Glen Hansard (born 21 April 1970 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Academy-Award winning songwriter, actor, and vocalist/guitarist for Irish rock group The Frames. Hansard quit school at age 13 to begin busking on local Dublin streets. He first came to widespread public attention as guitar player Outspan Foster in the Alan Parker film The Commitments, after attending the New York Film Academy School of Acting.
In 2003, he presented the television programme Other Voices: Songs from a Room, which showcased Irish music talent on RTÉ. On 22 April 2006, he released his first solo album, The Swell Season, on Overcoat Recordings in collaboration with Czech singer and multi instrumentalist Markéta Irglová, Marja Tuhkanen from Finland on violin and viola, and Bertrand Galen from France on cello. Hansard also spent part of 2006 in front of the cameras for a music-infused Irish film Once, in which Hansard plays a Dublin busker, and Irglová an immigrant street vendor. The film had its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and received the Festival's World Cinema Audience Award. During the promotional tour, he and Irglová began dating. Said Hansard about his relationship with Irglova: "I had been falling in love with her for a long time, but I kept telling myself she's just a kid". One of the songs they wrote together for the film ("Falling Slowly") won an Oscar for Best Song in February 2008. Hansard became the first Irish-born person to win in that category. Hansard and Irglová also recorded a version of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for the film I'm Not There in 2007. In 2009, Hansard said that he and Irglova were no longer romantically linked, and that they are now "good friends."
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