Risteárd Cooper (; born February 1969) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

actor, comedian, singer and writer and is one third of comedy trio '' Après Match''. Cooper attended St Michael's College, Ballsbridge. He joined the

National Youth Theatre The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth th ...

aged 16. On leaving school Cooper gained a singing scholarship at the College of Music, Dublin and graduated from the acting program at the Samuel Beckett Centre,

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

. He lived in New York for several years, where he worked at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Irish Rep and Chicago's

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield, Illinois and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on ...

(founded by, amongst others,

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

) playing Mickey in the American premiere of Jez Butterworth's Olivier award-winning play, ''Mojo'' directed by Ian Rickson. He has played lead roles in major theatres in Ireland, the UK and the USA including ''

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'' at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

, ''Auntie and Me'' at the Gaiety Theatre, '' I Keano'' at the Olympia Theatre, and in numerous productions at the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a Theater (structure), theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Ge ...

such as ''Arcadia'', ''

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'', ''See You Next Tuesday'', ''Eccentricities of a Nightingale'', ''Betrayal'' (Pinter Festival) and ''The Deep Blue Sea''. He played the role of Dmitri in

Brian Friel Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription req ...

's play ''The Yalta Game'', directed by Patrick Mason for the Gate Theatre at the 2009 Sydney and Edinburgh Festivals.He starred as Setanta de Paor in ''

An Crisis ''An Crisis'' ("The Crisis", using the Irish article and the English noun) is an Irish comedy television series which was first broadcast on TG4 in 2010 as a six-part miniseries satirising the inner workings of an Irish-language quango. It was ...

'', an

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satirical comedy series for

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for which he was nominated Best Comedy Actor at the 2010 Monte Carlo Awards. In 2011, he wrote and starred in a series of parodies on

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sponsored by sports betting agency Betdaq. Later that year he played Henry Higgins in the Abbey Theatre's first ever production of Shaw's ''Pygmalion'' going on in 2012 to star as Joxer Daly with Ciarán Hinds (Boyle) and Sinéad Cusack (Juno) in O'Casey's ''Juno and the Paycock'' at the Abbey Theatre, before transferring to the National Theatre of Great Britain. In 2013 he played Finbar in a production of Conor McPherson's The Weir at The

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Micha ...

, which transferred to the West End in 2014. It also starred Brian Cox, Dervla Kirwin, Ardal O'Hanlon and Peter McDonald and was directed by Josie Rourke. In September 2014 he appeared as Sir Henry Coverly in the ITV drama The Suspicions of Mr Whicher "The Ties That Bind", while in 2015 he portrayed Dermot Nally in RTÉ's "Charlie" and Laurie Gaskell in the critically acclaimed comedy-drama "No Offence" for Channel 4. Cooper has since appeared in such shows as “Delicious” with English comedienne Dawn French and “Quiz” directed by Stephen Frears. He performs his own comedy sketch series for sports show “Off the Ball” on YouTube.

Appearances

The following is a list of appearances by Risteard Cooper. * "Bird Sanctuary - Abbey Theatre debut (1995) * '' Après Match'' RTÉ (1998 - ''present'') * "Cyrano" Gate Theatre debut (1998) * ''The Closer You Get'' (2000) - Father Hubert Mallone * ''This is Ireland'' by Arthur Mathews BBC 2 (2004) * ''Chasing the Lions'' TV3 (2005) * '' I, Keano'' (2005) * ''

Batman Begins ''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, Liam ...

'' (2005) - Captain Simonson * ''Chasing The Blues'' (2007) * ''Bittersweet'' RTÉ 1 (2008) * ''Chase the Lions'' RTÉ (2009) * ''

'' (2010, TV Series,

) - Setanta de Paor * "Pygmalion - Abbey (2011) * "Juno & the Paycock - National Theatre (2012) * "The Weir - West End (2013 & 2014) * "The Suspicions of Mr Whicher" - ITV (2014) * "Charlie" - RTÉ 1 (2015) * "No Offence" Channel 4 (2015) *"Delicious" - Sky 1 (2017) Played the part of James Harley *"Extraordinary" - Movie (2019) *Quiz - ITV (2020)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Risteard 1967 births Living people Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish impressionists (entertainers) Irish male comedians Irish male stage actors Irish male television actors The Irish Times people Irish parodists People educated at St Michael's College, Dublin