Paul Nugent

Paul was born and grew up in Dublin, Ireland. His first major acting role was playing Johnny Boyle in his high school's production of "Juno and the Paycock", for which he won a local Acting Award. He achieved honours degrees in Law and Business at University College Dublin before attending drama school. He graduated from the two-year course at the prestigious Gaiety School of Acting in 2001. He made his professional debut playing the malevolent priest Peter in the World Premiere of the dark medieval thriller "Aoife and Isabel" at the Project, a role he helped devise. Soon thereafter, he made his TV debut as a guest star on the BBC series, "Custer's Last Stand-Up." He is a Co-Artistic Director of the Dublin-based theatre company AboutFACE Ireland, which he founded with four other actors in 2002 and for whom he has performed in productions of the Irish premieres of a number of acclaimed American plays such as "The Glory of Living," "The Laramie Project", "Boy Gets Girl", "Tape" and "All in the Timing". Most recently, he played the young Orson Welles in the World Premiere of "Orson Welles' Christmas Carol," which Paul also wrote. In 2005, Paul moved to the US with his wife, the actress-producer Anna Olson Nugent. He settled in New York, where made his Off-Broadway debut in "The Field" at the Irish Repertory Theatre. He has since appeared in the world premieres of new plays such as "Dancing at Lunacy," "The Jungle Fun Room," and the award-winning musical "McGoldrick's Thread," and in revivals such as the much-acclaimed production of the noir play "Ladies and Gents," performed at the site-specific location of the Bethesda Fountain Bathrooms in Central Park. Since 2011, Paul has co-produced and performed at the annual NEWvember Festival in Tivoli, upstate New York, a festival of rehearsed readings of new plays. In 2014, Paul played the lead role of the punk IRA assassin Victor M. McGowan in the World Premiere of Seamus Scanlon's "The McGowan Trilogy" at the cell in New York. In 2014, Paul also made his US network TV debut in the Season 2 premiere of NBC's "The Blacklist."