(Photo: Getty Images)
Dominic Monaghan returns this week in Moonhaven, AMC+'s new sci-fi series set in a future where humans have succeeded in colonizing the Moon. It's the latest in a series of high-profile genre roles for the British actor, who made his name in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies and J.J. Abrams' hugely popular supernatural series Lost. To get ready for Moonhaven, which is now streaming on AMC+, here are 10 things you may not know about Monaghan.
1. He has a spider named after him.
Monaghan encountered this spider in 2013 while he was filming his nature series Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan. Digital Spy reported at the time that spider expert Dr. Peter Jäger decided to name the arachnid Ctenus monaghani in recognition of the actor's passion for insects. Jäger said of Monaghan: "He places nature in the foreground in a very special manner."
2. He thinks he can "crush" it at karaoke.
Monaghan told NME that his go-to karaoke song is "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison. “I’ve definitely done it with the guys from Lord of The Rings in New Zealand a few times," he said. "It’s all based on how drunk I am. If I’m really drunk I do "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones."
3. He keeps some rather unusual pets.
Namely: rattlesnakes, spiders, and scorpions. He told the Times of London that he likes to "seek out dangerous wildlife" when he's on vacation, so Wild Things was a real dream job for him.

4. He is British, and so are his parents, but he was born in Germany.
Monaghan spent the first 11 years of his life living in various German cities, before his family moved back to Manchester in northern England. "My parents are kind of like hippies, you know? " he told IGN. "They enjoy traveling and being in new places and stuff, so they moved to Germany. My dad's a teacher and my mom's a nurse. It just worked, luckily enough, and they speak German, so we lived out there. It was good. We moved every three years."
5. He credits British acting legend Dame Patricia Routledge with being an "amazing teacher" to him.
Monaghan's first-ever screen role was opposite Routledge in the 1990s detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Recalling his time with Routledge, Monaghan told People: "She taught me some very valuable lessons that I still use to this day. She told me to conserve my energy and that sometimes when the angle of the camera is not on me, I still have to give her something, which I hadn't really realized. She's quite strict, and I struggled with it at the time because I was only 18, but I realize that she was only helping me out and I appreciate it a lot now."

6. He's a keen photographer.
In 2008, West Hollywood's Hamilton-Selway gallery hosted an exhibition of Monaghan's photographs titled Happy Accidents. You can catch a glimpse of Monaghan's work in this E! report from the time.

7. For a while, he also had a side hustle as a journalist.
Yes, really. From 2014-2016, Monaghan wrote a series of soccer op-eds for Paste. As you'll see in the archive, many of them centered on his favorite team: Manchester United.
8. He's an avid gardener. 
Monaghan, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, says he's learned to plant in accordance with the scorching California climate. "There’s no rain and I live on a hill so all the nutrients travel away," he told The Guardian. "Over the years, I’ve introduced drought-tolerant plants like lavender, salvias, cactuses. My garden is the place I go to if I’m ever struggling with something. It’s an investment in the future, which has felt especially important lately."
9. He is keen to take on more stage work.
Monaghan did a lot of theater work in his teens before his TV career took off. Since then, he's been so successful on screen that his agents aren't too keen for him to tread the boards again. “They know they can put me in a play for nine months, or they can put me in a movie for nine days and I’ll make them 15 times more money," Monaghan told The Guardian. "I’m interested in the artistic journey. Agents are interested in their 10%."
10. And finally, he starred in an Eminem and Rihanna video.
Monaghan co-starred opposite Megan Fox in the video for "Love the Way You Lie," which offers a powerful exploration of domestic violence. The video's director Joseph Kahn told MTV News he cast Monaghan "because he's an actor who can bury himself." Kahn added: "You can do anything with him, and essentially, he's a villain through all of [the video], and I think he did a great job."

Are you looking forward to watching Dominic Monaghan in Moonhaven?