Biography
Dominic (Dom) Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan, born 8 December, 1976, is an English actor. He has received international attention from the success of playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost. He is the younger brother of English musician, Matt Monaghan.
Monaghan was born in Berlin, Germany. At the age of twelve, his family moved from Germany to Heaton Moor in Stockport, Greater Manchester, and later to Manchester. Monaghan's first language is English, but he also speaks German and is well known for his ability to impersonate others and replicate accents. He attended St. Anne's RC High School (where his uncle taught and later became head teacher) and Aquinas College, where he studied English Literature, Drama and Geography.
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Although he had many occupations when he was younger, he always wanted to be an actor. After his second year at Aquinas, he became a regular in school plays such as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Bugsy Malone. Monaghan then went on to join Manchester Youth Theatre where he was scouted for Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. He played Hetty's under-aged sidekick, Geoffrey Shawcross, for four seasons. He made his feature film debut as Russian sailor Sasha in TV film Hostile Waters.
He narrated Ringers: Lord of the Fans, a documentary about The Lord of the Rings fandom. On his right arm, he has a tattoo of the Elvish word "nine" written in Quenya-mode 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. Several other cast members also got similar tattoos during the film's production. On his left arm is a tattoo saying "Living is easy with eyes closed", a line from The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever. He also has two stars tattooed on his left ankle.
He was cast in the X-Men movie spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Barnell Bohusk / Beak, which is set to release on May 1st, 2009. In June 2008, Monaghan travelled to Argentina to film the pilot of the American (English) version of a popular Argentinian TV show, Caiga Quien Caiga (also known as 'CQC'). He is also currently working on a script with The Lord of the Rings co-star Billy Boyd.
He is currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.