Birthdate: Dec 20, 1969
Birthplace: New York City, New York, USA
Brian O’Halloran (birthname: Brian Christopher O’Halloran) is a comic actor best known as playing Dante Hicks in writer-director Kevin Smith’s Clerks movie franchise and Smith’s extended View Askewniverse, including his debut in Clerks (1994), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Clerks II (2006), Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), and Clerks III (2022).
O’Halloran has also played Dante’s brothers in various View Askewniverse movies, including Gill Hicks in Smith’s second feature, Mallrats (1995), with Shannen Doherty, Jason Lee, Claire Forlani, Ben Affleck, and Michael Rooker; as Jim Hicks (identified as Exec #1) in Smith’s third feature, Chasing Amy (1997), with Joey Lauren Adams, Affleck, Lee, and Jason Mewes; as Grant Hicks in Smith’s next film, Dogma (1999), with Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Lee, Bud Cort, Mewes, Alan Rickman, and Chris Rock; and again as Grant (as well as Dante) in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, with Mewes, Smith, Lee, Adams, and Shannon Elizabeth.
In a further angle inside the world of Clerks, O’Halloran portrayed the character of Elis in a comedy-drama about the making of the original Clerks, titled Shooting Clerks (2016), which blended mostly unknown actors portraying real-life figures (such as Smith) and the actual Clerks actors appearing in cameo roles.
Brian O’Halloran was also a part of the wider View Askewniverse beyond movies directed by Kevin Smith, including writer-director Bryan Johnson’s black comedy, Vulgar (2000), with Johnson and Ethan Suplee; as well as Jason Mews’ directorial debut, Madness in the Method (2019), starring Mewes, Vinny Jones, Smith, and Danny Trejo, a movie that wasn’t officially a part of the View Askewniverse, but affiliated with it. O’Halloran’s first studio movie was M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening (2008), starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, and Betty Buckley.
Born in Manhattan, Brian O’Halloran was raised by his Irish-born parents who then moved to Old Bridge Township, New Jersey when O’Halloran was thirteen years old. He has two older brothers. Hoping to be an automotive engineer like his father, O’Halloran changed his career direction to acting after his father died when he was 15 years old. He and his brothers were then raised by their mother, Evelyn O’Halloran. At Cedar Ridge High School, O’Halloran began to study theater, which he continued in university. O’Halloran’s height is 5’ 10”.
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First Generation: Brian O’Halloran is a first-generation American since his parents were both born in Ireland.
Theater Man: O’Halloran spends most of his acting time on stage in his home state of New Jersey, mainly with the New Jersey Repertory Company, Tri-State Actors Theatre, and Boomerang Theatre Company.
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