fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Michael Smiley (born 1963) is a Northern Irish comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Kill List (2011) and The Lobster (2015).

Michael Smiley
Smiley smiling in 2016
Born	1963 (age 58–59) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Comedian, actor
Spouse	Miranda Sawyer
Children	4

Early life

Smiley was born in 1963 in Belfast and grew up in Holywood with an older brother and sister.[1][2] He was raised Catholic.[3]

He moved to London with his first wife in 1983. He began doing stand-up in 1993, after accepting a bet at an open-mic night.[2] He had worked as a cycle courier, like his character in Spaced, and as an acid house DJ.[4]

Career

He became well known for his role as Tyres O'Flaherty, the bicycle riding raver, in two episodes of the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, and for his appearances at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Melbourne Comedy Festival.[4] He played Mac, a former member of the British Army's Parachute Regiment in the 2008 horror film Outpost and as a zombie in Shaun of the Dead.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, he guest starred in the Doctor Who audio drama Creatures of Beauty. In 2004 he appeared in season 2, episode 4 of Hustle as Max the forger.[5] He also was a small character in episode 2 "The Model" of 15 Storeys High.^{[citation needed]}

He has appeared in all three series of The Maltby Collection on Radio 4 as Des Wainwright, an eccentric security guard who keeps repeating himself and reminding people he was in the SAS. He plays the part of Benny "Deadhead" Silver in the BBC drama series Luther. In 2010, he had a major role in the film Burke & Hare alongside his Spaced co-stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes.

In 2011, he starred in British horror film Kill List. The film received critical acclaim, and earned him the "Best Supporting Actor" Award at the 2011 British Independent Film Awards.[6]

In 2013, he has appeared in an episode of BBC One's Ripper Street as George Lusk, and the critically acclaimed Channel 4 shows Utopia as Detective Reynolds and Black Mirror as Baxter.^{[citation needed]} He also starred in A Field in England as the main antagonist, the alchemist O'Neill. He also played Roddy in Father Figure. In November 2013 he appeared in the third episode of the BBC Two Mitchell and Webb comedy Ambassadors as Mr Jackson. In 2014, he played Micky Murray in BBC Four's The Life of Rock with Brian Pern.[7]

To coincide with the opening stages of the Giro d'Italia in May 2014, Michael Smiley: Something to Ride Home About was a travelog programme for BBC Northern Ireland, directed by George Kane, featuring Smiley cycling around Northern Ireland and meeting local people.[8][9][10] A second series was commissioned for 2015.[8]

In 2014 Smiley played Colonel Morgan Blue in the Doctor Who episode "Into the Dalek".[11]

In 2013, Smiley also starred in the Netflix show Black Mirror as Baxter in “White Bear”. He also had a major role in British crime series Luther (TV series) acting as “Deadhead” Benny Silver from 2010 until 2019.

In 2019, Smiley co-starred with Elijah Wood and Martin Donovan in the film Come to Daddy directed by Ant Timpson.[12]

In 2020, he starred in Dead Still, a six-part Irish-Canadian television drama series, alongside Eileen O'Higgins & Kerr Logan. It premiered on May 18, 2020 on Acorn TV and May 15, 2020 Citytv.[13] The series is a co-production between Ireland's Deadpan Pictures and Canada's Shaftesbury Films and is written by John Morton, and directed by Imogen Murphy and Craig David Wallace.[14][15][16]

In 2021, Smiley appeared in the lead role in The Toll, a Welsh black comedy film later released in the USA with the title Tollbooth.

Personal life

Smiley has been married twice and has four children: two with his first wife and childhood sweetheart Merilees, and two with his second wife, journalist/broadcaster Miranda Sawyer.[2] He resides near Brockwell Park in Herne Hill, London.[17]

He shared a flat with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in the 1990s.[18] He is an avid cyclist.[2]

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989	The Heist	Detective	Television film; uncredited
2000	Burnside	Matthew Hutchins	Episode: "Back with a Vengeance: Part 1"
1999–2001	Spaced	Tyres O'Flaherty	2 episodes
2000–2002	Time Gentlemen Please	Martin	3 episodes
2002	15 Storeys High	Insistent Irish visitor	Episode: "The Model"
2004	Murder Prevention	DC Maurice Gibney	4 episodes
2005	Bleak House	Phil Squod	8 episodes
2005	Hustle	Max	Episode: "Missions"
2005	ShakespeaRe-Told	Peter	Episode: "Much Ado About Nothing"
2005	Rose and Maloney	DS Mallam	Episode: "Rise & Fall"
2007	In the Spider's Web	Phil	Television film
2007	Y Pris	Captain	Episode: "Episode #1.3"
2007	Nearly Famous	Danny	Episode: "Episode #1.5"
2008	The Wrong Door		2 episodes
2008	HolbyBlue	Brendan Duffy	Episode: "Episode #2.10"
2008	Wire in the Blood	Dr. Liam Kerwin	7 episodes
2009	Law & Order: UK	Danny Doyle	Episode: "Unsafe"
2010	One Night in Emergency	Mortuary Attendant	Television film
2010–2019	Luther	Benny Silver	16 episodes
2011	Stolen	Sean	Television film
2012	Coming Up	Ricky	Episode: "Spoof or Die"
2012	Good Cop	Tom Lomax	Episode: "Episode Two"
2012	New Tricks	Tinker	Episode: "Part of a Whole"
2013	Ripper Street	George Lusk	Episode: "In My Protection"
2013	Utopia	Detective Reynolds	Episode: "Episode 1"
2013	Black Mirror	Baxter	Episode: "White Bear"
2013	Father Figure	Roddy	6 episodes
2013	Ambassadors	Mr Jackson	Episode: "The Tazbek Spring"
2013–2014	Monumental	Self
2014	The Life of Rock with Brian Pern	Micky Murray	2 episodes
2014	Doctor Who	Colonel Morgan Blue	Episode: "Into the Dalek"
2014	Edge of Heaven	Snowy	2 episodes
2014–2015	Michael Smiley: Something to Ride Home About	Self
2015	Comedy Feeds	Les	Episode: "Fishbowl"
2016	The Aliens	Antoine Berry	5 episodes
2016	Murder	Whitmore Harris	Episode: "The Big Bang"
2020	Dead Still	Brock Blennerhasset	Series lead
2021	Bloodlands	Dinger	4 episodes
2021	Intergalactic	Professor Hague Blake	1 episode
2022	The Curse		1 episode
2022	Bad Sisters	Roger Muldoon	5 episodes

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Shaun of the Dead	Zombie Tyres O’Flaherty	Uncredited
2006	Breaking and Entering	Thaddeus	Uncredited
2006	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer	Porter
2006	Land of the Blind	Thorne's Lieutenant
2008	Outpost	McKay
2008	The Other Boleyn Girl	Physician
2008	Terra Firma	Quentin	Short film
2009	Down Terrace	Pringle
2009	Believe	Lewis	Short film
2010	Burke & Hare	Patterson
2011	Kill List	Gal
2011	Big Fat Gypsy Gangster	Mad Mick
2012	Shell	Hugh
2012	The ABCs of Death	Father Tom	Segment: ""U Is for Unearthed"
2013	For Those in Peril	Frank
2013	A Field in England	O'Neil
2013	Svengali	Irish Pierre
2013	We Are the Freaks	Killer Colin
2013	The World's End	Reverend Green
2014	Glassland	Jim
2014	Black Sea	Reynolds
2015	The Hallow	Garda Davey
2015	The Lobster	Loner Swimmer
2015	Orthodox	Shannon
2015	My Name is Emily	Robert
2015	Tank 432	Capper
2016	Free Fire	Frank
2016	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	Dr. Cornelius Evazan
2017	Madame	David
2017	Jawbone	Eddie
2018	Birthmarked	Gertz
2018	The Nun	Priest
2019	Come to Daddy	Jethro
2019	Rialto	Noel
2021	Censor	Doug Smart
2021	Gunpowder Milkshake	Dr. Ricky
2021	The Toll	Toll Booth
2022	The Silent Twins	Tim Thomas

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Eye Witness		BBC Radio 3
2007–2009	The Maltby Collection	Des Wainwright	BBC Radio 4

References

External links

• Michael Smiley at IMDb

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