Dominic Monaghan Biography

Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan (born December 8, 1976) is an English actor. He played Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck in Peter Jackson's epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and Charlie Pace on the television show Lost (2004-2010).

Early life

Monaghan was born in Berlin, West Germany, to British parents: Maureen, a nurse, and Austin Monaghan, a science teacher. His older brother Matthew is the main songwriter and co-lead vocalist of the indie band Radiosepia. Monaghan's family lived in Berlin, Dsseldorf, Stuttgart and Mnster, moving about every four years. When he was about 11 years old, his family moved from Germany to Heaton Moor in Stockport, England. In Stockport, he attended St Anne's Roman Catholic High School (where his uncle taught and later became head teacher) and Aquinas College, where he studied English literature, drama and geography.

Career

Although Monaghan held many occupations when he was younger, he always wanted to be an actor. After his second year at St. Anne's, Monaghan became a regular in school plays such as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol and Bugsy Malone before joining the Manchester Youth Theatre. There, he was scouted for Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, on which he played Hetty's under-aged sidekick, Geoffrey Shawcross, for four series. He made his feature-film debut as Russian sailor Sasha in the TV film Hostile Waters.

Monaghan later starred in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy as Meriadoc Brandybuck, for which he achieved international acclaim and success. Monaghan narrated Ringers: Lord of the Fans, a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fandom. He also provided the narration for The Discovery Channel's documentary Devil's Bible in 2008. He also appeared in Soldiers of Fortune alongside Sean Bean and Christian Slater.

He was a regular cast member on the ABC series Lost from 2004 to 2007, playing English ex-rockstar and drug addict Charlie Pace. Monaghan originally auditioned for the role of Sawyer. The role of Charlie was then changed from an old, washed up rocker from the 1980s, to a young one-hit wonder to accommodate Monaghan's age. Monaghan returned to the series as a special guest star after departing from the main cast.

In 2009, Monaghan starred as Chris Bradley / Bolt in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. On 15 July 2009, it was confirmed that he would join the cast of ABC Studios' science fiction television series FlashForward as the character Simon. The series premiered on 24 September 2009. It was cancelled after its first season.

On 18 March 2010, Monaghan was spotted at the Universal Sheraton filming a short called Gloria. It was part of a programme called REESES Puff's Extraordinary Cinema (where the teens replace the pros). He played the part of Caleb Reese.

In 2010, Monaghan and Megan Fox made an appearance as a couple in an abusive relationship in the music video for rapper Eminem's song "Love the Way You Lie". Scenes include the celebrities on top of a liquor store. Fox and Monaghan also filmed inside the store and "at a seedy dive bar next door" to the store.

In November 2012, a new show on Channel 5 titled Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan began airing in the UK. The documentary shows Monaghan travelling to various locations such as Venezuela and Ecuador to film and interact with the exotic and often dangerous local wildlife.

During the summer of 2013, Monaghan appeared in several live-action teasers for 2K Marin's science fiction video game "The Bureau: XCOM Declassified".

In April 2016, Monaghan appeared as a guest on The Gaffer Tapes: Fantasy Football Podcast, stating "It"?s the best fantasy football podcast out there".

Personal life

Monaghan is a nature lover, and has been active in the planting of trees, cacti and the pod-seeds of mature hedge-row bushes. He owns a small forest in India, and has worked with the animal rights group PETA. Monaghan has a great love for insects and reptiles that he developed during his childhood, and has kept an assortment of pets, including a leaf-mantis named Gizmo, a black widow spider named Witchitar and an albino snake named Blink. The newly discovered species of spiders Ctenus monaghani (de:Ctenus monaghani) is named after him.

An avid outdoorsman, Monaghan enjoys activities such as surfing, kayaking, snowboarding, football, basketball and hiking. He has also stated that he likes hunting for insects and reptiles outdoors. He learned karate as a child, used to practise yoga, and often goes to the gym for strength and weight training. He is a longtime fan of hometown English Premier League football team Manchester United since his childhood, despite his father being a fan of Manchester City. His character Charlie Pace in Lost was also a Manchester United fan.

Monaghan loves to play various games, and has hosted game nights for fellow cast members in the past. He is also fond of working the New York Times crossword puzzle.

On his right arm he has a tattoo of the English word "nine" written in the artificial script of Tengwar, a reference to his involvement in The Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Seven other cast members and John Rhys-Davies' stunt double also got matching tattoos during the film's production, at Monaghan's instigation. Below that tattoo is another that reads, "Life imitates art", an Oscar Wilde quote. On his left arm is a tattoo, "Living is easy with eyes closed", a line from The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever". He also has two stars tattooed on his left foot, one black, and one white. In 2010, Monaghan got two more tattoos, one on the upper side of the back ("Love you take is equal to the love you make", taken from the song "The End" by The Beatles). The other, done by Kat Von D on the television show LA Ink, is located on his lower right arm and reads "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter", a quote from Yoda.

He resides in Los Angeles, California. In 2008, Monaghan held a photographic exhibition in Los Angeles in which he sold prints of his own works. A portion of the proceeds from the exhibition were given to an orangutan rescue organisation.

Past relationships include his Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly from 2004 to 2009. In December 2013, Monaghan claimed that Lilly had cheated on him, sparking outrage over Twitter.

In June 2008, Monaghan travelled to Argentina with Lilly to film the pilot of the American version of CQC.

Monaghan provided the inspiration for the naming of Billy Boyd's band Beecake after he sent his friend a picture of a cake covered in bees.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Hostile Waters	Sasha	Television film
2000	This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper	Jimmy Furey
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Meriadoc Brandybuck	Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers		Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King		Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated"?Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast
2003	An Insomniac's Nightmare	Jack	Short film
2004	Spivs	Goat
2004	The Purifiers	Sol
2005	Ringers: Lord of the Fans	Narrator
2005	Shooting Livien	Owen Scott
2008	I Sell the Dead	Arthur Blake
2009	X-Men Origins: Wolverine	Chris Bradley	Nominated"?People's Choice Award for Favorite On-Screen Team
2010	Soldiers of Fortune	Sin
2011	Pet	Seth
2011	The Day	Rick
2012	The Millionaire Tour	Casper
2015	Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism	Nockman
2015	Deep Burial	Robinson	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996-98	Hetty Wainthropp Investigates	Geoffrey Shawcross	27 episodes
2000	Monsignor Renard	Etienne Pierre Rollinger	3 episodes
2004-2010	Lost	Charlie Pace	Main cast (Season 1-3) Special guest star (Season 4 & 6): 65 episodes Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated"?Monte-Carlo Television Festival Award for Outstanding Actor - Drama Series Nominated"?Prism Award for Performance in a Drama Series Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television
2008	MADtv	Himself	2 episodes
2008	CQC		Episode: "#12.15"
2009	Chuck	Tyler Martin	Episode: "Chuck Versus the Third Dimension"
2009-10	FlashForward	Dr. Simon Campos	14 episodes
2010	Top Gear	Himself	2 episodes
2012	The Unknown	Mark Nickel	6 episodes
2012	Childrens Hospital	Dr. Owen Maestro	Episode: "British Hospital"
2012-present	Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan	Himself	17 episodes
2013	Ridiculousness		Episode: "Dominic Monaghan"
2013	The Eric Andre Show		Episode: "Krysten Ritter/Dominic Monaghan"
2014	100 Code	Tommy Conley	12 episodes

Music videos

Year	Artist	Title	Notes
2010	Eminem featuring Rihanna	"Love the Way You Lie"	With Megan Fox as his girlfriend

Video games

Year	Title	Roles	Notes
2016	Quantum Break	William "Will" Joyce	Also motion capture