Daragh O'Malley


Daragh Gerard Marion O'Malley is an Irish actor, director, and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Patrick Harper in the television series Sharpe co-starring opposite Sean Bean. He has appeared in a number of other films, major television shows, and stage productions throughout his career in the UK and in the US.

Career

O'Malley trained at LAMDA - London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Following drama school O'Malley was a founding member of Common Stock Theatre Company which took theatre to the poorer quarters of the East End of London. A fellow founding member of Common Stock was Dame Harriet Walter
He began his career with roles in Crossroads on ITV and then roles in the films The Long Good Friday and Withnail and I. O'Malley went on to appear in over 100 UK and US television series, including Tales of the Unexpected, Waking The Dead, Silent Witness, Wire In The Blood and Vera, as well as appearing in TV roles in Longitude, Cleopatra, and The Magnificent Seven. O'Malley played Irish explorer Tom Crean in the eight-part television series The Last Place on Earth and the crooked lawyer Nick Varago in the LucasArts multi million selling interactive game Grim Fandango.
In 2011, O'Malley shifted his focus back to the stage, appearing in productions in both the US and the UK. In recent years O'Malley has appeared in over a dozen stage productions, including a revival of Dancing at Lughnasa, where he played Father Jack, which was nominated for an MTA Best Production Award. He followed this by playing John Rainey in a London revival of Irvine's Mixed Marriage, which received positive reviews and which The Guardians Michael Billington called " the most compelling play in London". In 2014, O'Malley appeared as Big Daddy in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, for which he was nominated for an MTA Best Actor award. UK's The Stage selected O'Malley's performance as one of the Top Five Performances in UK theatre in 2014.
In 1968 O'Malley's father, Donogh, as Minister for Education introduced Free Secondary Education in Ireland which is credited with the subsequent massive upsurge in the Irish economy.
O'Malley's mother, Hilda, was the inspiration for the poem and song On Raglan Road.

Awards

O'Malley's production of The Rocky Horror Show in Dublin won numerous awards, including a Best Production Jacob's Award. The show's playwright, Richard O'Brien, described O'Malley's Irish production as "without doubt, the sexiest version of my show ever produced."
In Los Angeles, O'Malley won a Drama-Logue Best Actor Award for his 1998 performance as Sweeney in Patrick Marber's Dealers Choice at The Mark Taper Forum.
O'Malley also won a BANFF TV Award for a one-off episode of the BBC Series Doctors, a two-handed episode in which he appeared with actor Christopher Timothy.
In 2015 O'Malley was nominated for several awards for his performance as Big Daddy in The Royal Exchange,Manchester, production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". The Stage listed O'Malley's performance as one of "The Top Ten Performances in British Theatre in 2014"
In both 2019 and in 2022 and again in 2023 O'Malley was nominated for a Best Actor OFFIE Award for his performances in London theatre.

Charity work

O'Malley founded The Sharpe's Children Foundation, a charity designed to fight poverty with education and take orphaned and destitute children off the streets of the Third World and into residential primary education. The SCF was launched at Apsley House, London, home of the Duke of Wellington, in October 2010. Team India, sponsored by The Sharpe's Children Foundation and made up of children who lived in railway carriages at Delhi Railway Station and who played football in the railway yards, won The Street Children's World Cup in Durban, South Africa. The Sharpe's Children Foundation was chosen as World Charity of The Year in 2012 by Intellectual Property Magazine and was integrated with The Consortium for Street Children later that year.