Aidan Turner

Aidan Turner is an Irish actor who portrayed Leonardo da Vinci.

Biography and Career
Aidan Turner was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. After graduating from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004, Aidan appeared in a number of stage productions, many with Ireland's national theatre, The Abbey. Such productions included The Plough & The Stars, Romeo & Juliet and A Cry from Heaven. In 2008, Turner made the transition to movies and television with a lead role in the film Alarm and a co-starring role in the popular Irish TV drama The Clinic. In 2009, Turner moved to the UK to take on a starring role in BBC's acclaimed Being Human. Aidan played the spellbinding "Mitchell" for 3 seasons during which time he also starred in BBC's Desperate Romantics and BBC's top rated TV movie Hattie. In 2011, famed director Peter Jackson cast Turner in the role of Kili in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. The highly successful movie trilogy filmed for approximately two years in New Zealand during which time Aidan also starred in Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments.

In 2014 Turner was cast as Poldark in the BBC remake. Aidan was the only actor considered for this charismatic hero. Poldark premiered to excellent rating in the UK in March 2015 and also in the USA in June 2015. The BBC series also aired across Europe and Australia and returned for a second series, aired during 2016.

In 2015 Aidan took on a small role in The Secret Scripture so he could work with one of his favorite directors, Jim Sheridan. He also voiced a role in the first painted animation movie, Loving Vincent, co-starred in the dark comedy, Look Away and starred in the BBC mini series, And Then There Were None.

A third series of the hugely popular Poldark aired in the spring and summer of 2017. Aidan began filming Series three of Poldark in September 2016, beginning with location work with other cast members in Cornwall. The cast was filming at the same time as the second series was being shown on BBC1.

Filming for the third series continued until March 2017, with indoor shooting taking place at Bottleyard studios in Bristol, and aired later the same year.

Aidan Turner was on the jury at the Odessa International Film Festival 2017 in July 2017. He played the young Calvin Barr in a film entitled 'The Man who shot Hitler and then the Bigfoot' which was filmed in August 2017. He returned to the role of Ross Poldark when filming commenced September 2017 for the fourth series of Poldark with shooting taking place on location in Cornwall as well as in the studios at Bottleyard in Bristol. Filming for Poldark 4 is set to continue until early 2018.