Alan Doyle
Alan Thomas Doyle (born May 17, 1969) is a Canadian musician and actor, best known as the lead singer of the Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea. Life and career. Alan Doyle was born and raised in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, in a Roman Catholic family. He attended Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. It is also there that he met Séan McCann, Bob Hallett and Darrell Power with whom he formed Great Big Sea. He primarily plays electric and acoustic guitars, and the bouzouki for  live performances, but he has been known to play mandolin and banjo. Before Great Big Sea, Doyle played in a duo with John Brenton called Staggering Home. As a teen he played in his uncle's band, the New Sandells. Doyle has also been involved with a handful of stage, television and film productions. As a child, he appeared as an extra in the movie "A Whale for the Killing", based on Farley Mowat's book of the same name, which was filmed in his hometown. He has also hosted regional arts awards shows in Atlantic Canada, appeared as a  presenter on the Juno Awards and done a turn onstage in his hometown's "24-Hour Musical" performance of "Grease". In 2005, he composed music for the CBC comedy "Hatching, Matching and Dispatching", which stars Mary Walsh. In 2006, he worked on scoring the film "Young Triffie's Been Made Away With", directed by Walsh. Doyle has also produced an album for his sister, Michelle Doyle. Doyle has been linked to Russell Crowe and his bands 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and The Ordinary Fear of God, having produced and co-written several songs on Crowe's album, "My Hand , My Heart", and played several shows with Crowe. In 2011, they released "The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol.III" with 9 songs in both acoustic demo and finished format, for 18 tracks total. This friendship also led to Doyle's casting as Allan A'Dayle alongside Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Durand, and Scott Grimes in Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood", released May 14, 2010. He played Dingy in the film "Winter's Tale", also with Crowe and Durand, as well as Will Smith and Colin Farrell. He collaborated with "Law & Order" music composer Mike Post and wrote and performed a song named  Middle of Nowhere, written for the "" episode "Broad Channel". Doyle has guest starred on three episodes of the CBC Television series "Republic of Doyle" as the character Wolf Redmond. Season 2, episode 2 introduced him as an inmate sent to prison on charges of B&Es and a few robberies. Doyle guest starred with Russell Crowe, Kevin Durand, and Scott Grimes on the first show of "Republic of Doyle"s third season after the four had costarred on "Robin Hood". His third appearance – the second with Grimes – was on season 4, episode 6. He appeared in an episode of "Murdoch Mysteries"' tenth  season. In 2012, Doyle released his first solo album, "Boy on Bridge". The title is a nod to Doyle's credit as the "boy on bridge" in the movie "A Whale for the Killing", when he was a young boy. The first single from the album is "I've Seen a Little" and the album features collaborations with Canadian musicians Hawksley Workman, Jim Cuddy, Ron Hynes, and actor-musician Russell Crowe, among others. The video for the second single, "Testify", was nominated for a 2012 Juno. The creation of the album was captured by a film crew, resulting in a  documentary also named "Boy on Bridge" directed by Joel Stewart and John Vatcher. Doyle, with Great Big Sea, was featured on Canadian country artist, Dean Brody's 2012 album titled "Dirt", singing on the track "It's Friday". In 2014, Doyle released a book entitled "Where I Belong", about his youth growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador. Doyle's second solo album, entitled "So Let's Go", was released January 20, 2015. In 2017, he guest stars in a "Murdoch Mysteries" episode, "A Murdog Mystery". Doyle's third solo album "A Week at the Warehouse", was released on October 13 , 2017. His second book titled "A Newfoundlander in Canada: Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home", was released on October 17. On June 14, 2022 he will begin starring in a musical comedy called "Tell Tale Harbour" at the 2022 Charlottetown Festival. The story is based on the screenplay "La Grand Séduction" by Ken Scott that was made into the 2003 award winning film "Seducing Doctor Lewis". Doyle was co-writer of the production as well as co-writer of music and lyrics with Bob Foster. Also credited as one of the authors for a book of the musical with award -winning writer Edward Riche.