Stars of Tomorrow 2025: Peter Claffey (actor)

A former Ireland under-20s rugby player, Galway native Peter Claffey hung up his boots in 2019 and turned to acting, making screen and stage debuts in 2022. Now he is set to compete again, this time on the tourney ground, in the title role of HBO’s Game Of Thrones spinoff A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.

“It was the first time in my career where there [was a production] revolving around me, and there’s 700 people on set,” he says. The responsibility carried a heavy burden, but a conversation with Oscar Kennedy, a former fellow castmate on BBC series Wreck, provided him with resolve, as did lessons learned from sport: “Discipline, work ethic and leadership all correlate massively back into the world that I’m in now.”

Although playing for laughs is not the “sort of thing you can do when you’re a knight in Westeros”, Claffey describes his ideal film as a “nightmare comedy”, citing Ari Aster and Robert Eggers as current filmmakers who “have me screaming with laughter one minute, but also borderline in tears”.

Previous screen roles for Claffey include Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters and indie feature Small Things Like These, and he is keen to return to the stage after a stint in Dublin theatre with A Whistle In The Dark in 2022. “I’d love to go over to the West End,” he says. “I have a dream of doing something on Broadway.”

Having already redefined himself once, Claffey is keen to keep all his options open and pursue as many avenues as possible. “I have a feeling, whether it be scientific or whether it be spiritual, that there is a set path and this was always meant to happen.”

Contact: Morris Epstein, Ami Cash, Lisa Richards Agency (UK and Ireland)

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