Social media star, presenter, husband and new father, Eric Roberts is truly winning in all aspects of his life.
This is Eric’s moment, from starring on a hit Netflix show, and hosting the IFTAs red carpet, to kickstarting his presenting career on Ireland AM, it’s time for Eric to shine.
The Donegal native is our Goss Cover Star for February, ahead of hosting our 10th annual awards show The Gossies 2025, which according to the content creator, is one of the highlights of his career to date.
With this year’s theme being The Great Gatsby, Eric will emulate the iconic Gatsby on the night, inviting guests into the RDS Concert Hall, which we’re transforming into Gatsby’s House, for the party of the year.
Funnily enough, Eric actually shares some similarities with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous character, including his overwhelming desire to achieve more in life.
Gatsby’s memorable “why of course you can” quote comes to mind when I think of Eric, who has grabbed every opportunity that’s come his way over the past five years to make a name for himself.
What some may call a “dreamer”, Eric is on a personal mission to prove that anything is possible.
It’s cliché, but Eric really has come a long way since he first went viral on TikTok in 2020, and the tale behind him even getting invited to The Gossies in the first place (long before we asked him to host) is a funny story in itself, but more on that later…
Eric, 33, is one of Ireland’s most in-demand content creators, with over 407k followers on Instagram, and a massive 708.3k followers on TikTok.
While social media work is his bread and butter, Eric has much bigger star-studded plans for the future – and his ultimate goal is to see his “name in lights” someday.
I have worked with Eric a number of times over the past two years, and honestly, I don’t doubt that he could get his dream job given his dedication to climbing the showbiz ladder.
Based in his home county of Donegal, Eric is constantly grafting, whether he’s driving up and back to Dublin to film a brand campaign (four hours each way by the way), recording a TV slot, or attending a PR event in the evening, Eric is dedicated to making his dream career work.
On the morning of our shoot in Goss HQ, I ask Eric how he manages it all? He’s had a huge life change over the last two years, given he left his job as a Special Needs Assistant to pursue his dreams.
Eric answers honestly, he’s now obsessed with becoming successful, and he’s ready to work for it.
“It’s honestly addictive,” he says. “I’m addicted to climbing this ladder now that I’m on it. I’m constantly looking for the next thing, which is probably a bad thing in a way, but it’s good career-wise.”
“I’m addicted to climbing this ladder now that I’m on it”
“I’m really motivated to keep going, keep growing, and keep learning. I’ve heard people say ‘if you love what you do, you’ll never work again in your life’. And I just love it, I’m addicted to it.”
While Eric is determined to keep climbing the ladder, he’s become more selective about the work he takes on – especially since becoming a father in January.
“I’ve said ‘no’ more and more now, especially with RÃan,” he tells me. “I’m much more selective with the work that I’m taking on.”
“Which I think in a way is a good thing. Because I was really available in the last couple of years because I was given some advice by people in the industry to network, meet people, shake hands, and be seen at different events.
“Now I think I’m in a place where I don’t have to do that as much, and I’m slightly more known in the industry, so I can be more selective with who I’m working with, which I think is more quality over quantity going forward.
Eric and his wife Niamh, who he married in August 2023, became first-time parents on New Year’s Day when they welcomed a baby boy named RÃan Oisin Roberts.
Speaking about becoming a father, Eric gushes: “It’s hard to put it into words. It’s just been absolutely insane. That’s the best way I can describe it.
“It’s very surreal. The first two or three days you’re in the hospital and you’re panicking, RÃan was only 6 pounds so he was tiny, and then they were like, ‘Okay, you can go home’. We were like, ‘What? What do we do? You expect us to take this thing home? Are you f***ing serious?’
“Becoming a father is very surreal… It’s hard to put it into words”
“The first three or four days, it’s not easy because you’re terrified. I didn’t sleep the first night because I was just like, ‘Is he breathing?’ We’ve gotten more relaxed now as time has gone on and it’s just gotten more and more fun. Life’s slowly going back to normal and I’m back to work. But it’s just been the most fun learning curve you could ever imagine.”
Eric jokes that he’s been learning parenting tips and tricks from TikTok, and says: “I love it because you’re finding methods of burping and methods of soothing and stuff.
“I used to go on and see dances and comedy on my FYP, now it’s literally just babies and burping techniques. It just gives you an idea of how dramatically my life has changed in the past month.”
With Eric’s former role as an SNA and Niamh being a teacher, the couple have always shared a love of children and knew they wanted to be parents someday.
Eric confesses they’d love to have two or three kids, but would like to “wait a year or two” until they decide to add to their brood.
“We’re so excited for RÃan to have a little personality. I can’t wait to be able to make him laugh, that’s something I’m so looking forward to. He’s still just a little ball of flesh at the minute.”
While he’s only been a father for a few weeks, Eric admits it has already really changed him as a person, especially when it comes to his priorities.
“It’s so cliché, but you almost forget what life was like beforehand,” he explains. “I was going to two or three events a week for a stint and really getting involved in the industry, but your priorities just change.”
Eric admits he’s also become more conscious about having “some sort of backup” outside of his social media career, especially since they recently got mortgage approval.
“With how quickly this happened, I’ve always been aware of how quickly it could all stop,” he says. “I was in a full-time 9-5 job for years, and I assumed that’s what I was going to be doing until I retired.
“This has been just a whirlwind of excitement the last few years, but especially with the TikTok ban recently in America, it makes you realise it could all just go away.”
“With how quickly this happened, I’ve always been aware of how quickly it could all stop”
“So I’ve been dabbling in TV and presenting, and obviously hosting The Gossies, there’s more opportunities like that coming my way,” he continues.
“So if I can keep veered in that direction and try and build on that, then I think I could have some career in showbiz if my accounts disappeared in the morning.”
What if this career doesn’t work out I wonder? Is there longevity in being a content creator? I ask Eric if he would return to his day job if this all doesn’t work out. But it’s pretty clear Eric’s determination to make it in this industry is unwavering.
“If I absolutely had to go back, I’d love to go back. It’s a job that I love doing, but I don’t think in the next few years I’ll have to with everything that I’m doing,” he says.
“I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now, and I’ve found my purpose in a sense because I haven’t felt like I’ve worked in the last three years, even though I’ve been more busy than I’ve ever been before in my life.”
Now that he’s become a father for the first time, Eric is realistic about taking on less work and less travel. Given the entertainment industry really lives in Dublin, I ask would he consider moving his family here full time?
“We spoke about it, absolutely. But I think with the arrival of RÃan, we’re really content where we are. We hope that he would go to school where we went to school, and grow up where we grew up,” he tells me.
“If things continue to go really well and I get some brand deal that pays me loads of money, we can buy an apartment down here or something.
“But my five-year goal is I want ‘The Eric Roberts Show’, so that might require me to not be in Donegal. So I would never say never, but for now we’re really content and happy to have family around us to help.”
“My five year goal is The Eric Roberts Show”
Given Eric is “addicted” to climbing the showbiz ladder, I wonder if a big opportunity would change his mind – for example a permanent position on a show like Ireland AM.
“If I was offered a full-time contract now with 2FM, Ireland AM or The Six O’Clock Show, I wouldn’t take it,” Eric insists. “Because I’m extremely busy doing what I absolutely love doing at the minute, and I’d have to leave all that behind.
“I consider myself so lucky in that I have so much free time now to spend with the family. I’ll record one or two brand deals or go to a presenting job. It would be silly to start a five day week or work, especially with a newborn baby.
“Down the line, if I was up for something like that, I would grab it with both hands because it would be an incredible opportunity. But for now, with RÃan being so young, I think for at least the next year or two, I’d love to just keep doing what I’m doing.”
On February 22nd, Eric will host The Gossies 2025, which has now become one of the biggest nights in Irish showbiz, with some of the biggest names in TV, music, radio, social media, fashion and more coming together to celebrate the best in the business.
I teased at the start of this piece, that the story behind Eric getting invited to The Gossies in the first place is quite unique.
Back in 2022, he brazenly sent a DM to Goss.ie‘s founder and CEO Alexandra Ryan, admitting he wanted to get on our “radar”. The following year, he was nominated for Newcomer of the Year at The Gossies 2023.
“It was only two or three years ago that I drunkenly messaged Ali,” he laughs. “And now here I am hosting The Gossies.”
After joking that drunken DMs don’t always end in disaster, Eric confesses: “It’s honestly such a pinch me moment because it’s such a huge night in the industry.”
“Hosting The Gossies is honestly such a pinch me moment”
“I’ll probably lose a few friends on the night because of some of the jokes. I’m going to go for it, I might never get asked to host again after this, but I’m so excited, it’s such a great opportunity.
“I’ve only been doing these jobs for a very, very short time. To get something this big is really humbling and overwhelming… I don’t think people are expecting me to say some of the things that I’m going to say. There’s going to be a lot of gasps.
“I’m not going to be mean, just pretty out there, in the most fun way, and hopefully people will understand it’s all a bit of craic.”
Speaking of poking fun at his peers, our topic of conversation turns to the influencer industry in Ireland, and how it can get competitive between creators.
“I think we’re all quite supportive of each other. There’s absolutely underlying like ‘F**k, why didn’t I get that campaign?’ But as I said, I’ve been quite lucky in that I wouldn’t want to be any busier than I was last year because it was just nonstop,” Eric says.
“So if I see someone else doing well, I’m delighted for them. I messaged Garron the other day about doing the 3Arena and told him how proud I was of him. I shared Kayleigh’s dance the other day from Dancing With The Stars. I try and bring people up, because I would want people to do the same for me.”
While Eric feels most creators are supportive of one another, he finds some comedians can “turn their nose up” at those who find fame on social media.
“I don’t think comedians particularly like what I’m doing…”
“I’m in the comedy side of things, and I don’t think comedians particularly like what I’m doing because it’s not ‘proper comedy’,” he admits.
“I think they expect you to go through the sludge and the muck and the s**t shows to get to a big place. It’s a rite of passage almost. So the likes of Garron Noone, who is selling out shows every single week, he didn’t really have to go through that.”
Dealing with hate from an individual is one thing, but receiving nasty comments from hundreds or thousands of people is another level of negativity.
I ask Eric to share his experience with online trolling, and he tells me: “Funnily enough, it started to creep in a bit more coming into the end of last year. Just nasty comments and people jumping on bandwagons.
“I always said ‘I’m very lucky and it doesn’t affect me’. But when it started happening, I was like, ‘F**k, it hurts’. It wasn’t a huge amount that I had gotten, but it was enough. I spoke to different people about it, including people who have gone through a similar thing, I think it’s just good to talk through these things and you learn as you go. I’m getting better at it.
“It’s going to come with the territory and you have to get used to it. I think it’s just the following grew exponentially again last year by a couple of hundred thousand. So there’s obviously going to be d***heads that creep in.”
“When the trolling started happening, I was like, ‘F**k, it hurts'”
Asking how he deals with trolls when they do creep in, Eric admits: “I’m a big blocker. As soon as I see anything remotely negative, I’m like get out of here.
“Because my page is predominantly positive. And it’s not just me, I have to be considerate of Oisin as well, because if these people do seep in, I’d always be terrified of any trolling towards him, it would make me stop posting altogether because I wouldn’t subject my family to that.”
Eric’s nephew Oisin, who has autism and cerebral palsy, has become a fan-favourite character on his social media accounts, and the 33-year-old is very protective of him.
“I was so hesitant to even involve him in it, but he got such a positive response. The main response I get that really brings me such joy is the people that come up to me with tears in their eyes saying, ‘You don’t understand what you’re doing. I have an adult son with autism, or I have family members with autism’, and people just love seeing it,” he explains.
“We did the whole Christmas album with him there, and the response to that was crazy. I’ve never had such a response. People wanted to send gifts and letters, it was just incredible. And Oisin loves it as well, still to this day he’s watching all those videos back. It’s just so special. Keeping negativity out is really important, so I just block.”
Eric admits he has the same concern for his own son, and will limit how much he shares of RÃan when he’s older.
“We’ve had conversations about it. I think it’s fun now early on because he’s a little baby and he’s a newborn. But my content won’t be transitioning to predominantly, ‘I’m a dad, now this is my baby’,” he insists.
“Everything I do is quite natural and I’m quite transparent, but I won’t be one of these TikTok dads or anything,” he laughs.
Eric jokes that his wife Niamh “despises” being on camera, and their son will feature in his videos just as much as her.
“Niamh’s an Irish teacher, and she doesn’t want her students seeing her online, which is understandable. She’s warmed to it a bit more, but I’d say RÃan will feature as much as Niamh, which isn’t very much,” he says.
“But my Instagram will still stay very much my own, I’m not going to become one of these over-obsessed fathers who won’t stop posting their child. Absolutely not, because I don’t like those accounts.”
“I’m not going to become one of these over-obsessed fathers who won’t stop posting their child”
It’s clear that Eric has big ambitions outside of his social media career. He admits that he hopes to pursue more opportunities in traditional media – including an acting roles.
“I did a few big campaigns in the last couple of years where I was on set for 12 hours a day, and I got such a buzz off it,” he says. “And any directors that I’ve worked with have said to me, ‘You should do it. You’re natural’.
“I’ve only ever played myself, which I feel like its easy to be a natural when you’re doing that. But I would love to do something in that realm or be given some opportunity. If I was awful, at least then I would know I’m terrible.
“I think I could do a reasonably good job at some sort of comedy show, so I’d love to do it. I’ve had some conversations about it, so we’ll see what pans out this year. But again, it’s just timings.”
Eric smiles as he tells me he’s already completed acting classes, it’s clear this is a serious move he is considering. But he admits he has struggled to master the more serious scenes.
“It’s hard to play them serious roles, but I’m learning and it’s fun,” he admits.
“I get to do these things that I never in a million years thought I would do. Every year has been different, and it just keeps getting better and better. So I hope that continues.”
Alongside the silver screen, Eric also has his sights set on reality television, which he’s already well versed in.
In 2023, the Donegal native appeared on Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, which offered the largest cash prize in reality TV history – $4.56 million.
Eric, who was eliminated from the competition during episode 7, received minimal airtime on the show, and admitted it was a “horrible experience” behind the scenes.
Despite this, it hasn’t changed his opinion of reality TV, and Eric admits he’d love to appear on the Irish version of The Traitors, which is set to air on RTÉ later this year.
“I would love to do something like that,” he tells me. “The show that I went on in terms of reality television, there was 500 people on it. It was never going to go well.”
“At the time, I was thinking it’s just going to be an incredible experience. In my head I thought ‘I have an online profile, maybe this will help’. But it just wasn’t going to help unless you got to the top three or something.
“I haven’t even seen much of the winner. Yes, she’s a millionaire, but it just wasn’t the show to help further your career. It was the biggest reality television show of all time, so to be able to say I was on it is amazing.
“The press was brilliant, but all the press was before the show aired. If I had known I was going to be shown for two minutes, I might not have done so much.
“I think I spoke three words in the whole series. I don’t regret doing it, but it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I would be more selective if I was ever to do anything again.”
One show Eric is definitely set on doing is RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars, but the timing hasn’t been right so far.
“I’ve been speaking to Kayleigh [Trappe] about it, and she says it’s the most fun she’s ever had. There was murmurs about it, but obviously I knew the baby was coming,” he tells me.
“So I said in the future, I might revisit it. I probably will do it at some point, if they come knocking this year, I would definitely consider it.”
Coming towards the end of my interview with Eric, I point out all the incredible things he has achieved in both his personal and professional life over the past five years.
Eric smiles and admits he feels like he’s “winning at life”, before adding: “This conversation has made me realise how happy I am.”
“I’ve always been a person that thinks ‘oh things are going too well’. But in the last two or three years, I’ve stopped with that mentality because they just kept going that way,” he explains.
“I’ve had so many down days, especially coming into the end of last year. But then I’m working with all these brands and getting to do all these amazing things. I just love the job that I’m in.”
From speaking to Eric it feels like he’s truly got it all. The perfect marriage, the sweetest baby, the dream career. But Eric admits that he doesn’t think he’s reached his career peak just yet.
“I feel like I still have a lot more to give and a lot more to learn,” he says. “By the end of this year, I hope to have a million followers on TikTok, and I want to have half a million on Instagram.
“I’m winning at life… but i haven’t reached my peak yet”
“I’m slowly just climbing this showbiz ladder, and I think the more I do, the more I get. So doing The Gossies now, which is incredible, someone might see that and I might get another opportunity somewhere else. And that’s the way it’s been going.
“I feel like I’m in a lucky position now where I don’t have to do these smaller jobs, and I hold myself in high regard with who I’m working with,” he admits.
“Brands trust me now to create something that they’re happy with, which is great. I never half-ass anything,” he admits.
So with stars in his eyes, what’s next for Eric Roberts?
“It’s always changing, but I would love to do some acting, whether it be a sitcom or film. I would love to have my own Graham Norton style show. I want to do as much as I can,” he says with excitement.
“I want to do stand-up comedy down the line somewhere. I want to work in radio and TV. I have all these plans, and it’s just about sitting down and implementing them. I’m not ruling anything out, and I’m just aiming for the stars.”
Looking towards the future, Eric admits he hopes for nothing but “health and happiness”, and just being a “good dad”.
“And career-wise, just hopefully growing and learning,” he adds.
“I’m really content and happy, so if I’m still doing this in five years, great. It’s just so addictive, growing and learning and getting new opportunities.
“So I would hope that I have ticked off 50 more things on my to-do list in five years time, and I have some sort of show with my name in lights.”
As our shoot ends Eric has popped champagne, has had confetti thrown all over him, and has had to pose in suits and a tux. We wanted a more serious, suave vibe today and we got it.
As he leaves Goss HQ I know readers will be surprised by the shoot, whether it’s TV, radio, acting or all three, I think there’s a lot more surprises to come.
Photo: Claire Boshell
SHOOT CREDITS
Creative Director: Alexandra Ryan
Interview By: Kendra Becker
Photos & Video: Claire Boshell
Styling: Laura Mullett
Grooming: Jordan Reddy
STYLE CREDITS
Window Look
Beige suit €795
Blue shirt €179
Pocket square €49
Cravat price on request
Magnanni loafers €369
Louis Copeland, Pembroke St. Dublin (www.louiscopeland.com)
Couch Look
Blue shirt €179
Paisley tie €129
Black tux pant €395
Louis Copeland, Pembroke St. Dublin
Black loafers €36 (boohoo.com)
Champagne Shot
Tuxedo 2 piece €795
Dress shirt €229
Magnanni Patent shoes €369 (www.louiscopeland.com)
Balloon Shot
Custom Red and black sequin rosette jacket, price on request juliecaulfield.com
Dress shirt €229
Tuxedo pant €395
Magnanni Patent black shoes €369 (www.louiscopeland.com)
Chair Shot
Velvet aubergine jacket €795 (www.louiscopeland.com)
Polo neck €189, Navy and black velvet jacket €795 (www.louiscopeland.com)
