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Kristian Nairn

Kristian Nairn44 posts

Kristian Nairn is a DJ and actor born in 1975 in Lisburn, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. He is best known for his role of Hodor on the HBO series Game Of Thrones. He headlines the Rave of Thrones dance music events with tour dates in Australia and the U.S., and has been a longtime resident DJ at Belfast gay club Kremlin, as well as DJing at many other events including supporting Mylo, Scissor Sisters and Calvin Harris. He is a dedicated World of Warcraft player and has appeared in the Channel 4 show The Salon and the BBC series Ripper Street.

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17 Apr, 2011

Cast as Hodor

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Nairn confirms he is cast for the part of Hodor on the upcoming season of Game of Thrones.

2002

Kremlin DJ residency

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Nairn spins at Belfast gay club Kremlin in a 12-year residency. After studying DJing at music school, he starts out working at Kremlin and fills in for a DJ who calls in sick, carrying his CDs to the club in a toolbox. He currently guests on Saturdays and Sundays in the club’s Red Square room when his Game of Thrones filming schedule allows.

I’m very much a house purist. Everyone’s all about deep house these days, but I’ve loved deep house for 15 years. House is a very big, broad [classification] – from EDM, progressive house, right down to broken beats, really commercial stuff. I don’t see why you can’t play a bit of everything in your set. My sets very much pan across house, but they very much work together – it’ll go from piano house to EDM, to deep house, to everything, really.

1988

Gay identity

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Nairn’s mother is aware of his gay identity from a young age:

When I was 13 my mum knew that I was gay and she just always knew. I used to play Wonder Woman with her when I was a kid and I was always Wonder Woman. I always stopped short of the outfit, thank God.

25 Nov, 1975

Kristian Nairn born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland

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Kristian Nairn is born at Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He is raised an only child by his mother Patricia. He spends most of his childhood growing up on a farm near Lisburn. He has childhood hearing difficulties:

I was partially deaf when I was a child, and often in school, before I was fixed, I had to read context and emotions from people’s faces and body language.

Growing up during the Irish Troubles helps him develop humor:

It doesn’t shock me, I grew up in Northern Ireland, Belfast…I’ve seen some really shocking things in my life. There was a college in the middle of Belfast and every week, every week, there’d be an evacuation with a bomb, or else it would actually go off, and it’d just be a matter of fact that you’d be blown out of your desk or you’d be lying on the floor…You sort of grew up hearing of people being maimed and that sort of thing…It’s pretty dark, it’s pretty dark to grow up with…I think that’s why people from Ireland have a really good sense of humor, I think we’re resilient and that’s why I’ll always call it home.

He loves glam and thrash metal as a teenager and plays the guitar:

I studied players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Ty Tabor, Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Jake E. Lee, so much, that I could pretty much play on a level with them at one stage, but sadly, at that point, no one really was interested in hearing that from a guitarist anymore.