If we dive into that, Sheehan's career started in 2003. In that year he appeared in a number of (short) films. He followed this up a year later with his first acting job in a series. Foreign Exchange, a supernatural series about an Irish girl who accidentally discovers a portal to the other side of the world - Perth, Australia - in a basement. Sheehan plays the recurring supporting role of Cormac MacNamara.
His next role follows another year later. He plays King Louis XIV in Young Blades in the series based on the book The Three Musketeers. from Dumas. In the years that followed we also saw him in guest roles in The Clinic and Bel's Boys.
It was now 2008 when Sheehan was also asked for a guest role in the immensely popular The Tudors. While he's doing that, he's also starring in the very mediocre drama series Rock Rivals. This series is about two famous judges in a show that is very similar to the X Factor. The series follows them as their marriage collapses, which can of course only lead to misery with such a job.
The British series Misfits started in 2009. This supernatural series features Sheehan in a regular role and is his first real brush with the genre. In Misfits, a group of young people, who are carrying out punishment for all kinds of different crimes they have committed, are caught in a storm. After the storm passes, it turns out that they all develop some kind of supernatural power. Sheehan plays Nathan Young, who turns out to be immortal after the storm; Talking about a superpower.
While Sheehan becomes a crowd favorite in Misfits, we also see him once in the series Coming Up. He also regularly appears in films. Worth mentioning - although not immediately good - is Season of the Witch. However, as his popularity grew, Sheehan managed to score better roles after Misfits. He can be seen in Accused and Me and Mrs Jones and he also plays in the film The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
He also managed to land a recurring role on Love/Hate. A real, gritty British crime series that shows the possible underworld of Dublin in all its rawness. Although things are temporarily quieter on the series front after Love/Hate, Sheehan is anything but that. He appeared in several films on the big screen, until 2017 when he managed to tempt him again with a role on the small screen. Fortitude, a mysterious Amazon original, manages to snare him for a recurring role.
The brilliant Genius follows, after which Sheehan can also be seen and/or heard in The Young Offenders, Trailer Park Boys: Park After Dark and Robot Chicken. Many other projects come to a standstill when he finally starts on the next large-scale project in 2019. At that point, Netflix decided that the superhero genre could also be viewed from a different angle and focused on The Umbrella Academy. Sheehan plays the role of Klaus Hargreeves, or 'Number 4'. Sheehan's Klaus is heavily addicted to drugs, flamboyant, not completely mentally healthy and that is packaged in a funny and at the same time melancholy body. And oh, he can also talk to the dead and temporarily make them tangible again. That's handy, with a brother who's stuck around as a ghost (Number 6, played by Justin H. Min). Sheehan also plays his role as an antagonist, given that time is a rather fluid concept and there must be an opponent to fight against in a season.
The Umbrella Academy is about to start again with a fourth season. It promises to be a last crazy adventure, and at the same time we hope that it can be a nice ending to the story. The Umbrella Academy is at the end of its shelf life, how strong characters - in addition to Sheehan's - by, among others, Tom Hopper and Elliot Page are dropped. If you want more Sheehan before then, you can still try The Last Bus, but know that it has not been received too well by the audience.
Plenty to enjoy ahead. And with the downpours this summer, we can only say: grab that umbrella!
Are you a fan? Look here for more (guest) roles played by Robert Sheehan.
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