Chris’ acting career takes off with accolades

Chris’ acting career takes off with accolades

5 September 2012

CHRIS Heath is hitting his thirties feeling he’s finally doing what he should be doing.

The 29 year-old from Crossgar doesn’t call himself an aspiring actor anymore. As soon as he called himself an actor, he says, that’s when the work really started coming in.

He still has to work nights as a healthcare assistant at Knockbracken Healthcare Park to help pay the bills, but he now combines this with the day job he loves as an actor, and gaining accolades from some of the best in the business.

And while he can’t talk about some upcoming projects yet to be finalised, it is fair to say that several major broadcasters are interested in his talents.

“I’ve had the most amazing last few years that has involved me performing stand up at Ricky Tomlinson’s comedy venue in Liverpool, being invited back, meeting Al Pacino, and having my work praised by Hollywood actor Matthew Modine, star of Full Metal jacket and Dark Knight Rises,” said Chris.

A former St. Patrick’s Grammar School pupil, Chris also studied Media at the East Down Institute in Downpatrick and was named Media Student of the Year. “Four years ago I said to myself, ‘What am I doing with my life?’ I need to be doing something I really want to do.”

Attending a comedy improvisation class at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast was the catalyst, leading Chris to set up The Comedy Communards with friends. He then went on to create the popular show The World of Psychic Medium Tony Sinclair

and Friends, and a character he describes as being cross between Derek Acorah and Jim Morrison.

“It was a two to three hour improvisation show,” he said. “It was good fun and it sold out The Black Box in Belfast.”

Internet clips of Chris’s take on psychic mediums then brought him to the attention of the Ricky Tomlinson Comedy Club, one of the biggest of its kind in the UK and Ireland.

“They really liked it and they wanted me to come back,” he said.

Other projects followed such as directing the short film Looking For Al.

At just 15 minutes, this comedy short follows a group of young film fans as they travel from Belfast to Dublin in hope of tracking down and meeting legendary method actor, Al Pacino, who is in town for a screening of his Oscar Wilde based docudrama, Wilde Salomé. Chris was also involved in the Nuts and Robbers short film, which came second in the Devour Short Film Festival.

“My performance of Kipling’s If has opened me to a lot of great opportunities,” he continued, explaining his performance of the famous poem was posted online. “It was filmed by award winning cinematographer Ronnie McQuillan and I sent it to Matthew Madine, who said he really, really liked it.”

One of the series he can talk about is Coast, which has been filmed as a TV horror pilot, and in which he plays one of the leads.

“I play the comedy character to provide a bit of light relief,” said Chris. “It’s set in Whitehead and it’s about these five people who work in an office and decide to all leave their mobile phones at home and go up the coast. However, a stranger is following them.

“The final murder scene at the end is quite gruesome. It premiered in the Odeon at Victoria Square. There were 300 to 400 people there. It was really good for all of us. It is the biggest thing I have ever done.”

Chris thinks his former schoolmates at St. Patrick’s would be surprised to hear what he is doing, considering he was always quite shy at school.

“I recently worked as football coach at the IFA and that gave me the confidence to do this,” he said. “I can’t believe how fast it has all happened.

“Once I said my life is going nowhere, I started to change it. I would say to anybody, I believe that if you really want to do something you can do it. If you have the desire to do something you really can.”

Chris is currently shooting the Marty Stalker film To Lose Control, which is about a soldier who comes back from Afghanistan with Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It also stars Maggie Cronin from The Shore.