Kristian Nairn

Kristian Nairn is a Northern Irish actor and musician. He is a successful DJ, having performed alongside acts such as the Scissor Sisters and worked as far afield as South Africa and Australia. He is 6'11" and as of June 2012 is 36 years old.

Game of Thrones marks Nairn's first major acting role. He plays the role of Hodor, and announced his casting via Twitter on 22 June 2010. He initially appeared as a guest star in the first season and returned in this role for the second and third seasons.

Hodor does not have a large scar on his right temple in the books. This was added by the TV series' makeup department to hide a tattoo possessed by Kristian Nairn.

Nairn is a fan of the Yogscast podcasting series, which he appeared on for a lengthy interview in their 37th episode.

When asked if it was difficult to express a range of emotions when playing a character who can only speak a single word, Kristian responded:
 * "Unlike in the book, where Hodor's emotions are portrayed by a combination of the single word, the situation, and the reader's imagination, I have a very powerful medium to use as well: my body language. 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. That's also a huge part of sign language, and my knowledge of that (although I'm extremely out of practice) has put me in good stead for this part."