Aidan began his career at the Dublin Youth Theatre in the early 1980s, he soon moved to London where he continued to work in the theatre. In 1987 he got his first film role in the Dame Maggie Smith starring ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn’. At this time, Aidan was still credited as ‘Aidan Murphy’, however, as there was another actor of the same name registered with the Actors Guild, he soon had to change his name, taking his mother’s maiden name, Gillen.
Throughout the 1990s, Aidan continued working between the stage (in London and Dublin), TV and both feature length and short films. Although many of these roles were fairly small, some were in high profile projects, such as the hugely successful 1995 Irish film ‘Circle of Friends’.
Aidan’s big break came when he was cast in the controversial UK TV Series ‘Queer as Folk’. A joyful celebration of the gay scene in and around Canal Street in Manchester. Aidan plays the charismatic ‘Stuart Alan Jones’, a confident, arrogant gay man at the heart of the series’ love triangle. This role brought Aidan an award nomination for Best Actor at the 2000 British Academy Television awards. That same year Aidan won the Edinburgh International Film Festival Award for best British newcomer for his role as Frank in the film ‘The Low Down’. The first of three films Aidan made with director Jamie Thraves.
In 2003 Aidan starred in a Broadway production of the Harold Pinter play ‘The Caretaker’, for which he was nominate for several awards including a Tony Award for ‘Best Featured Actor in a play’. It was this role that led to Aidan being cast in the HBO series ‘The Wire’, in which he played Councillor/Mayor Tommy Carcetti. His performance was rewarded with an Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television.
Aidan starred in ‘The Wire’ between 2004 and 2008 after which he returned to working largely between TV and film, in 2010 he made ‘Treacle Jnr’ his second collaboration with James Thraves, again earning him an award, this time Best Actor at the Milan International Film Festival. TV roles Aidan played at this time include Gus in the one-off BBC TV drama ‘Freefall’ and Phil Hendrick in the two instalments of the SKY TV Series ‘Thorne’.
It was Aidan’s role in the Wire that brought him to the attention of the creators of the series for which he is currently most famous, that of Peter ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish in the hugely popular TV Series ‘Game of Thrones’. Aidan appeared in 7 seasons of the show between 2011 and 2017 and gained a legion of loyal fans.
Whilst working on Game of Thrones, Aidan was also involved in other projects, including the five-part BBC TV series ‘Mayday’, Irish film ‘Calvary’, a music video for the Icelandic band Ekki Mukk and the motion capture video game ‘Quantum Break’. Aidan continued to pick up awards with a second Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television for his role and John Boy Power in the acclaimed Irish drama Love/Hate.
A third collaboration with Jamie Thraves came in 2017 with the comedy film ‘Pickups’ which sadly, remains unreleased. The same year Aidan joined the cast of the award-winning BBC TV series ‘Peaky Blinders’ playing the role of Aberama Gold, in season 4 and 5 of the series. The following year he played John Ried, manager of the rock band Queen, in the biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Returning to television Aidan stared as Dr J Allen Hynek in the History channel’s ‘Project Blue Book’, a series which is loosely based on real life investigations into UFO and alien phenomenon. Despite the show picking up a dedicated fan base, in May 2019 after just two seasons, the show was cancelled. A campaign to save the show was set up and there is still hope it may be picked up by another network/channel.
At the beginning of 2020 Aidan starred in acclaimed Irish film ‘Rose Plays Julie’ a dark, psychological thriller telling the story of a young girl looking to connect with her birth mother. After a March premier in Dublin, the corona virus pandemic prevented the film from being shown in cinemas, however it was screened at various ‘virtual’ film festivals around the world, eventually being release in the US in March 2021 a year after its premier.
Aidan carried on working throughout the COVID pandemic, filming the critically aclaimed Irish TV drama ‘Kin’ in which is plays the head of a Dublin gangland family, filming on the second season is due to start this summer. In late 2021 Aidan finally returned to the stage in Dublin starring as Frank Hardy in a production of irish playwrite Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer'.