Peter Outerbridge Biography

There are few Canadian actors that have as much experience under their belt as Peter Outerbridge does. His IMDb credits list over 90 entries, and that’s not including his voice work. A resume that is as versatile as it is impressive.

Outerbridge, together with two older sisters and two older brothers, grew up in Toronto, Ontario. While his father practiced law, his mother studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He comes from a family of artists, as his uncle (though not by blood) was opera singer Jon Vickers, and his cousin Billy is a regular at Stratford. In Outerbridge’s own words, with his father being a trial lawyer, there were a lot of theatrics on his paternal side as well.

Outerbridge began his acting career after high school, when he enrolled at the University of Victoria to study acting. After graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, he co-founded the theatre group Way Off Broadway and toured Canada with them for four years. In the early 90’s, he started out in television, and his early credits include shows such as 21 Jump Street or The Commish. First feature films include Paris, France and Cool Runnings.

His talent was recognized early on, when roles in Marine Life or Chasing Cain earned him award nominations such as Genie or Gemini Awards, and more roles in TV shows, movies and features films followed. He has worked steadily ever since, on a large variety of projects that couldn’t be more multifaceted. His most notable roles include young student Matt in the critically acclaimed movie Kissed, who falls in love with a necrophiliac. Also of note is his performance playing the transsexual Judy in Better Than Chocolate, or his downright creepy portrayal of sexual assailant Theodore Gray in the thriller The Rendering.

Ever since the early 90’s, Outerbridge has been a steady presence not only on the silver screen but also on TV. Among many others, he played three different characters on the science fiction show The Outer Limits, had a recurring role in season three of Chris Carter’s mystery spin-off Millennium, played the lead in three feature-length episodes of the 2004 version of The Murdoch Mysteries, and scored his biggest lead role to date in the same year, when he was cast as headstrong scientist David Sandström in The Movie Network’s ReGenesis. The science-themed show successfully aired for four years and has been broadcast internationally in over 20 countries. ReGenesis has been nominated for several Gemini awards over the years.

It is Outerbridge’s versatility that has earned him a great number of different roles, be it the supportive boyfriend he portrayed on Whistler, the intensely creepy criminal he played in seasons two and three of The Listener, the hardass FBI agent on Millennium, crazy police detective Dan Farmer on Happy Town or tormented drug addict Malcolm Dawkins on Sanctuary. You can just tell that he goes all-in when he is given a character to play, which also shows in what his co-stars have said about him. Nikita co-star Maggie Q has stated, “He’s just so good. And you just, you walk into a scene and you feel like a thousand pounds just lifted from your shoulders because you don’t have to think for two people.” ReGenesis co-star and friend Conrad Pla has said, “He’s a pleasure to work with. He really cares about what he does, and he’s always there for you as an actor, whether the camera’s on him or not.”

Outerbridge himself has admitted to having a soft spot for the horror genre, as evidenced by roles in movies such as SAW VI, Haunter or Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. When asked about being cast as William Easton in SAW VI, Outerbridge replied, “All through the 80’s, and when I was in theatre school, my guilty pleasure was slasher flicks. When I was hired to do Saw, I watched them all back to back in one day. It was like a wave of agony and blood and wincing. I felt over the moon to be part of that dark magic.” Fake blood and other distasteful props aside, his guest role on the Comedy Central series Puppets Who Kill proved that he is definitely more than capable of mastering comedy. It’s a bit of a shame that he seldom seems to be given the opportunity to stretch his comedic legs.

When asked about his profession, Outerbridge himself constitutes, “Acting ultimately came down to pretending with conviction—in other words: Making yourself believe the words that were coming out of your mouth. And you can call that lying, or [...] having license to lie. I'm going to lie to you, and you're going to let me lie to you, and you know that I'm lying to you, and I know that you know that I'm lying to you, but you paid your five bucks, and I'm gonna lie to you really well, and you're gonna walk out of there, going, ‘Well, that guy's a pretty good liar.’”

In recent years, Outerbridge has portrayed one of Canada’s political founding fathers George Brown in the TV period piece John A.: Birth of a Country, which earned him the 2013 Canadian Screen Award in the category 'Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Series'. He's had a recurring role in The CW’s modern spy reboot Nikita, and he appeared as special guest star on the World War II period drama Bomb Girls. He's been doing occasional guest spots on shows such as Suits and The Listener, and Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds. He portrayed the mercurial modern-day cowboy in a recurring role on season 2 of the BBC America show Orphan Black, and more recently he has guest-starred in a number of popular TV shows such as 12 Monkeys, Zoo, Designated Survivor and The Expanse.

In 2000, Peter Outerbridge married Canadian actress Tammy Isbell, with whom he has co-starred on more than one occasion, among them The Murdoch Mysteries and ReGenesis. It is said the two of them met in 1994 while shooting an episode of The Outer Limits together, in which they fittingly played a young couple. In 2004, twins Thomas and Samuel were born. Outerbridge and his family currently live in Toronto.

Compiled and written by TeeJay, September 2012
Last updated: November 2017