Alan Doyle was born and raised in
Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, in a
Roman Catholic family. He attended
Memorial University of Newfoundland in
St. John's, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. It is also there that he met
Séan McCann,
Bob Hallett and
Darrell Power with whom he formed
Great Big Sea. He primarily plays electric and acoustic guitars, and the
bouzouki for live performances, but he has been known to play mandolin and banjo. He is married to Joanne; they have one son. Doyle has also been involved with a handful of stage, television and film productions. As a child, he appeared as an extra in the movie
A Whale for the Killing, based on Farley Mowat's book of the same name, which was filmed in his hometown. He has also hosted regional arts awards shows in Atlantic Canada, appeared as a presenter on the Juno Awards and done a turn onstage in his hometown's "24-Hour Musical" performance of
Grease. In 2005, he composed music for the CBC comedy
Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, which stars
Mary Walsh. In 2006, he worked on scoring the film ''
Young Triffie's Been Made Away With'', directed by Walsh. & Alan Doyle Doyle has been linked to
Russell Crowe and his bands
30 Odd Foot of Grunts and
The Ordinary Fear of God, having produced and co-written several songs on Crowe's album,
My Hand, My Heart, and played several shows with Crowe. In 2011, they released
The Crowe/Doyle Songbook Vol.III with nine songs in both acoustic demo and finished format, for 18 tracks total. This friendship also led to Doyle's casting as
Allan A'Dayle alongside Crowe,
Cate Blanchett,
Kevin Durand, and
Scott Grimes in
Ridley Scott's
Robin Hood, released May 14, 2010. He played Dingy in the film ''
Winter's Tale'', also with Crowe and Durand, as well as
Will Smith and
Colin Farrell. He collaborated with
Law & Order music composer
Mike Post and wrote and performed a song named "Middle of Nowhere", written for the
Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Broad Channel". Doyle has guest starred on three episodes of the
CBC Television series
Republic of Doyle as the character Wolf Redmond. Season 2, episode 2 introduced him as an inmate sent to prison on charges of
B&Es and a few robberies. Doyle guest starred with
Russell Crowe,
Kevin Durand, and
Scott Grimes on the first show of
Republic of Doyles third season after the four had costarred on
Robin Hood. His third appearance – the second with Grimes – was on season 4, episode 6. He appeared in an episode of
Murdoch Mysteries' tenth season. In 2012, Doyle released his first solo album,
Boy on Bridge. The title is a nod to Doyle's credit as the "boy on bridge" in the movie
A Whale for the Killing, when he was a young boy. The first single from the album is "I've Seen a Little" and the album features collaborations with Canadian musicians
Hawksley Workman,
Jim Cuddy,
Ron Hynes, and actor-musician
Russell Crowe, among others. The video for the second single, "Testify", was nominated for a 2012
Juno. The creation of the album was captured by a film crew, resulting in a documentary also named
Boy on Bridge directed by Joel Stewart and John Vatcher. Doyle, with Great Big Sea, was featured on Canadian country artist,
Dean Brody's 2012 album titled
Dirt, singing on the track "It's Friday". In 2014, Doyle released a book entitled
Where I Belong, about his youth growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador. Doyle's second solo album, entitled ''
So Let's Go'', was released January 20, 2015. In 2017, he guest starred in a
Murdoch Mysteries episode, "A Murdog Mystery" as a man who claims to be a time travelling historian. Doyle reprised the role in the
web series Beyond Time. Doyle's third solo album,
A Week at the Warehouse, was released on October 13, 2017. His second book titled
A Newfoundlander in Canada: Always Going Somewhere, Always Coming Home, was released on October 17. During the early days of the
COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, Doyle started remotely collaborating with several Newfoundland-based artists to create a special "isolation edition" EP entitled,
Songs from Home, which was released in November 2020. Contributing artists included
Fortunate Ones, Rachel Cousins,
The Ennis Sisters, and
The Once. Per Doyle,
Songs From Home is all about making and keeping connections at a time when it was so difficult to be connected. On June 14, 2022, he began starring in a musical comedy called
Tell Tale Harbour at the 2022
Charlottetown Festival. The story is based on the screenplay
La grande séduction by
Ken Scott that was made into the 2003 award winning film
Seducing Doctor Lewis. Doyle was co-writer of the production as well as co-writer of music and lyrics with Bob Foster. Also credited as one of the authors for a book of the musical with award-winning writer
Edward Riche. Doyle, with Keith Power, writes the music for the Canadian comedy series
Son of a Critch, for which they have received
Canadian Screen Awards nominations for
Best Original Music, Comedy in
2023 and
2024. ==Discography==