Allan Hawco

Early and personal life

Hawco was born on Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, as the youngest of four children but moved to Goulds, Newfoundland and Labrador at an early age. His father, Michael Hawco, worked on the Bell Island Ferry and his mother, Mary Hawco, was an elementary school teacher and a former nun. He studied business at Memorial University but dropped out in favour of the National Theatre School of Canada. One of his brothers is a composer, and has composed for Republic of Doyle, while his father has also worked on the show and his mother has appeared as a background performer.

Hawco married CBC reporter Carolyn Stokes in 2012 in the midst of working on Republic of Doyle.

Career

Hawco's first role was in the Shakespeare by the Sea production of Macbeth, which was directed by Aiden Flynn. From there, director Danielle Irvine encouraged Allan to audition for the National Theatre School where he was one of 13 selected from thousands of applicants that year.

After graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2000, Hawco worked in many of the major theatres in the country. He started his own production company The Company Theatre with Philip Riccio. The Company’s inaugural production, A Whistle in the Dark, brought Hawco critical acclaim. Their 2009 production of Festen won him three Dora Awards, including Outstanding Production of a Play.

Some of Hawco's earlier movie roles include Canadian productions such as Making Love in Saint Pierre, Above and Beyond, and Love and Savagery, the latest of which won him an ACTRA nomination for Outstanding Male Performance. His career took off with the launch of his own TV series Republic of Doyle, which premiered in 2010. Hawco is co-creator with Perry Chafe and Malcolm MacRury, executive producer, lead actor, head writer as well as the show’s showrunner. The show has been sold to over 90 countries, and maintains over a million viewers a week on CBC television in Canada. He also guest starred in an episode of Murdoch Mysteries in 2013, as part of a fictional crossover between that show and Republic of Doyle.

In 2011, Hawco was the recipient of the National Theatre School's prestigious Gascon-Thomas Award.

Also in 2011, Hawco was presented with the Canadian Film and Television Hall of Fame's Outstanding Achievement Award.

In 2016 Hawco is appearing in the Discovery Channel series Frontier. His company, Take The Shot Productions, is also working on production of the series.