Perhaps best known for his television role as Dylan is popular RTE drama Raw, Portmarnock actor Paul Reid, who now divides his time between London and Ireland, talks to ALISON COMYN about zombies, white make-up and being a triple threat!

'Mesmerising. Exhilarating. Poignant'. Just some of the words used to describe the epic one-man performance from Paul Reid, who has just been shorlisted in the Irish Times Theatre awards for his role as Farrell Blinks in 'Man of Valour'. The complex character grew from an acting workshop with Corn Exchange Theatre Company. The idea had been in the 29-yearold actor's head in bits and pieces for a number of years. It started as an image of a man in a suit working in an office environment. He played out the scene. Man. Suit. Office and co-workers. Generally, actors join in for each other's improvisations, but in this case the others just stood back and let Reid go off.

'I kept going for about 20 minutes and I was doing all this crazy stuff with the character,' he explains. 'Afterwards, director Annie Ryan and writer Michael West came up to me and said they thought there was something in it, and asked would I go away and try to write something. I'm more of a visual artist and so I drew lots of pictures of what it should look like.' Reid says he had little time to think about the performance until moments before he stepped on to the stage for the opening night at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, such was his immersion in developing the role. What helped the performance, though, was the support he received from the company, and the production team.

'Without all the backing and support, it would not have been the performance it was. I felt I was in safe hands and had a big safety net. That allowed me to be as free as I wanted with the role.' Paul is delighted with the prestigious nomination for the Irish Times Theatre awards, and says all the years of hardship and worry he put his parents through is finally paying off! 'I know it sounds like a cliche, but it is such an honour just to be nominated, especially when you see who else is there, and all before I'm 30,' he says with a smile. 'I hope I can finally say 'I told you so' to may parents, who must have thought I was mad for wanting to be an actor at some stage.' Paul was born 29-years ago to Frank and Noeleen Reid, and has two older brothers (David and Stephen) and an older sister (Karen), but is the only one to tread the boards. A former pupil of St Helen's NS and Portmarnock Community School, the young Paul had his sights firmly set on a life in art. 'It was more the scenery than the stage at the start,' he says.

'I did a portfolio course, and wanted to do special effects, but when I started looking at the extras on some of the projects I was working on, I thought 'I could do that.' In fact, it was one of his teachers who had spotted his early talent in school. 'I was entertaining the class as usual and Miss Fannin she said I should be an actor,' he says with a laugh.' 'So maybe she knew something I didn't at the time.' By the time he was half-way through his art course, Paul knew the acting bug was deepset and he knew where his heart truly lay. 'I applied for the Gaiety School of Acting, and was put on a long waiting list, and just forgot about it, until I was working in the Portmarnock Country Club and got a phonecall that someone had dropped out and I had their place,' he recalls. 'I rang my parents immediately, and they said 'you're what', but I assured them I might earn a little more than as an artist!' And as the cliche goes, the rest is history.

Paul graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting full time Diploma course in June 2004. Since then he has appeared in Love Is The Drug as Toby, directed by Darren Thornton for Rough Magic Films/rte 2, and as Shane in Stephen Bradley's feature film Boy Eats Girl (Element Films) with Samantha Mumba. ' That was an amazing experience, and Samantha is a lovely person, very hard-working.' Paul made his theatre debut shortly after leaving college in Pilgrims in the Park, directed by Jim Culleton for Fishamble Theatre Company and shortly afterwards appeared in their hugely popular production of Monged by Gary Duggan, also directed by Jim Culleton, at the Project Theatre, Dublin. 'I am really at home on the stage,' he adds, ' but would love to do more television and film work too. Exciting things are happening in Ireland, and there are more roles for actors like me, and for the opportunity to travel.'

In 2007 Paul toured to Tazmania, across the UK and to the Riverside Studios, London in The Corn Exchanges acclaimed production of Dublin By Lamplight directed by Annie Ryan and appeared as Gregor in Metamorphosis directed by David Horan as part of Once Off Productions Rep Experiment in the Dublin Theatre Festival Fringe for which he was nominated for the Best Actor Award in the DTFF 2007. Paul played Segismundo in Life Is A Dream, directed by Tom Creed for Rough Magic and in Season 6 of The Clinic on RTE1. Paul appeared in the title role of Macbecks for Long Road Productions and MCD at the Olympia Theatre and Cork Opera House and also appeared in the Gate Theatre's production of Les Liasons Dangereusees directed by Michael Barker- Caven.

'I suppose most people will know me from apperances in the Clinic, which is compulsory for an Irish actor and for the regular lead role of Dylan in Season Two of RAW ,' he says. 'I live in London part-time and see a lot of Gus Mcdonagh and Sarah Burke, who were actors in my gang and we are still great friends.' But it his role as Farrell Blinks in Man of Valour that will surely catapult this Fingal man into international stardom. Barely unrecognisable in his black and white stage make-up a la film noir, Paul plays an office drone with an overactive fantasy gland. His imagined, heroic adventures offer violent release from the pressures and boredom of his ordinary life — until the border between fantasy and reality begins to blur.

When his demons come after him, Farrell has to find his voice and face them down. The nomination has given him the confidence to trust his instincts as he approaches his next stage outing, in Alice in Funderland at the Abbey Theatre. 'It is a very dark musical, and I have to dance in it, so that should be great fun,' he laughs. 'I did a dance workshop before it, and thought, oh, this isn't my greatest talent, but you can't be the allusive ' triple threat' without it.'