05 May 2023 , 09:03
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EastEnders star Aidan O’Callaghan has returned to his surprising ‘normal job’ after playing evil Lewis Butler.
The 34-year-old Irish actor left the BBC soap last year after a shocking storyline saw him rape character Ben Mitchell.
While his character seemed to have got away with his crimes for now, off-screen Aidan is actually a trained pharmacist.
Sharing a snap of himself in his ‘day job’ - which he does in between acting gigs - Aidan looked worlds away from his role as vile Lewis.
In the cute selfie, Aidan is seen holding up a baby duck, which he says has been abandoned by its mother.
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Aidan played evil rapist Lewis Butler in EastEnders last year (BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)He captioned the Instagram post: “Meanwhile in my other job a mother duck has abandoned her duckling” alongside three crying face emojis.
Speaking about his secret second career, Aidan revealed he studied pharmacology at Trinity College in Dublin and then got a Master’s Degree at the Royal College of Surgeons.
Acting was a hobby since secondary school, but he never thought he’d make a career out of it.
When he moved to London to pursue his pharmacy career, he began taking acting classes again and landed the part in EastEnders.
In his 'day job' as a pharmacist, which he does between acting gigs (Instagram)
Aidan joked now Lewis is gone he could work at this pharmacy in Albert Square (Instagram)“Acting was very far from me. Cillian Murphy and Graham Norton were the only two people in the industry. I didn’t have it in mind,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“I studied pharmacy... I was going down that career. I moved to London and picked up acting again as a hobby.
“And I was working as a pharmacist, doing acting classes, and I was like ‘you know, I like this’.
"I started the audition process. You keep knocking on those doors and some opportunities open up.”
Since EastEnders Aidan has landed a role in The Witcher: Blood Origin (Instagram)
He transformed into an elf to play Kareg in the Netflix series (Instagram)As well as EastEnders, Aidan has landed roles in The Witcher: Blood Origin, a sequel to The Witcher series.
He transformed into an elf to play Kareg opposite big name, stars such as Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh.
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Minnie Driver and Lenny Henry also star in the popular Netflix series, which first hit screens in 2022.
Aidan’s acting credits include films The Reckoning of Erin Morrigan and Somatic. He has also appeared in a number of TV series such as Wolfe, The Rook, Home Alone and Britain’s Deadliest Lovers.
Prior to his breakout role on EastEnders, Aidan appeared as a character called Mike in Emmerdale back in 2018.