John Connors (actor)

Connors was born in 1990 in Kings Cross, London, United Kingdom to an Irish traveller family, but moved to Ireland with his family when he was 11 months old. His father suffered from depression and schizophrenia, and took his own life when Connors was eight years old.[2] Connors took up acting when he was 20 years old after being persuaded by his younger brother Joseph in a bid to help him with his own battle with depression. Connors began boxing at a young age because he was experiencing bullying. He is a former three-time Irish boxing champion and a four nations boxing gold medalist and was picked by the Herald newspaper for their ‘Future Star’ segment at fifteen years old.

Connors has spoken out about Travellers rights and against racism and depression, appearing a number of times on The Late Late Show(RTÉ). His first appearance on the late late caused controversy. Connors was promoting his documentary "I am Traveller". When talking about the bigotry and hardship Travellers experience day to day in Ireland the host Ryan Turbidy asked "Do you not think you're sounding a bit like a victim" to which Connors replied "See Ryan you and me live in different worlds. My world has shaped me in such a way that I have the ability look past stereotypes, question popular opinion, think for myself and have empathy for people who have it hard or are experiencing injustice. You live in a comfortable bubble. Enjoy it." RTE were flooded with complaints as to how the host conducted the interview. The interview and the documentary created a national conversation about discrimination against Travellers.

In 2017 he was named in the fifty incredible people who are shaping Ireland by the Irish independent and he was also named as one of the twenty, twenty something's that could influence Ireland and the world by the Irish times.

He appeared on an episode of the series Livin' with Lucy (Virgin Media) with Lucy Kennedy, in 2019. Connors won the 2018 IFTA for best actor for his performance in the film Cardboard Gangsters in which Connors also wrote. In his victory speech, Connors criticized the Irish filmboard for not supporting the film before he talked about his battle with mental health and how acting saved his life. He dedicated the award to his late father. The speech went viral gaining millions of hits online. Three months later his documentary series John Connors:The Travellers won the 2018 IFTA for best documentary series. In the documentary Connors called on the Irish government to formally recognize Travellers as a distinct Irish indigenous ethnic minority which did eventually happen later that year. In his speech he criticized successive Irish governments for assimilation policy's and institutionized discrimination against Irish Travellers. He also accused the dun laoghaire rathdown county council of murder through negligence of the eleven members of the Connors and Lynch Traveller family's from Carrickmines fire tragedy in which eleven people were burned alive in October of 2015. The speech was cut down to an eighth second clip for the television broadcast and took week's to appear online. No major media outlet picked it up. Connors accused the broadcaster and the Irish media of censorship and covering up. Connors's directorial feature documentary debut "Endless sunshine on a cloudy day" won the much coveted audience award at the Dublin international film festival 2020.