Gavin Drea

Gavin Drea was born in Dublin. He attended Gonzaga College. He graduated from University College Dublin in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts with majors in English and film studies.

Drea made his television debut a 2010 episode of the TV3 series Jack Taylor. In 2011, he joined the cast of the RTÉ One drama Love/Hate for its second season as Luke. The following year, he made his feature film debut in Lenny Abrahamson's What Richard Did. Drea was cast in the Druid Theatre Company production of A Whistle in the Dark, which was staged in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For his performance as Des, Drea was nominated for the Irish Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor.

This was followed in 2014 by roles in Philadelphia, Here I Come! at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and Breaking Dad at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. That same year, Drea founded the comedy collective Dreamgun with Stephen Colfer, Heber Hanly and James McDonnell, through which they had a comedy show and podcast titled Dreamgun Film Reads.

Drea returned to television when he appeared in the 2016 History Channel docudrama Barbarians Rising. In 2017, he played Barney Quinn in the BBC Northern Ireland drama My Mother and Other Strangers and appeared in the space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The following year, he played Laertes in Hamlet at the Gate Theatre. He would go on to reprise the role at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. He also starred in the Irish film We Ourselves.

Drea portrayed Michael Collins in the 2019 RTÉ miniseries Resistance, taking over the role from Sebastian Thommen, who had portrayed Collins in Rebellion back in 2016. Also in 2019, Drea appeared in Blood Wedding at the Young Vic in London. He had small film roles in Sweetness in the Belly and My Salinger Year.

In 2022, Drea starred as Stefan opposite Rosa Salazar in the series Wedding Season, made for the Star platform on Disney+. Drea performed his own wire stunt for the series. He also had recurring roles in the Netflix series Vikings: Valhalla as Eadric Streona and the Amazon Prime Video miniseries adaptation of Daisy Jones & the Six as Nicky Fitzgerald, Daisy's (Riley Keogh) antagonistic husband.