Rhys Coiro

John Rhys Coiro (born March 12, 1979) is an American film, television and stage actor who got his start on Broadway but is best known for his on-screen roles such as Billy Walsh on Entourage.

Rhys Coiro
Born	John Rhys Coiro (1979-03-12) March 12, 1979[1] Santo Stefano in Aspromonte, Italy
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003–present
Spouse(s)	Kat Coiro
Children	3

Early life

Born in Santo Stefano in Aspromonte Calabria, Italy, to David Coiro and Ann Baynes Coiro,[2] Coiro grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and attended Princeton High School.[3] As a teenager, Coiro began working for a local artist[4] who introduced him to the artistic director of The Passage Theater, June Ballinger.[5] Ballinger got him involved with the State Street theater project in Trenton NJ, modeled after Primary stages' 52nd street project. From there, Coiro spent summers building sets and operating lights at the New Jersey Shakespeare festival. Inspired by numerous productions, including Julie Taymor's "Titus Andronicus" at TFANA, Coiro decided to study theater at Carnegie Mellon University, where he eventually graduated with a BFA.[6] He also spent time studying at The Moscow Art Theater in Russia.[7]

Career

At age 19, Coiro got his first professional gig as an understudy to three roles in the American premiere of Conor McPherson's off-Broadway play This Lime Tree Bower directed by Harris Yulin at Primary Stages.[8] Within a month of graduating from CMU, Coiro landed the role of Eddie the Bellhop in the Lincoln Center revival of George S. Kauffman's Dinner at Eight, directed by Gerald Guitierrez.[9]

Coiro then moved to Los Angeles and began working in construction, including a stint building a house with Nick Offerman. In fact, Coiro received the call that he'd landed his first on-screen acting gig, as Billy Walsh on Entourage, while digging a hole for a deck in Echo Park.[10] The role of Walsh was originally meant to be a guest star but soon evolved into an iconic character that has defined Coiro's career.

Coiro shared a studio space in Historic Filipino town with then-unknown painter Jonas Wood. During this period, Coiro formed an underground, traditional Irish music band with artists Matt Johnson and Greg Santos, that played around East LA. In 2007, following the birth of his first child, Coiro accepted the role of Sean Hillinger on the 7th season of 24. Coiro was cast in The Last House On The Left but had to pull out when the writer's strike abruptly ended and production resumed on 24. The role ended up being given to Aaron Paul. In 2009 Coiro returned to the stage, starring in a production of Howard Korder's "Boy's Life" at Second Stage in New York opposite Jason Biggs.[11] In 2010 Coiro starred in Slamdance[12] Winner Snow and Ashes and in 2011 appeared alongside Alexander Skarsard in Screen Gems' remake of Straw Dogs. In 2014, Coiro was antagonist to Stevie Van Zandt's character on the final season of Netflix's first original series, the Norwegian mega-hit Lillyhammer[13] and he played one of the original Texas Rangers in The History Channel's Mini-series Texas Rising, alongside Ray Liotta, Bill Paxton and Brendan Fraser.[14] During this show he honed his riding and roping skills. In 2015 Coiro played Armenian gangster Ari Adamian on the final season of USA's Graceland.[15]. In 2017 and 2018 Coiro appeared as a series regular in Unsolved and in arcs on Ray Donovan, The Walking Dead, and S.W.A.T.

Personal life

Coiro is fluent in Italian and Spanish.

In 2016, Coiro traveled to Standing Rock, North Dakota to take part in the peaceful protest against the North Dakota Access Pipeline.[16]

Coiro is married to director Kat Coiro.[17] They live in Los Angeles with their three children.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Making Revolution	Italian Activist
2007	Look	Ace
	Mama's Boy	Trip
2009	The Unborn	Mr. Shields
	Kidnapping Caitlynn	Daniel
	Man Without a Head	Dino
2010	Snow & Ashes	Blaise
	30 Days of Night: Dark Days	Paul
	Life Happens	Marc
	Order of Chaos	John
	MacGruber	Yerik Novikov
2011	Straw Dogs	Norman
	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Marcus
2012	Life Happens	Marc
2013	As Cool as I Am	Ron
2014	4 Minute Mile	Eli
	This Last Lonely Place	Sam Taylor
2015	Entourage	Billy Walsh
2017	Valley of Bones	Nate
2018	Gotti	Rudy Pipes
2019	Finding Steve McQueen	Ray Darrow
	Hustlers	Spencer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	One on One	Zorbo Vishanisavik	Guest star
2004–2011	Entourage	Billy Walsh	Recurring character
2005	CSI: NY	Razor	Guest star
	CSI: Miami	Diablo	Guest star
	Six Feet Under	Wolf	Guest star
2006	Ugly Betty	Vincent Bianchi	2 episodes: "Queens for a Day" "Fey's Sleigh Ride"
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Reverend's Lawyer	Guest star
	Tell Me You Love Me	Jaime's Rebound	2 episode guest star
	Raines	Eddie	Guest star
	Criminal Minds	Ethan	Guest star
	Numb3rs	Ricky Jones	Guest star
2009	24	FBI Agent Sean Hillinger	Regular character
2010	Burn Notice	Vince Cutler	Guest star
	Dark Blue	Victor	Guest star
	Hawaii Five-0	Bradford Matinsky	Guest star
2011	A Gifted Man	Dr. Zeke Barnes	Recurring character
2012	Person of Interest	Jordan Hester	Guest star
2013	Longmire	Bill Norquist	Guest star
	Hostages	Kramer Delaney	Main cast
	Dexter	Andrew Briggs[18]	Guest star
2014	Lilyhammer	Tommy	Recurring character
2015	Graceland	Ari Adamian	Recurring character
2017	The Mick	Ip deLuca	Guest star
	Ray Donovan	Rob Heard	Recurring character
2018	Sideswiped	Charlie	Recurring character
	The Walking Dead	Jed	Recurring character
	Unsolved	Jim Black	Recurring character
2019	I Think You Should Leave	Billy	1 episode (“The Bones Are Their Money”)
2020	Paradise City	Adam	Upcoming television series; TV spinoff of American Satan

References

1. Rose, Mike (12 March 2019). "Today's top celebrity birthdays list for March 12, 2019". cleveland. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
2. Baynes, Coiro, Ann. "Coiro, Ann Baynes". english.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
3. "A conversation with Rhys Coiro". NJ.com. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
4. "Karen McLean - Artist | Photographer | 609.466.3475". www.karenmclean.com. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
5. "June Ballinger". Passage Theatre. 2015-01-06. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
6. (CMU), Carnegie Mellon University. "People's Choice - Carnegie Mellon University | CMU". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
7. "Moscow Art Theater School | A.R.T. - American Repertory Theater". americanrepertorytheater.org. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
8. "Theater Review A staging of 'Lime Tree Bower' that speaks for itself — Irish Echo". irishecho.com. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
9. Sommer, CurtainUp, Elyse. "Dinner at Eight, a CurtainUp review". www.curtainup.com. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
10. "Home". Bad 4 Business Podcast. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
11. "Second Stage's Boys' Life, with Biggs, Coiro and Scanavino, Opens Off-Broadway Oct. 20 | Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
12. "'Snow and Ashes,' 'American Jihadist': Slamdance Winners". Alt Film Guide. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
13. ""Entourage"-stjerne klar for "Lilyhammer"". VG. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
14. Team, The Deadline (2014-04-18). "Rhys Coiro & Joe Egender Join History's 'Texas Rising'". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
15. "Ari Adamian (Character)". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
16. "Entourage and Graceland Star Rhys Coiro Makes Impromptu Visit to Standing Rock - Indian Country Media Network". Indian Country Media Network. 2016-12-03. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
17. "Rhys Coiro and Kat Coiro Photos Photos: LA Film Fest Premiere of "Life Happens" - Red Carpet". Zimbio. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
18. West, Kelly (June 6, 2013). "Dexter Photos Offer New Clues For Season 8". Cinema Blend. Retrieved June 21, 2013.