Rory Cowan is an Irish actor and entertainer. He is best known for portraying Rory Brown in ''

Mrs Brown's Boys ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' is an Irish television sitcom created by and starring Brendan O'Carroll and produced in the United Kingdom by BBC Scotland in partnership with BOC-PIX and Irish broadcaster RTÉ. The series stars O'Carroll as Agnes B ...

'' from 2011 to 2017, and for starring in ''

Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie ''Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie'' is a 2014 Irish comedy film based on the sitcom ''Mrs. Brown's Boys'' and is co-produced by That's Nice Films, Penalty Kick Films, RTÉ and BocFlix. BBC Films is acting as sales agent and it was distributed by Uni ...

'' in 2014. Since 2019, Cowan has played John Bosco Walsh in the RTÉ soap opera '' Fair City''. Rory attended St Benildus College in Stillorgan.

Early life

Rory Cowan was born in the Coombe Hospital in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

to Rory Cowan Sr. and Esther Cowan. His parents were trade-union activists, while his grandfather was the soldier, solicitor, and politician

Peadar Cowan Peadar Cowan (23 October 1903 – 9 May 1962) was an Irish soldier, solicitor, and politician. Biography He was a member of the West Cavan Brigade IRA during the Irish War of Independence. Subsequently, he joined the National Army on 10 Febru ...

, who had fought in the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

. The Cowans lived in Dublin,

Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...

and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

Career

Cowan's mother wanted him to go into banking, but Cowan deliberately failed his maths exam in order to avoid this. He then worked in a record shop owned by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, eventually becoming marketing manager of the holding company in Ireland. While there, he managed

Christy Dignam Christy Dignam (born Christopher Dignam on 23 May 1960) is the lead singer of the popular Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over forty years has been characterised by numerous successes on the Irish charts as well as recurring problems with dr ...

and the drag act Mr Pussy, and first saw

Brendan O'Carroll Brendan O'Carroll (born 17 September 1955) is an Irish actor, comedian, director, producer and writer. He is best known for portraying foul-mouthed matriarch Agnes Brown on stage and in the BBC and RTÉ television sitcom ''Mrs. Brown's Boys''. ...

in performance. After being made redundant in 1992, he was asked to book an act for a venue that would bring in similar crowds to those that had accompanied Mr Pussy and Dignam; and suggested O'Carroll. As a result of this, he became O'Carroll's publicist, and has worked alongside him well into the 2010s. Soon afterwards, O'Carroll developed the Mrs Brown routine, creating the character of Rory Brown specifically for Cowan, although at first, Cowan did not take on the role as he was simply "the logistics man" who organised shows and bookings. The character of Rory Brown originally appeared in the radio slots, and was originally played on stage by another actor who resigned at short notice. As a result, Cowan, despite never having acted in front of an audience before, was asked to take on the role by O'Carroll, and his

camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

performance quickly became the definitive portrayal. In 2016, alongside actress

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, Cowan was signed up to the Irish version of Gogglebox, screened by

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

. On 16 June 2017, Cowan gave O'Carroll his resignation notice, and the following month announced he had quit ''Mrs Brown's Boys''. He described his parting from the company as "amicable" and completed a stage tour of the show, but did not appear in the 2017 Christmas special. In 2019, Cowan joined the RTE soap drama '' Fair City''.

Personal life

Cowan is openly gay, and has often discussed his sexuality in the press and in interviews. He has lived in Kilmainham since 1990, and credits his work with O'Carroll with enabling him to afford to buy his house and achieve financial security. In December 2016, Cowan was a victim of homophobic online abuse on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, which led to police reports being filed and an official investigation launched by the Gardaí. On 12 August 2020, Cowan announced on Twitter that he had joined

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

, after being persuaded by former Fine Gael TD

Noel Rock Noel Rock (born 11 November 1987) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 2016 to 2020. He previously served as Chair of the Committee on Housing, Planning and Loca ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Rory Living people 20th-century Irish male actors 21st-century Irish male actors Alumni of University College Dublin Irish gay actors LGBT entertainers from Ireland Male actors from Dublin (city) Year of birth missing (living people)