Emmett J. Scanlan

Emmett John Scanlan is an Irish actor born on 31 January 1979 in Dublin, whose family originates from Clontarf. Over the course of his career, he has built a reputation for portraying villainous and complex antihero characters across television and film.

Scanlan achieved widespread recognition for his role as Brendan Brady in the television soap opera Hollyoaks from 2010 to 2013. His performance in the series led to numerous nominations and wins at various soap opera award ceremonies.

Following his breakthrough, Scanlan expanded into dramatic television and cinema. Between 2013 and 2014, he appeared alongside Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in the BBC Two series The Fall. He subsequently joined the cast of Peaky Blinders for its fifth and sixth series alongside Cillian Murphy. During this period, Scanlan also appeared in the second series of BBC Three's In The Flesh, played a role in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy, and worked alongside actors Craig Fairbrass, James Cosmo, Bruce Payne, Olivia Grant, and Tamer Hassan in the 2016 project Breakdown.

In 2021, Scanlan starred as Inspector Kieran Shaw in the ITV drama series The Tower. From 2021 to 2023, he portrayed the lead role of Jimmy Kinsella in the RTÉ family gangster drama Kin. He continued taking on major television roles, appearing as Marcus MacLeod in the 2022 series Ten Percent—a British remake of Call My Agent!—and starring alongside Michelle Keegan and Adeel Akhtar in the 2024 Netflix production Fool Me Once.

Scanlan was cast as an enforcer for the Harrigan family in the British gangster project MobLand, working alongside Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, Tom Hardy, Paddy Considine, and Joanne Froggatt. His other television credits include the series How to Get to Heaven from Belfast.

Scanlan married Claire Cooper on 31 December 2015 in New York City. The couple has a son born in July 2020 and a daughter born on 12 November 2022; Cooper also disclosed in October 2020 that she had experienced a miscarriage the previous year. Scanlan has an older daughter born in September 2002 from an earlier relationship. While working on Hollyoaks, he resided with co-star Joe Tracini, who later publicly acknowledged Scanlan's help during his struggles with addiction on his 2026 comedy tour 10 Things I Hate About Me. Scanlan is a vegan, a supporter of PETA, and a fan of Manchester United.