English actor Joe Gilgun began his career as a child actor. In 1994, at the age of ten, he was selected to play the role of Jamie Armstrong in the ITV’s television series ‘Coronation Street’. He acted in over 100 episodes of the show till 1997 and thereafter took a break from acting on screen. He returned in 2004 with the ITV’s TV movie documentary 'The Kids from Coronation Street' in which he appeared as himself. He acted in an episode each of television series ‘Shameless’ (2005) and ‘Sorted’ (2006) as well as the TV movie ‘Big Dippers’ (2005). He was then cast in the role of the trouble-prone Eli Dingle in ITV’s long-running soap opera ‘Emmerdale Farm’. He first appeared on the show in 2006 and continued with it till 2010, for over 250 episodes. The year 2006 also saw him making his film debut in Shane Meadows's drama movie 'This Is England'. In this movie, he played the part of Richard James Woody Woodford. The movie was a critical and commercial success and made him a star. The film gave way to three miniseries – ‘This Is England '86’ (2010), ‘This Is England '88’ (2011) and ‘This Is England '90’ (2015). Joe Gilgun reprised his role in all three series.
In 2009, Joe Gilgun was seen in the role of the drug dealer Kenny Soames in Daniel Barber's vigilante action-thriller film ‘Harry Brown’. The film received mixed reviews from critics. The following year, he appeared as Joe in the short film ‘Top of the Range’. In his next film ‘Screwed’ (2011), he played the part of Karl. The same year, he joined the cast of Channel 4’s science fiction comedy-drama series ‘Misfits’ as Rudy Wade. His character replaced the role of Nathan Young that was played by Robert Sheehan in the show. Joe Gilgun first appeared in the online special titled ‘Vegas Baby!’ and thereafter played the role from 3rd to 5th series.
The next few years saw him acting in more movies like the James Mather and Steve Saint Leger directed sci-fi action thriller film ‘Lockout’ (2012, role: Hydell), Matthew Warchus directed historical comedy drama ‘Pride’ (2014, role: Mike Jackson), Breck Eisner directed fantasy action ‘The Last Witch Hunter’ (2015, role: Ellic) and Brad Furman directed biographical crime film ‘The Infiltrator’ (2016, role: Dominic). In addition, he acted in Alastair Gourlay directed short drama film ‘Tennis’ as well. On television, he acted in an episode each of ‘Ripper Street’ and ‘Coming Up’, both in 2013.
Following these, Joe Gilgun played the role of the alcoholic Irish vampire Proinsias Cassidy in AMC’s supernatural adventure television series ‘Preacher’. The series, based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s comic book series of the same name, aired for four seasons from 2016 to 2019 and received positive reviews from the critics. Gilgun acted in all the four series and even turned executive producer for half of the third series and the entire fourth series.
In 2019, Joe Gilgun created, executive produced and played the lead role of a disturbed man named Vincent Vinnie O'Neill in the comedy-drama television series ‘Brassic’. The series received positive feedback from critics with Gilgun earning praise for his performance as well. The show has aired four seasons till 2022 and the fifth season is expected to air in 2023.
