Who is Aidan Gillen in BBC's Kin - Queer As Folk role, awards and HBO stardom

Aidan Gillen, known to a generation as Stuart from Queer As Folk, returns to tellies on Tuesday) night (February 13) in a new series of Kin. Queer As Folk was 25 years ago, but the series still resonates with Mancs thanks to its setting of Canal Street.

Thanks to the Irish actor's starring role in the series, created by Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, Aidan won a BAFTA and bagged some great acting roles in the US.

One of those, in the AMC original Kin, is Frank Kinsella, part of the small-time crime family who goes up against a huge international cartel. From Canal Street to Game of Thrones to gritty Irish crime drama, Kin - here's all you need to know about Aidan Gillen.

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The actor, now 55, was born and brought up in Dublin. He started in theatre, playing Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream for the National Youth Theatre before he moved to London in 1987.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he turned up in films like Circle of Friends - a massive cinema hit based on the novel of the same name by Irish writer Maeve Binchy - and on British TV in programmes like The Bill.

How did he get the role in Queer As Folk?

For a programme with just two series - it ran from 1999 to 2000 - Queer As Folk made a massive impact culturally, which is probably why it's remembered so fondly. And Aidan was at the centre of it, in the starring role.

Aidan told the Guardian in 2015: "I got sent the script for this new show called Queer as F**k. I read it, immediately put it down, and didn’t look at it again for a week. I was taken aback by how explosive it was. It wasn’t the sexual content: I was just impressed by its in-your-faceness."

Writer Russell T Davies said of the