Close up of the Gleek -Rory Flanagan

Rory is an Irish exchange student living with Brittany (who he has a big crush on) and is played by Damian McGinty, an extremely talented 19 year old earned a spot on glee through a tv show that aired during the summer called "The Glee Project". Even before The Glee Project, Damian was famous in Ireland as he was the youngest member of a band called Celtic Thunder since he was 14, and doing many performances before that. The Glee Project auditioned over 40,000 people, cut it down to 80, then 40,  then 24, and then the final 12 got to be on the televised part of the glee project. The show consisted of a "homework assignment" song where they would try to incorporate that week's lesson into their performance (ex. dance-ability, tenacity, vulnerability, etc.). Every week a guest judge who was on glee would watch their number and pick whoever did the best as the winner. The winner would get one-on-one time with the guest judge to work on their singing/acting/dancing, etc. Then they would have a main assignment where they each had a few lines of a song and they would film a music video. Based on their performance, acting, singing, dancing, and attitude, the choreographer and the glee project host Robert Ulrich would pick the three people that did the worst that week and they would have to do a last chance performance for Ryan Murphy, a writer of glee. Ryan, Robert, and the choreographer Zach would debate over who to send home. Damian made it all the way to the finals, all though he was in the bottom 3 in the first week, and many times after that. He became best friends with Cameron Mitchell on the show, who ended up saving him. after not being in the bottom three for a long time, he did a less than satisfactory job and was there again. Ryan was very critical of Damian's performance of "Danny Boy" and had nothing nice to say. Cameron came out and did a great job, but later broke down and decided this wasn't for him and left, later learning Damian would have been sent home. In the final episode, Damian sings "Beyond the Sea" dedicated to Cameron and his other friend on the show, Hannah. Damian actually ties with Samuel Larsen for the 7 episodes, but when announcing it, they just say "Sam...you have won the glee project!", so Damian thinks he has lost. He is very polite and says that it's hard to get so close, but he's happy for Sam and that he really deserves it. Then Ryan says "Well, the thing I wanted to tell you is that you have also won the glee project." Damian then jumps up and down as the confetti canon goes off and he celebrates with the rest of the finalists saying he's so proud that he's won and that it shows someone can come 5,000 miles from home and can win a world wide competition. Even though he has won the glee project and is very busy filming, he is also helping out a very worthy cause: Haiti, who is still struggling from a hurricane that hit 2 years ago. Damian is a great singer, actor, and all around just a good person and I love seeing him on glee!