First sight: Domhnall Gleeson

Who is he? A 27-year-old Irish actor with half-a-dozen potentially starmaking films in the pipeline. First up is the new Harry Potter, in which he plays a Weasley. Then Never Let Me Go, with Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan and others on the Guardian's recent top 10 of hot British film talent. Why wasn't Gleeson on the list? There is a clue in "27-year-old Irish actor". He is also in the Coen brothers' tasty-looking western remake True Grit. What has he done before? Theatre, some Irish TV and a few film roles. He was in the Broadway run of Martin McDonagh's play Lieutenant of Inishmore and his first film was McDonagh's short Six Shooter. He shares a surname with a notable Irish actor. Coincidence? Nope. He is Brendan Gleeson's son, and recently directed his dad and brother Brian in a short film; the pair played policemen investigating a murder. Did he make his old man audition? Apparently not: "He's so good he didn't need to." Saying that, he did originally cast Brian as a corpse. Anything else coming up? He plays Bob Geldof in a BBC TV drama about Live Aid – that one could go either way. More promising is dad's directing debut, At Swim-Two-Birds. Based on a Flann O'Brien novel, the cast is a who's who of Irish acting's finest: Gabriel Byrne, Michael Fassbender, Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy.