Iwan Rheon

Iwan Rheon
Iwan Rheon in 2011
Born	13 May 1985 (1985-05-13) Carmarthen, Wales, UK
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	2002–present

Iwan Rheon (born 13 May 1985) is an Olivier Award-winning Welsh stage and television actor and singer, and a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Early life

Born in Carmarthen, to Einir and Rheon Tomos, he has an older brother called Aled, and the family moved to Cardiff when he was five years old. Rheon attended Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf and began acting at the age of 17, where he took part in school drama productions, and was later "spotted" during a National Eisteddfod of Wales, before going on to study at LAMDA.

Career

Acting

Rheon joined Welsh language soap Pobol Y Cwm, aged 17, where he played Macsen White, but later left to train at LAMDA. His first notable stage part came from the play Eight Miles High which was staged in 2008 at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool.

Later in 2008 he was cast to play the role of the haunted Moritz Stiefel in the London production of the Tony Award-winning rock-musical, Spring Awakening. He played this role from January 2009 at the Lyric Hammersmith, and continued it when the show was transferred to the Novello Theatre, until it closed in May 2009, five months earlier than planned. He earned a What's On Stage Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, which was eventually won by Oliver Thornton (Priscilla Queen of the Desert). He has been nominated as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical by the Olivier Awards, which he won in 2010.

Immediately after Spring Awakening, Rheon was cast in the E4 channel's Misfits, a BAFTA winning programme, a show described by 247 Magazine as "a mix of Skins and Heroes". He plays nervous, shy Simon Bellamy who gains the superpower of invisibility and precognition in season 3. On 20 December 2011, Rheon announced via Twitter that he had left the show, along with fellow cast member Antonia Thomas.

Most recently, Rheon made a guest appearance as character Ben Theodore in Simon Amstell's comedy Grandma's House. In 2011 he also appeared in the final episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl. In 2011, he was nominated for a Golden Nymph in the "Outstanding Actor - Drama Series" category for his role in Misfits as Simon Bellamy.

Music

Songwriting and singing since the age of 16, he was lead singer in The Convictions until leaving the band to pursue his acting career. In 2010, he recorded his first solo work, Tongue Tied EP, at RAK Studios in London, produced by Jonathan Quarmby and Kevin Bacon. An accomplished 4 track release with acoustic guitar and voice, the EP was released digitally in June 2010. He returned to RAK Studios, in April 2011, to record his second EP Changing Times, again produced by Quarmby and Bacon, with the addition of 3 backing musicians. Changing Times was released on 10 October 2011.

Filmography

Year	title	Role	Notes
2009–2011	Misfits	Simon	TV series
2010	Friday Night with Jonathan Ross	Himself	Talk show
2010	Coming Up	Luka	TV series
2010	Grandma's House	Ben	TV series
2011	Secret Diary of a Call Girl	Lewis	TV series
2011	Resistance	George
2011	Wild Bill	Pill
2012	Wasteland	Dempsey

Discography

• 2010: Tongue Tied EP
• 2011: Changing Times EP

External links

• Iwan Rheon on Facebook
• Iwan Rheon at the Internet Movie Database
• Iwan Rheon at London Theatre Database
• Iwan Rheon at BBC Wales
• Iwan Rheon at The Spotlight