O'Gorman a legend with overseas fans - TV Guide (New Zealand) - 2000 (August 4)

This article is from the New Zealand magazine TV Guide, dated August 4, 2000, featuring Dean O'Gorman.

The high-res magazine scans are from Bryn.

Table of Contents Summary: Dean O'Gorman has become a legend with overseas fans thanks to his latest TV role.

O'Gorman a legend with overseas fans

by Dionne Christian.

      When New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman visits London in September, he'll spend a frantic day surrounded by young fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures.

      Yet at home on Auckland's North Shore, O'Gorman, 23, can go about his life without this type of recognition. That will change for those few days in London when O'Gorman (pictured) takes centre stage at a convention for fans of the action-adventure show Young Hercules.

      Now screening on TV3, the children's show is one of the spin-offs from the Renaissance Pictures series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Filmed in NZ, that show also spawned Xena: Warrior Princess and, in the process, made a number of local actors - like O'Gorman, into internationally recognized celebrities.

      He stars in Young Hercules as the young Iolaus (Michael Hurst played the adult Iolaus), best friend to the boyhood Hercules (Ryan Gosling), alongside Jodie Rimmer as Lilith, the only female cadet at the academy, Kevin Smith as Ares the god of war, Meighan Desmond as Ares' sister Discord, Joel Tobeck as Ares' devious nephew Strife, and Angela Dotchin as the sassy young woman who runs the inn where the young cadets spend their freetime.

      Like its parent show, Young Hercules is set in ancient Greece during the golden age of myth when warlords, monsters and meddling gods interfered in the lives of ordinary people. In this series, the headstrong young Hercules has been sent by his mortal mother to a warrior training academy so he can learn to use his god-given strength responsibly. "When I first got the part, I thought I'd better get to the gym," says O'Gorman. "I threw myself into training but I was burning the candle at both ends and got quite sick about