Grange Hill star Sean Maguire looks almost unrecognisable from the TV roles that first propelled him to fame.

The actor, now based in Los Angeles, shot to prominence in 1988 as the fresh-faced Tegs Ratcliffe on the BBC children’s series. 

Appearing on stage at a Once Upon a Time fan panel during the Calgary Expo at the BMO Centre in Canada on Saturday, Sean joined co-star Colin O’Donoghue for the event.

With a stubbled beard and blonde hair, the star, now 50, looked worlds away from his fresh-faced on-screen persona. 

In 2022, Sean revealed he left the UK for America because of the abuse he was receiving at home.

The actor moved to LA in 2001, after struggling to handle the fame that came with being a teen heartthrob.

Sean originally found fame in teen drama Grange Hill, his first notable role, before appearing as troubled drug addict Aidan Brosnan in EastEnders.

Sean left the soap in 1993 after a turbulent 11-months on the Square, during which his character suffered homelessness and depression before returning to Ireland in an attempt to reconnect with his parents.

He has since enjoyed a successful career in the United States, with a steady stream of minor roles leading to recurring part in fantasy drama Once Upon A Time.

Speaking to podcast Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did, he said: 'I found that level of being recognisable is not what you think it’s going to be.

'I was hit in the face so many times. Going on holiday with my friends led to so many altercations and terrible moments and it just made life so much harder than it did make it easier or cool, that I realised celebrity is not for me. I just wanted to just be an actor.'

After leaving the popular soap, Sean began a pop career, releasing three albums and bagging himself eight Top 30 hits.

However, he confessed that his success led to more problems, saying: 'I found with the pop thing I was too overexposed and inevitably people get sick of you. The job of an actor is to pop up, do something great and then disappear. Let them miss you. And I got to the point of being too everywhere at once - even I was getting sick of myself.

'So that’s why when I got the opportunity to go to America, I thought maybe I could try it for a few years, then come back and maybe people won’t be so bored of me.'

The risk paid off as the star immediately landed a starring role in a US sitcom alongside American Pie star Eddie Kaye Thomas and Star Trek actor John Cho, which Sean says was one the 'happiest times' of his life.

He explained: 'Other than now with my kids and my wife, it was probably one of the happiest times I’ve ever had. I wasn’t getting punched in the face anymore… and it was sunny.. And I’m thinking, "well this all worked out great".'

Elsewhere, Sean admitted to preferring Grange Hill to his own school, explaining his own teachers were 'terrible' to him, to the extent that it 'bordered on child abuse'.

He also revealed that a near-fatal motorbike crash he had, had stopped his character in EastEnders from being killed off by suicide.

He revealed he had begged the bosses not to kill the character off in that manner in an explosive Christmas episode, because of impressionable young fans he had at the time.

He admitted: 'My conscience couldn’t deal with that. That would break me if I felt in any way responsible for something like that.'

'I said, "Please find another way. I’m not telling you how to run your show, but please don’t do that. Don’t do that on Christmas Day. It’ll ruin the country’s Christmas".'

However, a twist of fate meant that Sean was unable to film the scenes after suffering a terrible accident.

He said: 'And then as luck, bad luck, would have it, I broke my leg a week or two later in a… I was doing a stupid motorcycle thing that I shouldn’t have been doing.

'I broke my leg very, very badly and very nearly killed myself, very nearly actually died in the motorcycle accident, had I hit the wall differently.

'If I’d have hit it with my head I’d be dead for sure, because I hit the wall at about 50mph.

'And because I broke my leg I couldn’t walk and because I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t jump off a building. So fate sort of stepped in and then Aidan just went off back to Ireland or something, I think.'

Sean married wife Tanya in 2012, and together they share three children - two sons, Flynn Patrick, and Leo James, and a daughter Amèlie Rose.