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Guy Masterson & Theatre Tours International present the London Premiere of
Absolution
Writer & Performer | Owen O'Neill
Biographies
Owen O'Neill
Owen is a writer, actor of stage and screen, and Perrier Award nominated stand-up comedian. He has written eight one-man plays winning two Scotsman Fringe Firsts. In 1997, he won the ‘Edinburgh Festival Critics Award for Best Comedy’ and the ‘LWT Award for Best Play’ for Off My Face. Owen, along with Guy Masterson, had the original idea of staging the classic American play Twelve Angry Men using twelve stand-up comedians, it was also directed and produced by Guy Masterson. It became the fastest selling show in Edinburgh Fringe history. It’s success was followed the next year by One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest starring Christian Slater & Mackenzie Crook in which he played the role of Dale Harding. This smashed the previous Edinburgh box office record and transferred directly to the West End where it ran for six months. In 2005, Owen played Roy in Guy Masterson's production of The Odd Couple with Bill Bailey and Alan Davies, which again broke all box Edinburgh office records and it still stands.
In 2009 he adapted The Shawshank Redemption for the stage which ran at the Gaiety theatre in Dublin and The Wyndhams theatre in London. In Sep 2010 Owen won 'Best Actor' for his off Broadway performance as one-man play Absolution at 59 East 59 Street Theatre for the First Irish Festival of New York.
He has appeared in five feature films including Michael Collins directed by Neil Jordan and The General, directed by John Boorman.
As a screenwriter, his debut feature film Arise and Go Now, a dark comedy about priests, pigeons and the IRA was directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) and screened as part of the BBC Film on 2 series. He wrote and starred in Shooting To Stardom a short film directed by Kieron J Walsh which won the best short at the Cork Film Festival in 1999. He wrote and directed The Basket Case a short film adapted from his short story of the same name which was published in 2004 by Random House. It won 'Best Short Film' at the 2008 Boston Film Festival and 'Best Film' at the Fantasia Film Festival in Brazil.
TV writing includes the sitcom, The Fitz, which aired on BBC2 in 1999.
His latest book of poetry, Licking The Matchbox was published in July 2015.