An Academy Award-winning songwriter, musician, singer, and actor, Glen Hansard was born on April 21st, 1970 in Dublin, Ireland. He formed a band, The Frames, in 1990, where he was vocalist and guitarist for the Irish group.

Glen Hansard left his school at the age of 13 to begin busking on Dublin streets. He came to be known internationally as a guitar player in the 1991 Alan Parker film, The Commitments. He released his first album, without The Frames on April 22nd 2006 on Overcoat Recordings and Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Marketa Irglova.

Hansard is best known outside Ireland for his leading role in the award-winning film, Once, directed by his former band-mate John Carney. The film had its United States premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 which also received the Festival’s World Cinema Audience Award.

The movie featured songs from Hansard’s back catalog of writings including compositions co-written by Marketa Irglova. The song ‘Falling Slowly’ was nominated for the 2007 Grammy for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture” and won the 2007 Academy Award for “Best Original Song”.

In recent years, Hansard has grown with his reputation as a bearded balladeer.