Cameron Riley Monaghan (born August 16, 1993) is an American actor. Beginning with his professional career as a child model at the age of three, and child actor at the age of seven, Monaghan is perhaps best known for his role as Ian Gallagher on the Showtime comedy-drama series Shameless, as Jerome Valeska in the crime series Gotham, as well for his feature film roles, as Kevin O'Doyle in Click (2006), Corey Doyle in Prom (2011), Mason Ashford in Vampire Academy (2014) and as Asher in The Giver (2014).

Biography

As of 2014, Monaghan lives in the Los Angeles area where he has resided since he was approximately ten years old. When questioned about his childhood roots in Southern Florida, Monaghan explained "Most of my family doesn’t live there anymore [...] I have a couple of relatives that live in Northern Florida. My hometown is much more south, so there’s no real reason to be going back there anymore."

He has expressed an interest in music and plays guitar, drums, harmonica, and ukulele, and taught himself to play keyboard. His athletic interests include boxing, bicycling, running, snowboarding and skiing. He is a former student of kickboxing, Taekwondo, and XMA (Extreme Martial Arts).

When questioned about his sexual orientation, Monaghan has self-identified as heterosexual. In February 2013, responding to inquiries regarding his sexuality on Twitter, Monaghan tweeted, "This is the only time I will answer this here: No, I'm not gay. Yes, I play a gay character. No, the question should not be relevant." Adding, "Thanks for the kind words, everyone. It feels a bit odd to 'come out' as a straight guy.