An actor whose portrayal of Pennywise the clown became a viral hit has been chosen to represent the UK at the World Championships of Performing Arts.

Oli Keenan, from Clydebank, went viral in October after dressing up as Stephen King's horrifying character for Halloween.

The 22-year-old interacted with trick-or-treaters visiting his family's home, and a video of his act has been viewed more than 20m times.

Now Oli has been scouted to take part in the World Championships of Performing Arts in the United States.

"We do something big like that every year, my birthday is October 29 and my mum's is the 30th and so Halloween is a big deal at our house," Oli said.

"So I always dress up and get involved. It's the only night of the year I get to scare children and not feel too bad about it."

A trick-or-treater filmed Oli's creepy act and posted the video online, soon amassing millions of views.

"After all the stuff at Halloween I was contacted by the regional director scouting for Team UK and she asked me to come down and audition," Oli explained.

He was soon chosen to represent the UK in the acting category, with dancers and singers also taking part in the event, dubbed 'the performing arts Olympics', from 60 different countries.

"They're handing out £390,000 in scholarships to American acting schools and you're performing in front of industry professionals and producers out in Los Angeles," Oli said.

"I'm really, really excited about it, it's one of these things you don't get the opportunity to do that often and you don't have things like that to that scale here in Scotland."

Oli dreamt of being an actor since he was a child, and although he took a break from drama after college, his new-found fame gave him the "boost" he needed to continue pursuing the profession.

He said: "I've been doing it ever since I was really young, I was about nine or ten when I started at a local theatre school.

"I had always been interested in it at school and ever since I was a child, whenever anyone asked what I wanted to be, I said an actor.

"[The viral video] was that little boost of confirmation that I needed."

Oli will take part in different auditions as part of the championship, doing comedic and dramatic pieces in a bid to impress the judges.

The final will be broadcast live in the US on July 21 from Long Beach in LA.

The prospect of potentially winning a scholarship to an acting school in the US is an exciting one for Oli.

"It would be crazy, it would be very very exciting," he said. "It would change my life completely."