Sam Heughan

Sam Roland Heughan was born on 30 April 1980 in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. His parents had been part of a hippie community in London called Gandalf's Garden which was heavily influenced by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien inspiring them to name Heughan and his older brother after characters from The Lord of the Rings. Sam's mother, Chrissie Heughan, an artist and artisan papermaker struggled to raise the two brothers after their father left when they were both young.

Aged five, Heughan moved from Balmaclellan to nearby New Galloway where he attended Kells Primary School. During this time he lived in converted stables in the grounds of Kenmure Castle. Moving to Edinburgh at age twelve he attended James Gillespie's High School for a year and then the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School until the end of the sixth year. He joined the Lyceum Youth theatre in 1998 and in 1999 was awarded a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Glasgow, graduating in 2003.

While enrolled at RSAMD Heughan performed in numerous plays including The Twits at Citizens Theatre, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, Aeschylus's Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In 2002, shortly before graduating, Heughan was one of four students chosen to represent RSAMD at the BBC Carleton Hobbs radio talent competition. His alma mater, the RCS, awarded him an honorary doctorate at the class of 2022 graduation ceremony.While still a student at RSAMD Heughan took extended leave of his studies to focus on Outlying Islands, a play by Scottish playwright David Greig. The play premiered at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh before moving to the Royal Court Theatre in London. Heughan was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performer for his performance.

In 2004, Heughan appeared in his first professional television role in the miniseries Island at War, a WWII drama about the German occupation of the Channel Islands. The following year he appeared in several episodes of the Scottish soap opera River City and portrayed adulterous husband Pony William in David Harrower's play Knives in Hens at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. Between 2006 and 2009 Heughan appeared in a number of made-for-television films and miniseries including BBC and PBS's collaborative miniseries The Wild West (2006), Channel 4's docudrama, A Very British Sex Scandal (2007), and BBC Four's Breaking the Mould (2009). During that time he also made appearances in a number of television series, including an episode of ITV's Midsomer Murders, ITV's crime drama Rebus, and two episodes of BBC's political drama Party Animals. Between 2007 and 2009 Heughan made appearances in several live productions, including Noël Coward's The Vortex at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Citizens Theatre, Iain F. MacLeod's The Pearlfishers at the Traverse Theatre, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Dundee Repertory Theatre, Macbeth at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, and Nicholas de Jongh's Plague Over England at the Duchess Theatre.

In 2009, Heughan landed a recurring role as Scott Nielson, Nurse Cherry Malone's boyfriend and a secret drug dealer in the BBC soap opera Doctors. He was nominated for a British Soap Award, in the category Villain of the Year, for his twenty-one episode stint on the series. The following year, Heughan starred as the title character in the direct-to-video feature Young Alexander the Great, which was filmed in Egypt and explored the life of the teenager who would become Alexander the Great. He went on to star in BBC's television film First Light, the story of RAF pilot Geoffrey Wellum's experiences flying a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, as documented in his WWII memoir of the same name. From there he featured in PBS's BAFTA-winning mini-series Any Human Heart, the story of author Logan Mountstuart's life in the context of historical events surrounding him, based upon William Boyd's novel of the same name. Heughan returned to theatre later that year in dramatist Phyllis Nagy's adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley at the Royal & Derngate. Throughout that same year, Heughan portrayed Hugh Tennent, founder of Tennent's Lager, in a series of comical commercials, which won a number of accolades at the Scottish Advertising Awards.

Hallmark Channel's original film A Princess for Christmas starred Heughan as Prince Ashton in 2011, a role which saw him appear opposite Roger Moore and secure a nomination for Most Inspiring Performance in Television at the 20th Annual Grace Awards. That same year, he featured in Steve Waters' sold-out play Amphibians, a dual story of Olympic swimmers Max and Elsa, at the Bridewell Theatre. For the next two years he starred as Batman in the touring stage show Batman Live. During this time he made the news for his assistance in a real-life citizen's arrest. In 2012, he performed the title role in Shakespeare's King John at the Òran Mór Theatre.

In 2013, Heughan was cast as Jamie Fraser in the Starz time-travel drama series Outlander. He was the first cast member officially announced, to great praise by the author of the series, Diana Gabaldon, who said, "That man is a Scot to the bone and Jamie Fraser to the heart. Having seen Sam Heughan not just act, but be Jamie, I feel immensely grateful to the production team for their painstaking attention to the soul of the story and characters." He's played the co-lead role for all seven seasons of the series, and will continue for the eighth and last season, scheduled to film in 2024. He and his co-star, Caitriona Balfe, assumed the additional role of producers on the series in 2019.

Turning to independent films in 2014, Heughan appeared in the psychological thriller Emulsion, the story of a man haunted by the disappearance of his wife. He also starred in the comedy Heart of Lightness, in which Heughan appeared with two of his future Outlander co-stars: Laura Donnelly, who plays Jamie's sister Jenny Murray, and Rosie Day, who played Mary Hawkins in the second season. He went on to play the lead role of Jacob in the 2016 independent film When the Starlight Ends, which premiered at the Other Venice Film Festival.

In 2018, Heughan co-starred as MI6 agent Sebastian Henshaw in the action comedy film The Spy Who Dumped Me, opposite Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, which he filmed during an Outlander filming hiatus. That same year, in his first voice-acting project, Heughan appeared in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment video game Lego DC Super-Villains as the Mirror Master. In May of that year, Heughan was a guest on BBC Two Scotland's special The Adventure Show, alongside Cameron McNeish, in an episode titled "Take A Hike" that focused on Scotland's passion for walking. It was also announced that Heughan would portray Corporal Jimmy Dalton in Bloodshot, an adaptation of the best-selling comic book from the Valiant universe, opposite Vin Diesel and Michael Sheen. Bloodshot premiered in March 2020. In November 2018, Heughan was cast as Tom Buckingham, the lead role in SAS: Red Notice, a film based on the novel of the same name by Andy McNab.

In 2019, it was announced that Heughan would play Paul Newman in To Olivia, a biopic about Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl starring Keeley Hawes and Hugh Bonneville. To Olivia premiered on February 19, 2021, in the United Kingdom, via Sky Cinema. In 2020, Heughan was cast as Henry in the Regency-era romantic comedy Mr. Malcom's List, based on a book of the same name by Suzanne Allain. Heughan was also cast alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Celine Dion in the romantic drama Love Again, a remake of the German film SMS Fur Dich.

SAS: Red Notice, a British action thriller based on the novel of the same name by Andy McNab, was released in 2021. The film premiered in United Kingdom on March 12, 2021, via Sky Cinema. Rotten Tomatoes described the film as a "thoroughly mediocre action thriller."

Heughen wrapped up filming of the romantic drama Love Again, in early 2021, in which he stars alongside Priyanka Chopra and Celine Dion. The film is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich, itself based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Sofie Cramer. It was released theatrically on May 12, 2023, by Sony Pictures Releasing.