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Colm Meaney is the kind of actor who can easily lose himself in the role of an "Everyman", a hardnosed government agent or a psychotic madman with equal ease. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland with his three brothers and raised by strict Roman Catholic parents, he entered the Abbey Theatre School of Acting after secondary school at the age of 14. After he graduated, he toured England for 8 years as a member of the Irish National Theatre. In the late 70s, while working with the Focus Company in Dublin, Colm worked alongside other up and coming actors like Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea. It was also during this time that he met Bairbre Dowling, who became his wife in 1977.





In the year following his marriage, he made his first television appearance in "Z-Cars" on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. He found that he had a liking for it and sought out more television work. In 1982, he and his wife moved to New York. At first, he continued to do stage work, but he slowly transitioned himself from a stage actor to a television actor. He made several guest appearances on shows like "Remington Steele", "Moonlighting" and "Tales from the Darkside" and had a brief run as Patrick London on the soap opera "One Life To Live" in 1987. When Colm was hired to play an unnamed "Bridge Officer" on the pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", he figured he'd cast as an extra every now and then, but didn't hold much stock in the idea of this being a regular gig. The fans had other ideas. After making a few appearances during the first season in various unnamed roles (the guy in the red shirt), a modest letter writing campaign began asking the writers to give this "guy in the red shirt" some lines. The producers responded and Colm was given lines like "Yes, sir" and "Right away, sir". After a few more episodes and an expanding letter writing campaign, Colm's character was given a name (Chief Miles Edward O'Brien) and a responsibility (Transporter Chief). As the second season developed, his character began to have more and more screen time and by the third, he had become the central character in several episodes. By the sixth season, we had seen his character get married, have a daughter, fight in life or death battles, save his ship through his creativity and bravery and finally be promoted to Chief of Operations on Paramount's newest Star Trek incarnation, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". Not bad for someone who started of as "the guy in the red shirt".





Colm continue to play Chief Miles O'Brien for seven years on "Deep Space Nine". He was always referred to by the writers as "the guy we love to beat on". No character on the show had gone through more hardships and trials as Miles did. This was a testament to Colm's ability to portray himself as an everyman. He was playing a guy just trying to do his job and cope with what the day throws at him. The command officers made the life and death decisions upon which empires would rise and fall; he would try to the turbo lifts working.





During his summer hiatuses from Star Trek, he would get involved in film projects which came his way. They started out as smaller roles such as a cop in "Dick Tracy" or a pilot in "Die Hard 2" and later grew to supporting roles like Major Ambrose in "The Last of the Mohicans" and Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. in "The Commitments". With his recognizability on the rise, he was offered leading roles in films like "The Snapper" and supporting roles in major Hollywood films like "Under Siege" and "Con Air".





In 1994, his marriage to Bairbre Dowling ended in divorce. In the years that followed, as his acting career continued to flourish, he met and began to date Ines Glorian. The two were married on March 15 2007 and live happily in Ireland. Colm will still come to the United States to work, but his family life will always be in the land where he was born.