Date of Birth – August 6, 1972
Born and Raised – Eastern coast of Ireland / Dublin
Height – 6' 0''
Eyes – Blue
Hair – Brown
The Wedding
Spouse: Jean Paige Turco
Date: September 19, 2003
They have a one–year–old son. The family divide their time between New York and Los Angeles, and make frequent trips to Ireland. (Information added 7/12/05)
boyhood cub–scout training
...desperately trying to remember...for MOTG role in Highlands
From the outset, it looks like he had it easy. ...but his childhood was not all roses. His father was an entrepreneur: sometimes they had money, sometimes they were broke. Did this insecure background encourage him to risk becoming an actor?
Yes, but there were also the hardships to remember. At one point in the Eighties we couldn't afford to put coal on the fire. We were living in this big house [and] we'd be huddled around the Superser gas heater eating beans on toast three days running.
Regarding his accent, Jason says:
My accent is South County Dublin. It's a soft but urban accent that gets stronger when I'm at home (obviously!). It would be considered posh by Dubliners from the North Side or inner city areas but that's because my parents sent me to good schools.
St. Michael's College
rugby star
I did a school play when I was 15. It was "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare. I didn't have a huge role; but, I remember the shot of adrenaline as I walked on stage ... The wonderful terror the first time I made the audience laugh and the high as I came off stage. It took three years to realize it; but, the three–night run of that play had left me with "The Acting Bug" and I couldn't shake it - even if I had tried. In fact, I did try. I wanted to be a doctor or a marine biologist when I left school, not an actor!
http://www.abcmedianet.com - this information added 7/12/05 (link no longer active)
Accomplished actor Jason O'Mara never planned on acting as a profession. Growing up in Ireland, O'Mara was an avid rugby player and insists that he 'wasn't the theatre type' until he suffered a sports injury and was sidelined for several weeks. While recovering, he tried out for the school play and won a part. The thrill of opening night sealed his fate. His former passion for sports transferred to acting...
Trinity College Dublin
1991 through June, 1995
4-year academic degree
BA Hons in Drama and Theatre Studies
...at the last minute I put Drama & Theatre Studies on my college form and wound up doing a four–year academic degree at Trinity College Dublin. The best four years of my life.Jason studied drama at Trinity, but signed up for the academic course, not the acting degree.
I was in denial that I wanted to be an actor. I think I was kind of dreading the fact that I would have to live like an actor, with the hardship, and looking for work. I was hoping that something would make me change my mind over the four years, and it didn't; instead I got more involved in acting and more interested in it.
Samuel Beckett Centre of Performing Arts, Trinity College
Although, I didn't train to be an actor, as such; I gained a lot of experience acting with the drama society. Over 25 plays while I was there...
At age 19, at the end of his first year at TCD, Jason wrote this critical letter to editor of The Irish Times regarding a performance of Equus:
June, 13, 1992, City Edition, The Irish Times
Editorial Page, Letters To The Editor
Sir, - I am glad of Dr. David Nowlan's realisation that the play, "Equus," by Peter Shaffer, at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, contains "tricks and catches." It is truly observant of him to realise that it is not a diagnosis of "illness, religion, passion and sex," even though it has taken 20 years and "several different productions to come to this conclusion. Perhaps someone should have told him a long time ago that he was in a theatre and not a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, as the latter is a more reliable source of truth, regarding "illness, religion, etc....." with-out "allusion."
I am sure that last Monday night's audience was flattered when referred to as being "hell-bent on a good night out." Surely they realised that the Gaiety Pantomine is not for a while.
"The real human content" that Dr. Nowlan seems to require on a theatre outing must be of great importance as expressly without it he becomes vulgar and unintelligible. "A relatively small mound of horse-shit" is a topical witticism but of little informative value. Surely the prime objective of a paper, such as The Irish Times, is to inform? - Yours, etc.,
Jason O'MaraInteresting side note:
The same Dr. David Nowlan that received Jason's criticism regarding Equus in June, 1992 (above), reviewed Jason's first professional play, The Man Who Became A Legend, at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, three years later in May, 1995.
Overall, the review was harder on the author than the cast, set, and choreography.
Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin
Sources:
Jasonomara.com – Tara's Q & A
http://www.abcmedianet.com/shows03/primetime/injustice/omara.shtml
The Express, April 20, 2001
Sunday Independent online newspaper (Irish Independent), June 24, 2001
Monarch Of The Glen download
The Irish Times online
http://web.lexis.com