In Dublin this week for the premiere of The Boat That Rocked, in which he plays a pirate radio DJ, Irish actor Chris O'Dowd will next play the villain in a comedy-adventure take on Gulliver's Travels. It stars Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver, a travel writer investigating the Bermuda Triangle when washed up on the island of Lilliput, where he's a giant among the tiny population. The cast includes Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Catherine Tate.

A native of Boyle, Co Roscommon, O'Dowd had a recurring role in RTÉ series The Clinicbefore starring in the BBC comedy The IT Crowd. He features with Anna Faris in Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel, due here next month, and with Cillian Murphy in The Hippie Hippie Shake, to be released later this year.