performances in the Waterfront Hall Christmas Panto. He has just written and directed a DVD for the Health Service Executive in Dublin as well as writing and performing corporate seminars in 2009 for Ulster Bank, Brooke Advisory, Disability Action, Mental Health, Odyssey Trust, Arts & Business, Chest Heart and Stroke and Creative Youth Partnerships.

Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, his play The Boat Factory has just been produced by six different schools under the guidance of the Lyric Theatre and the Ulster Scots Agency and he is currently writing a further two plays which will be performed by 12 different primary schools during the next academic year.