Gary Lewis (actor)

 ( Living People ) 

In 1999, Lewis starred in Ayub Khan-Din's dramatic comedy East is East, and Bill Forsyth's comedy Gregory's Two Girls. He went on to star with Max Beesley in The Match (1999) before landing his international breakthrough in Billy Elliot (2000). Lewis's portrayal of a grief-stricken father, coping with the 1984-85 miner's strike and raising a son who wants to become a ballet dancer earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2000, Lewis starred in May Miles Thomas's drama One Life Stand, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and featured Michael Caine as a boxing coach who was possibly involved in a murder in Shiner, which screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Lewis finished the year with several short films including What Where, a 12-minute short with Sean McGinley based upon Samuel Beckett's play of the same name, director David Mackenzie's Marcie's Dowry, The Elevator alongside Ashley Walters, Long Haul alongside Simone Lahbib , Clean with actor Stephen McCole, and director David McKay's Caesar.

In 2002, Lewis starred in CBC Television's award-winning TV film The Many Trials of One Jane Doe, which is based on a true story of a Toronto woman who challenged the police and their investigation after being raped, through a lengthy court battle. 2003 saw Lewis return to the BBC for director Antonia Bird's compelling TV film Rehab, a semi-improvised film about the rehabilitation of people addicted to drugs.

That same year he featured in scriptwriter Andrew Davies's made for TV historical drama Warrior Queen, which detailed the birth of Great Britain. His next project, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot (2004) , was a four part mini-series for the BBC on the lives of Mary Queen of Scots and her son James VI of Scotland/James I of England. Lewis portrayed historical figure John Knox, a prominent leader of the Scottish Reformation who supervised the preparation of the Reformed Church of Scotland's constitution and liturgy.

The BBC and The Discovery Channel partnered in 2005 to produce a made-for-TV film, Supervolcano, that proposed a scenario where the magma chamber beneath Yellowstone National Park erupted. Filmed in Vancouver and Yellowstone, it starred Lewis alongside Michael Riley and Shaun Johnston. Between 2006 and 2008, Lewis appeared in a wide range episodic television programs, including ITV's crime thriller Rebus, alongside Helen Mirren, ITV's showcase series Comedy Lab, the second of two episodes he appeared in (the first was in 1999), Channel 4's mini series City of Vice, Wired alongside Jodie Whittaker, crime drama Taggart the second of two episodes he appeared in (the first was in 1996), and BBC comedy Rab C. Nesbitt.

In 2010 Lewis portrayed Adam Ingram in the Channel 4 drama Mo, a biopic of former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, a role that saw him nominated for a BAFTA Television Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor. He went on to appear alongside actor Kevin McKidd in BBC Scotland's drama One Night in Emergency, which was based upon Homer's Odyssey and written by Gregory Burke, as well as the BBC's adaptation of RAF fighter pilot Geoffrey Wellum's WWII autobiography First Light. Lewis played Mac alongside the now star of Outlander, Sam Heughan, who played the 18 year old fighter pilot Wellum Lewis rounded out the year by featuring in series seven of the BBC's long-running crime drama New Tricks.

Lewis appeared in several Miniseries in 2011. The first was episode five of the BBC's Outcasts, which saw Lewis portraying Patrick Baxter. Next was an episode of the BBC drama The Body Farm where he portrayed Jimmy West, butler to an elderly man accused of murder. Finally, Lewis appeared in the BBC mini-series Young James Herriot, which focused on the All Creatures Great and Small author's time as a student at Glasgow Veterinary College, in the role of Professor Quinton Gunnel. He also featured in several TV series including the enigmatic wizard Alator in two episodes of the BBC fantasy drama Merlin, Robert Winter in ITV's crime drama Vera, and Detective Novakowski in Canada's true crime drama Dual Suspects.

In 2012 Lewis starred in the two-part Miniseries L'Olimpiade Nascosta, on Italy's Rai 1, which tells the story of symbolic Olympic Games held by the prisoners and their captors while in Polish Nazism concentration camps. He went on to feature in a season two episode of the BAFTA winning show Case Histories, alongside Jason Isaacs.

Death in Paradise, BBC's lighthearted police drama set on an island in the Caribbean, featured Lewis in the guest starring role of Bill Williams early in 2015. Later that year he starred as Mike McAvett in BBC Two's mini-series Stonemouth, an adaptation of Scottish author Iain Banks's Stonemouth of the same name. In BBC One's four-part drama One of Us (aka Retribution), a triple homicide murder mystery, Lewis featured as farm manager Alistair. From there he starred in ITV's British crime drama The Level, as father of protagonist Nancy Devlin (Karla Crome). Lewis ended 2016 by once again working with costar Douglas Henshall in ITV's three-part mini-series In Plain Sight, which was based on the true story of Lanarkshire Detective William Muncie's quest to bring serial rapist and murderer Peter Manuel to justice in the 1950s.

Lewis signed on to co-star opposite Catherine Walker and Søren Malling in MTG Studio's drama Rig 45, set during the investigation of a fatal accident on a North Sea oil rig, in early 2018. He next appeared in season three of Netflix's Canadian fur trade drama Frontier, alongside Jason Momoa and Zoe Boyle. During the first quarter of 2019, Lewis guest starred in series finale of BBC Scotland's hit comedy Still Game, which focused on two Glasgow and their reactions to the world.