Meet Abigail Thorn, the YouTube Philosopher Who Became Lohar, ‘House of the Dragon’s Most Unforgettable Admiral
If you caught the ‘House of the Dragon‘ Season 3 premiere and found yourself completely fixated on the wild, vendetta-driven Triarchy admiral carving through the Battle of the Gullet, you are far from alone. The actress behind Admiral Sharako Lohar is Abigail Thorn, and if she looks like someone who belongs on the biggest show in the world, that is because she spent years quietly building a career unlike almost anyone else currently working in television.
Thorn is not a conventional route-to-Hollywood story. She created the YouTube channel Philosophy Tube in 2013, originally seeking to provide free lessons in philosophy in the wake of a major increase in British university tuition fees. That channel became something far more ambitious over time, and it turns out it was only the first act.
Sharako Lohar and the Battle of the Gullet
Thorn portrays Admiral Sharako Lohar, a Triarchy commander who was one of the casualties during the Season 3 premiere of the HBO fantasy series. The character had been building toward this moment since her introduction, and the Battle of the Gullet finally put her at the center of the action in spectacular fashion.
Sharako Lohar is the admiral of the Triarchy in ‘House of the Dragon,’ and her ending in the Season 3 premiere represents a significant departure from George R.R. Martin’s source novel ‘Fire and Blood,’ where the character does not die during the battle. The show made a deliberate creative choice to give Lohar a definitive, visceral conclusion tied to her obsession with Corlys Velaryon.
Sharako wins her fight against Corlys when he is thrown into the sea, but her victory proves short-lived, as Alyn of Hull ultimately confronts and kills her. Thorn has been candid about what it took to bring those sequences to life, describing the emotional and physical demands of the role in detail.
Thorn said, “It was pretty emotionally tough filming that scene. It’s hard to be strangled to death 20 times a day, but I think I was really happy with the work that we did, and it’s a treat as an actor to get to plan and execute that kind of a scene.”
From Philosophy Tube to Westeros
In 2018, Thorn’s YouTube videos became notably more theatrical, beginning to incorporate dramatic studio sets, lighting, costuming, and makeup, and the channel has since been positively received by critics with over one million subscribers. That theatrical instinct turned out to be excellent preparation for the screen work to come.
Thorn earned a master’s degree in acting at East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex, before moving to London. The academic grounding combined with years of performing elaborate conceptual videos gave her a skill set that sat at a genuinely unusual intersection of scholarship and showmanship.
Thorn shared her excitement about the ‘House of the Dragon’ role on Instagram, writing, “I LOVE Sharako, she’s an ass-kicking action babe in the biggest show in the world, a dream come true.” Fans of her YouTube channel recognized in that statement both her characteristic enthusiasm and a real sense of how far she had traveled from filming alone in a bedroom.
Thorn trained intensively for the action sequences alongside stunt performers who had previously doubled for Captain America, Deadpool, and Wonder Woman. The preparation clearly paid off on screen.
Abigail Thorn’s LGBTQ Representation in ‘House of the Dragon’
The casting of Thorn carries weight well beyond her considerable performance abilities. She also played Ensign Eurus in the Star Wars series ‘The Acolyte’ released in 2024, becoming a visible trans presence across two of the biggest franchise properties in television simultaneously.
‘House of the Dragon’ has become notable for its LGBTQ+ representation both on and off screen. Lead Emma D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra Targaryen, is nonbinary and has been an outspoken advocate for trans and gender-nonconforming people. Thorn brings trans representation to the show through Sharako, a gender-defying, polyamorous character whose most iconic season moment came when she propositioned Tyland Lannister.
In George R.R. Martin’s book ‘Fire and Blood,’ Sharako Lohar was presented as male, but ‘House of the Dragon’ changed this by casting Thorn in the role. Notably, some characters in the show still refer to Sharako with he/him pronouns, which the showrunner explained was intended to reflect how male sailors in the series’ patriarchal setting process a woman in such a commanding role. That layered ambiguity only deepened fan investment in the character.
The Character’s Iconic Moments and Legacy
Lohar’s most talked-about scene is not one involving dragons or swords. The moment that became an instant fan sensation was when she asked Tyland Lannister to father children with her wives, a proposition that landed with audiences as both audacious and completely in keeping with the character’s outsized personality.
Thorn recalled a fan approaching her to sign a book and wanting her to write a specific line. Thorn wrote the request in the book and admitted she was thinking, “I really hope that’s the line you meant.” That kind of moment speaks to how immediately and viscerally the character embedded herself in the show’s cultural footprint.
Thorn reflected on what it meant to be trusted with such a role, saying, “It was just such a gift as an actor to get to plan and execute that kind of arc, and to be trusted to bring it home like that on the biggest show in the world.” Looking beyond Westeros, Thorn can also be seen in the science fiction film ‘Again Again,’ which had its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2026.
Sharako Lohar may be gone from the Dance of the Dragons, but Abigail Thorn is clearly just getting started. Whether you were already a Philosophy Tube devotee or you met her for the first time through a pirate admiral’s spectacular demise, we want to hear which Abigail Thorn role hit you hardest and whether you think the show made the right call changing Lohar’s fate from the source material.
