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Biography
Aidan J Crowley was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1976 and raised in Co. Cork. He has been a professional actor and singer for over twenty years with numerous credits to his name. He is an award winning actor, singer and filmmaker, writing/directing many short films and has been working on his feature film, a triptych called The Scowling Dusk, as actor/writer/director/producer for a number of years. There are additional film projects in the works such as the supernatural western, NewtonCorrigan. He is known for his independence in filmmaking and preferring to shoot using old-fashioned in-camera methods, whilst creating his own particular stylistic design and acting on his films and in cinematography, puppetry, stop-motion and make-ups, logos and publicity. As an actor he is known for his research, immersing himself into the role and changing his appearance for every part. Crowley continues an eclectic workload including his music and voice (see below) and his own songwriting. There are boutique publishing projects such as AtlanticSanctuary and WhenTimeWasAPlayfulChild, the poetry of his late friend Tom O’Connor.
In early 2022 Crowley directed and produced and appeared in a web-series, Valdís, which has received multiple awards and official selection on the independent festival/award circuit.
Crowley writes all of his films and characters in the same ‘universe’ that contain three unusual places he calls Kloxalis, YomiKamta and Târamül and the workings of a mysterious group called the Nexcoyomeh. This universe is an alternative to Earth. Preferring to work with the same troupe of actors on all his projects if schedules allow. Crowley considers this an old fashioned acting company as in the theatre.
For his work on Valdís (2022) he was the winner of the Diamond Award for Best Actor and Silver Award for Best Director at the Mindfield Film Festival, Best Actor at the World Film Carnival in Singapore and Best Actor at the Royal Wolf Film Awards.
Training
Initially training as a professional actor at Mountview Theatre School in London (graduating 1998), winning both theStage newspaper three year acting and musical theatre scholarship and the Mountview singing scholarship. After more than twenty years in the business he has played over eighty different roles in various guises to date. Essentially a character actor, he usually never looks the same as the part requires and prefers to go as far as he can with ‘transformation’ in acting. He has been described as a Method actor although this is not necessarily accurate. Crowley also studied acting at the Cork Arts and Theatre Club, the Phoenix Contemporary Theatre School, the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, two seasons at the Manchester Youth Theatre (NYT), Shakespeare at RADA and with the Actors Company at the London Centre for Theatre Studies. He began studying for a Master’s Degree in Shakespeare at Royal Holloway (University of London) but had to leave due to being offered a theatre tour.
Selected Credits
Throughout 2013 Crowley produced his one man show entitled We Are Dust & Shadow as part of the Solo Festival at the Lord Stanley Theatre and subsequently at the Baron’s Court Theatre. This performance won the award for Most Original Act at the 2013 Solo Festival in London. Prior to returning to the role of Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore tour in 2014 he appeared as The Fool in theEclipse at the Union Theatre, which he also produced. Selected Theatre credits include: Blossom, Bellowes u/s and Postman in Doctor Dolittle UK Tour, Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore, Valene in The Lonesome West, Louis in Chelinot, George in Private Exposure, Kreutchmar in The Surgeon & the Nurse, Toennesen in The Pillars of Society, Mick Connor in Comedians, Rev. Hale in The Crucible, Pastor Manders in Ghosts, Soldier in Bacchai, Ghoul in The Rocky Horror Show, Raynor in Black Coffee, Det. Sgt. Penny in The Hollow, Sandy Tyrell in Hay Fever, Allwit in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Solyony in Three Sisters, Bill in Popcorn, Constable in Wait Until Dark, John in Oleanna, Roy Cohn in Angels in America Part 1, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Richard Mulcahy in Frongoch, Rakitin in A Month in the Country, Whitney in The Stonewater Rapture, Bandit/Johnstone in The Hard Man, Peter Kien in The Windmill, Gold in The Wild Party, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, The Commissioner in Lysistrata. Film/Television/Commercial includes: Tenor in Conn-X Greece, Patient in The Psychiatrist RaboBank Ireland, Dandy in Badger or Bust trailer, Husband in Halifax Ireland, Travolta in Daddy Cool, The Man in Old Friend, Fish in Lee’s Sitcom, Addict in Discovery Theme Parks, Dave in Fruice, Rebel in Nobby’s Nuts, Crazy Hair in Manpower. Voiceover/Radio includes: Time Warner, Cartoon Network, Thresher’s, guest newspaper reviewer on BBC London 94.9fm.
Recent credits include multiple roles in his own film productions: Valdís, The Haunting Of The Midshipman and The Scowling Dusk Trilogy.
Voice & Music
Crowley is an Heroic Tenor/RockVocalist and he has studied voice with many highly regarded vocal tutors over the years including: Susie Webster, Nathan Martin, Claire Groom, Phillip Tebb, Lynton Atkinson, Alexander Massey, Neil Howlett, Mary Hammond RAM, Roderick Earle RCM. His first experimental classical/crossover album was called Those Strange Elusive Tears with the gifted cellist Deryn Cullen. Aidan is also a singer/songwriter and created 593records to produce and release independently his own albums including Pilgrim Simpatico, The Byzantium Broadway, Omens Of Tempest, Draoícht/Lux and Invisible Spirit. Alternative/Vocals/Guitars, experiments in music exploring a hybrid style, aria, songwriting, folk/rock and classical voice. Crowley likes to experiment in his own unique, simple Guitar style, each song written with different/unusual tunings, whilst working with various effects systems and orchestrations. In 2022 Crowley is recording an EP of aria and contemporary song, The Dead Unsleeping Fires, with acclaimed pianist Gisela Meyer. His latest music projects are 悪霊 AKURYŌ a rock opera and a new songwriting album called In The Morphia Honeymoon.
Creative & Artist
In 2013 Crowley decided to take more control and focus on his own works, producing independent film and music projects whilst remaining freelance. To pursue and produce his own works as a musician, writer, publisher, producer, director and filmmaker. Aidan also has a keen interest for effective altruism especially life-changing paediatric surgery, different Cultures and Diversity and an intense dislike of racism and bigotry of any kind. Crowley, an actor, writer, producer, director, filmmaker, editor, cinematographer, tenor, songwriter, musician…obviously has many interests, with an eclectic variety of creative projects in operation at any one time. He has a multifaceted imagination with a great curiosity towards life. Crowley’s pursuits have taken him on adventures as varied as research into his great love of Shakespeare, Esoteric Philosophy and even in the medical world as a Corporal in the Irish Red Cross and in the operating room, training for a time in the NHS as an anaesthetic and surgical assistant. He was also a visiting Drama Tutor at Oxford University at the Oxford Summer Academy. He is a published writer, art collector and an artist in pastel/pencil. Aviation is also a very important escape from the world and he holds a Private Pilot’s Licence which he takes very seriously.
Aidan is notoriously reserved about his private life and lives in London and UK with his wife Bridie.