Oakes actor Danny Kirrane goes from Examiner small ads to Visa World Cup ads - watch here

Dec 10 2010 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT all began when Danny Kirrane’s grandma spotted an advert in the Examiner.

Unbeknown to the Oakes teenager, his gran was to go and do something that would change his life completely.

The pensioner entered her grandson into the National Youth Theatre auditions.

And ever since the former Greenhead College student bagged a spot with the theatre group, he’s never looked back.

Danny, now 26, has played parts in hit TV shows The Inbetweeners, Skins, Casualty, Doctors, Hustle and Trinity.

But he is most famous for the Visa World Cup 2010 advert ‘football evolution’ in which he plays an average Joe who gets up off the sofa, runs all the way to South Africa and scores the perfect goal for England.

Danny told the Examiner his next stop is New York. He and the rest of the cast of sell-out show Jerusalem are performing on Broadway.

The former Salendine Nook High School pupil said: “It all started when my gran saw the advert in the Examiner.

“At that time I was at college and it completely changed my life.

“I was going to go on to become a physics teacher – not that there’s anything wrong with being a physics teacher.

“But I never thought I would become an actor.”

Danny, who has two sisters – Megan and Louise – had only ever acted in a couple of Greenhead College productions.

“When my gran told me about the auditions I didn’t want to go,’’ he said. “I was so nervous about it but it turned out to be the best decision I ever made.

“The NYT gave me the confidence to open up as an actor and taught me to work with other people.

“It didn’t matter where or from what background I was from.”