John Travers

Michael O'Dwyer, of the Irish Times, commented on his great screen presence; John Travers. From growing up in the 1990s in North Belfast to becoming a well established and extremely humble Northern Irish actor. From winning Best Actor at the Cherbourg Film Festival in 2003 of Aisling Walsh's incredible Song for a Raggy Boy - the feature film played Sundance, Seattle, Tribeca, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Karlovy Vary, Cork, Ghent, Lyubyana, Bergen, Gothenberg, Copenhagen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Belfast and Salerno festivals to brilliant effect, picking up eighteen awards and bringing massive praise to John - his very first acting role. John Travers had previously set his goals in boxing, and was a very promising young fighter, winning various junior titles around the Ulster province and Ireland. It was there that he was subsequently cast in a big budget feature film that would change the course of his life. From that role he has never looked back. As his profile grew, John was being sent for and winning roles in not only feature films but commercials too; the Adidas campaign for MJZ, John was cast opposite several world class footballers including Jermaine Defoe, Del Piero, Djibril Cisse, Ashley Cole and David Trezeguet, shot in St.Albans by Fredrik Bond; also a Dublin anti-litter campaign, invest NI, BT, and even lent his growing skills to anti bullying and anti knife crime advertisements across Ireland. In 2007 John was cast as Young Quinlan, in Lord Richard Attenborough's 'Closing the Ring'. He played the younger version of the late, great Pete Postlethwaite and won critical appraisal for his role. It was at this time that John's casting power really became apparent, with lead roles in various other bigger budget feature films like 48 Angels, Peacefire, the Mighty Celt and Wilderness, including 2012's 'Good Vibarations'. Besides an exciting career in film, John has also had a commercially successful career on stage too. Although late to the theatre game, he quickly gained repertoire within the Irish theatre circle, winning yet more appraisal for his stage craft in such plays as 'The Jonny Miester and Stitch', 'Basra Boy' and 'Tartan' to name a few. He especially gained much notability for his energetic performance in one man shows, where he would dominate the entire stage by himself for sometimes well over an hour. In 2017, John played the late, great Robin Williams, in a one man stage production written by Kieron Magee, chronicling the life of the legendary actor and comedian. In 2018, John made a return to the Edinburgh fringe, after almost 10 years, with a play called Vivarium; written by playwrite, Don McCamphill.