EastEnders’ Sean Maguire unrecognisable after swapping the soap for Hollywood stardom

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PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 05: Actor Sean Maguire attends the Pasadena Playhouse opening night red carpet of "Uncle Vanya" at the Pasadena Playhouse on June 05, 2022 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)

HE may have rose to fame for hanging out on Albert Square but these days former EastEnders star Sean Maguire looks worlds away from his soap days with a new life in LA.

He has turned his back on his time on the BBC soap opera and now looks unrecognisable as a Hollywood hunk.

Sean Maguire has swapped Albert Square for Hollywood

He first appeared in Grange Hill

He also enjoyed a career in the pop music industry

The 46 year old star first rose to fame in the late 1980s when he took on a role at the age of just eleven in the BBC‘s gritty children’s show Grange Hill.

He played the role of Tegs on the show for around four years before moving onto soap stardom.

In 1993 he began appearing as Walford F.C footballer Aidan Brosnan in EastEnders where his character was involved in a high profile storyline revolving homelessness and drug addiction.

Aidan was prominent in the 1993 Christmas Day episode where approximately 23 million people watched as the character attempted to take his own life before he was stopped by Mandy.

Before heading Stateside, in the late 90s Sean embarked on a pop career realising a number of top 30 hits on the UK Singles Chart including the track Good Day, which reached number 12.

Sean quit the UK in 2001 to take on a series of acting roles in LA.

Speaking on podcast Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did, Sean explained of his decision to leave the UK: “I found that level of being recognisable is not what you think it’s going to be.

“I was hit in the face so many times. Going on holiday with my friends led to so many altercations and terrible moments and it just made life so much harder than it did make it easier or cool, that I realised celebrity is not for me. I just wanted to just be an actor.”

Since heading across the pond he has had a number of stints in high-profile shows including a 2001 appearance in sitcom Off Centre as well as playing a leading role in 2008’s Meet The Spartans.

The star’s biggest success in Hollywood is likely to be playing Robin Hood in the hit ABC show Once Upon a Time.

He first appeared on the show in 2013 and appeared until its conclusion five years later appearing in a different capacity each year, sometimes taking a main role and other times appearing in a recurring capacity.

Recently, fans have seen him in the drama series The 100 where he played Russel Lightbourne between 2019 and 2020 as well as playing the Dark King in fantasy series The Magicians in 2020.

Sean is also a family man having met his long-term love, Tanya Flynn, in the states and he lives with her and their three kids in Hollywood.

The pair tied the knot in 2012 with the latest daughter, Amelie Rose, entering the world in September last year.

The actor now lives in Hollywood and is a regular on US TV

He is all grown up from his soap opera days