We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ronan Colfer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ronan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

From a very early age. I was always into creative writing, but I didn’t really have anywhere to go and pursue acting, so once I reached a certain age I moved to Dublin to pursue it. It was quite nerve wracking of course at first and the complete lack of experience didn’t help but I stuck to it regardless; mostly because I just enjoyed it and felt a lot of growth from it, not because I particularly felt I was any good at it, quite the opposite actually.
However, over time I started to feel a bit more confident, enough where I thought I can at least audition and compete for roles now, but at the same time as I was gaining that little bit of confidence, I also felt very drawn to write more and focus on developing scripts.
Covid played a role in that too. I was in my apartment alone for long periods of time during the initial stages of Covid with only writing as some kind of creative outlet and I really developed a strong creative bond with writing again during that time.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m an actor, writer and producer and am hoping to soon direct my first feature length play also. I’ve directed a couple of short pieces so far but never a feature play so that will be a huge new challenge for me. I’ve spent the last 12 years or so mainly devoted to acting but over the course of that pursuit I began writing plays, which eventually led to producing and now I find myself doing all of them simultaneously. I enjoy the work I do a lot but in the coming years I am hoping to use it in a more impactful way and expand my reach rather than just for my own enjoyment. The reason why I got into this work is because I was touched very deeply by the work of other artists, especially when it had some kind of social impact or made me see something in a completely new light and becoming aware of things I wasn’t aware of before.
I think to do that you have to get organized and prepare yourself with all the necessary requirements that a writer/ performer of this day-and-age needs, such as building an online presence, acquiring the right agents and managers, meeting the right producers and staying committed to the work even when it looks like nothing is happening.
But regardless of what may come I enjoy what I do and will continue to do it. However, something within me is saying to step it up, scale it up and make myself and my work more known, so I am preparing myself for that.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Well in my field I find the most rewarding part is when I write something that other actors get to perform in and then seeing them really make it their own and express something meaningful through it. In the acting world there’s about 1 job for every 100 actors out there (I’m exaggerating a little but it feels that way sometimes, lol!) and then most of the scripts tend to not be very good, so if I can write something that can make an actor excited about the work they’re doing then that’s always a great feeling.

Another rewarding part is performing in something that has real meaning to it or has the potential to touch the lives of others. You see this most clearly in theater as there is a direct response from audience members, whereas with a film you have to wait and can never know for sure what the response is going to be, although I have done only a handful of films so my experience in that is limited also.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Well as I’ve touched upon already, I was always very moved by other creatives and the devotion and effort they put into their work; just losing themselves in it almost. So I suppose paying homage to that side of it and just totally giving myself over to the work in the hopes to find some deeper meaning, because for me depth and substance are the most important aspects of any artistic work. Any commercial aspects to it are just vehicles to that… or at least that’s how it should be in my opinion, but usually that’s not the case.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ronan.colfer
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colferronan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronan-colfer-476283240
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColferRonan

Image Credits
Rebeca Rayne/Rayne Photos Sofia Vafeiadou Tristan Allen Rebeca Castilho Mark Iandolo