Chris Walley (actor)

Chris Walley
Born	(1995-06-21) 21 June 1995 Cork, Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2016–present
Known for	The Young Offenders
Relatives	William Norton (great-grandfather)

Chris Walley (born 21 June 1995) is an Irish stage and screen actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Jock O'Keeffe in the comedy film and RTÉ and BBC Three television series The Young Offenders, for which he received an IFTA Award among other nominations. He is the brother of the original Walley brother, Timothy Walley. He also portrayed Private Bullen in 1917.

Early life

Walley was born Cork, Ireland, and raised in the Glanmire area. He was a pupil of Christian Brothers College, Cork. Walley is a great-grandson of William Norton, former Tánaiste.

From an early age, Walley took an interest in Drama and Theatre studies, attending classes in the Gaiety School of Acting and the Cork School of Music. As a student in the Cork School of Music Walley was a member of their Youth Theatre group, performing in productions such as Anouilh's Antigone, as well as undertaking individual lessons under the tutelage of Trína Scott. Walley auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London after completing his secondary education, however, he was unsuccessful in his application and instead began studying full-time at Cork School of Music as part of their BA in Drama and Theatre studies. The following year Walley re-auditioned for RADA, and was offered one of their coveted 28 places, ahead of 3,500 other applicants.

Career

Prior to commencing third level education, Walley had auditioned for and won a role in an independent Irish film, set to be based and filmed locally in Cork. The resulting film, The Young Offenders, written and directed by Peter Foott, became the fastest Irish film to break the €1 million mark at the Irish box office in 2016. For his role as Jock, Walley was nominated for numerous awards, including the IFTA for Best Supporting Actor. With the popularity of the film, on 9 May 2017, it was confirmed that a six-episode television programme, based on the film with the same name, had been ordered by RTÉ. The first series began broadcasting on 1 February 2018, broadcast by RTÉ Two in Ireland and airing through the online television service BBC Three. With a popular and high reception, the series was recommissioned for a second series, the projected release date was not disclosed. For his role in the television series, Walley was awarded the IFTA for Best Male Performance - Television.

In 2018 Walley was cast alongside Aidan Turner in a revival of Martin McDonagh's play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which opened at the Noël Coward Theatre in June of that same year. For his performance, Walley received exceptional reviews, with TimeOut London writing, 'in a uniformly strong cast, special praise should go to Walley. A virtual newcomer, he is excruciatingly brilliant as the mullet-clad Davey, who meets each new indignity heaped upon him with an impressive mix of resignation and hysteria', Broadway World saying that, 'you would never be able to guess this is his West End debut', and The New York Times stating, 'Chris Walley ... effortlessly conveys the illogical logic and perverse mundanity of the dialogue'. For this performance Walley was nominated for the Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award, and was selected as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, an initiative established by the British Academy of Film and Television Awards to foster the talents of up-and-coming members of the arts world by offering them mentorship for a year.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	The Young Offenders	Jock Murphy
2019	Spanish Pigeon	John	Short film Post-production
2019	1917	Private Bullen
2020	Pixie	Daniel
TBA	Last Voyage Of The Demeter		Filming

Television

Title	Year	Role	Network	Notes	Ref(s)
The Young Offenders	2018–2020	Jock O'Keeffe	RTÉ2 BBC Three	Lead; 13 episodes
Bloodlands (TV series)	2020	Birdy	BBC One RTÉ1

Stage

List of theatre credits

Title	Year(s)	Role	Theatre	Notes	Ref(s)
The Lieutenant of Inishmore	2018	Davey	Noel Coward Theatre

Awards and nominations

Year	Work	Award	Result	Notes
2016	The Young Offenders	Súil Eile Award	Won	Shared with Alex Murphy
		Ros Hubbard Award for Acting	Won
2017		IFTA Best Actor in a Leading Role – Film	Nominated
2018		IFTA Best Male Performance – Television	Won
	The Lieutenant of Inishmore & The Young Offenders	BAFTA Breakthrough Brit	Won
	The Lieutenant of Inishmore	Evening Standard Theatre Award for Emerging Talent	Nominated
		Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer	Won
2019		Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Won

In March 2019, along with his co star from The Young offenders, Alex Murphy, Walley was jointly nominated for Comedy Performance - Male at the Royal Television Society Awards.