Career
He is best known for his childhood television performances, in particular the part of Michael Winters in He appeared in the children"s television productions of The Ferals as "Leonard", and Spellbinder as "Alex Katsonis". Rooney first appeared on Australian Television on Network Channel 10 in Adelaide, South Australia on the Grundy Television show, Pot Luck. He sang Take My Breath Away, but lost to Roy Handley, who performed the Acker Bilk song, Stranger on the Shore.
Both Handley and Rooney were told by the show"s celebrity judge, Adelaide based television and radio personality Anne Wills, that they should try acting as they had the "face for television".
Consequently, Rooney auditioned with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for a role on Rooney began his career playing the street-wise urchin Gavroche in the Australian stage production of Les Misérables. Soon after, he went on to play the character Tommy Franco, alongside Dolph Lundgren and Louis Gossett, Junior., in the 1989 feature film The Punisher.
As a child actor, Rooney became best known on Australian television during the early 1990s for his long-running role of Michael Winters in the American Broadcasting Company-television series, and as Brendan Maloney in the 1991 miniseries Brides of Christ. He has appeared in a number of made-for-television movies including The Rogue Stallion (1990), South Pacific Adventures (1991), and Pirates Island (1991).
More recently Rooney played the role of Cedric in the 2001 children"s television series Escape of the Artful Dodger.
In 2010, he guest starred as the character Jones in Rescue: Special Ops (Season 2, Episode 12).
