@Contact Information @Trivia

Date of Birth: April 16, 1975
Birthplace: Pleasantville, Westchester County, New York, USA
Parents' names: Joseph (funeral home owner) and Margaret Maher (retired nurse)
Siblings: one younger brother and one older sister
Height: 5'10" (1.78 m)
Hair Colour: dark brown
Eye Colour: blue

Sean got interested in acting after performing in a play at summer camp one year. He attended Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York, at the same time as actors Eddie Cahill and Eyal Podell. In 1997 Sean graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in drama, and has studied theatre with the Tisch School of the Arts in London, The Collaborative Arts Project Twenty-One, Shakespeare Scenework, the Experimental Theater Wing, and the Playwright's Horizons Theater School, which he stayed with longest and has described as "home away from home". His theatre credits include regional productions of "Doors", "Yerma", "Berlin, Berlin", "Over the Tavern, Part II", "Book of the Night", "Severity's Mistress", and "Into the Woods".

In 1999, Sean got his first big break when he was cast as the lead in the Fox television series "Ryan Caulfield: Year One". Even though the series was cancelled after only two episodes had aired, Sean's performance was noted favourably by critics. He was shortly afterwards cast in the recurring role of Adam Matthews, a love interest for Neve Campbell's Julia Salinger, during the last season of "Party of Five". Sean then played an ex Navy SEAL turned Wall Street trader in "The $treet" - another show that was cancelled. In 2001, Sean was cast as football player Brian Piccolo in the ABC/Disney remake of "Brian’s Song".

In 2002, Sean became part of Joss Whedon's series "Firefly", playing refugee Dr. Simon Tam. The series was cancelled after only 11 of 13 episodes were aired, but quickly became a cult hit and found success in its DVD release.

Sean made his feature film debut in 2004 starring in the independent film, "Living ‘Til the End", and in 2005 reprised the role of Dr. Simon Tam in Joss Whedon’s film, "Serenity". In December 2006 Sean was back on TV screens in A&E's Movie of the Week "Wedding Wars" playing Ted Moore, boyfriend of lead character Shel, a gay wedding planner played by John Stamos.

Sean took some time off from acting after this, but started reading scripts again in autum 2007.

According to his bio, Sean is single and splits his time between living in New York and Los Angeles.

Trivia

• Even though he says he only did it once, Sean was teased on the Firefly set for calling his onstage sister by her real name, Summer, rather than her character name, River.
• During the Meet & Greet at the Serenity Cubed convention in Heathrow/UK, September 2006, Sean revealed to some participants that he has several piercings: One in his tongue, one in his bellybutton, and five in his left ear. He takes out the tongue stud (and the rest of them, we assume) for filming and public events, since it makes him talk funny. (Source: kneonlight)
• Also at the above Meet & Greet, Sean mentioned to some other participants that he is learning French. (Source: greenie_breizh)
• A picture of Sean was featured in WikiHow: How to Apply Makeup as a Man
• Sean introduced Eyal Podell, who attended Byram Hills High School with him in Armonk, New York, to his future wife. (Source: Ynetnews)
• According to his Firefly/Serenity co-star Jewel Staite, Sean is a good kisser and "smells yummy", but shooting the kissing scene for Serenity was hard because they had developed a brother/sister relationship, so they were constantly giggling nervously and being silly. (Source: SGP-Network).
• Wedding Wars co-star John Stamos, whose boyfriend Sean played, concurs with Jewel's assessment of Sean's kissing abilities. (Source: Gay.com)
• About 20 minutes into his "Radio Free Burrito Episode Zero" podcast from December 1, 2005, Wil Wheaton tells the story of how he met Sean at an audition and turned into a "drooling fanboy". Very much worth to download. :) (Source: WWdN: In Exile)
• In an interview for the Lifetime TV website, Michelle Trachtenberg told the following story from the shoot of The Dive from Clausen's Pier: In one scene with Sean Maher, who plays Kilroy, he and I are eating a Christmas dinner and weren't aware how onion-ridden the green bean casserole was. We had a make-out scene right afterward and because Sean didn't have to eat as much as I did, I forced him to take a few bites between takes. If I had to have crusty onion breath when we kissed, he was going to have the same heinous breath as well! (Source: Lifetime TV)
• While he was at NYU, Sean waited tables (Source: unknown)
• He's a big fan of Purell (Source: an unknown report from the Living 'til the End premiere)
• Sean is a yoga enthusiast (Source: unknown article)
• Sean's first convention experience was the San Diego Comic-Con in 2004.