- Born
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Andrew Scott was born in Dublin, Ireland, the middle child with two sisters, Sarah and Hannah. His parents, Jim and Nora, sent him to a private Catholic school for boys. He did a little acting as a child when he was in a couple of commercials on Irish TV. At 17 he was chosen to star in his first professional role in the Irish film Korea (1995).
Scott attended Trinity College in Dublin for six months then dropped out to pursue acting full-time. He was cast in several plays at the Abbey Theatre, the national theater of Ireland. Later, Scott moved to London for a supporting role in Longitude, a television movie starring Michael Gambon. He has stated that he felt uncomfortable and shamed as a gay man in his native country and that was one of the reasons he wanted to move to England where the atmosphere was more welcoming. He mentioned that he had a girlfriend in Dublin in a 2000 newspaper interview, however.
Occasional film and television work in Britain, Ireland and America interspersed his busy stage career. Most notable of these were American mini-series Band of Brothers and John Adams, and the British television comedy series, My Life in Film. He has won many awards for his work in theater in Ireland and England, and received a nomination for The Vertical Hour on Broadway.
When Scott gained international notice as Moriarty, detective Sherlock Holmes' nemesis in Sherlock on BBC TV, his film and television career stepped up considerably with roles in several movies including Victor Frankenstein with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe which was a clunker with the critics, and Spectre, the usual 007 box office smash that was nevertheless considered a weak James Bond entry. In 2017 Scott realized a long-held ambition when he starred as Hamlet in a widely acclaimed performance on the stage in London.
On a personal level, Scott revealed to the Times of London newspaper in 2019 that he and his partner of 15+ years, former actor turned screenwriter of Scott's film, Pride, Stephen Beresford, were no longer a couple.
In 2019 Scott's star took an international upswing when he played the part of the Priest in the second season of the critically lauded British comedy, Fleabag. The popularity of his character as the forbidden love interest of the title character resonated strongly with mostly female audiences in the UK and the United States via internet mania dubbing him the "hot priest" as the character, Fleabag, played by the show's star, creator and writer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, called him in the show.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gail Glaser
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsJim ScottNora Scott
- RelativesHannah Scott(Sibling)Sarah Scott(Sibling)
- In 2012, he was listed in The Hospital Club and Time Out's 100 influential people list, namely for his role as "Jim Moriarty" in the TV series, Sherlock (2010).
- According to his podcast interview on Elizabeth Day's How to Fail, Scott flunked out of Trinity College Dublin his first year for too many absences, but did not know it and showed up the first day of his second year only to be told to go home.
- From the Times of London newspaper of June, 2, 2019: He had come out to his loved ones years ago and was for a long time in a relationship with the writer Stephen Beresford, who in 2014 gave him one of his most "out" roles, in the rainbow-hued miners'-strike film Pride.
- In 2005, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement or Performance in an affiliate Theatre for his performance in "A Girl in a Car With a Man".
- He was awarded the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, along with fellow cast members Ben Whishaw, Katherine Parkinson and Paul Jesson, director James McDonald and playwright Mike Bartlett, for the Royal Court Theatre production of "Cock" by Mike Bartlett.
- [Speaking about how he learned a Russian accent for Legacy, and his homosexuality] There isn't a huge amount of footage of Russians speaking English as a second language, so I started looking at Vladimir Putin videos on YouTube. But then Putin introduced anti-gay legislation this summer - so, being a gay person, I switched to Rudolf Nureyev videos instead. It was another Nureyev defection of sorts!
Scott is low-key on the subject of his sexuality. "Mercifully, these days people don't see being gay as a character flaw. But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It's just a fact. Of course, it's part of my make-up, but I don't want to trade on it. I am a private person; I think that's important if you're an actor. But there's a difference between privacy and secrecy, and I'm not a secretive person. Really I just want to get on with my job, which is to pretend to be lots of different people. Simple as that." - He has lived in London for the past decade with his partner, who is "sort of" in the business. "And that's all you're getting." He clams up. "It sounds maybe a little old fashioned, but the parts I want to play and I do play, you don't want to inject too much of your own personality. What you sacrifice then is a slight mystery."
- People get distracted by box-office figures and take jobs because they think it will advance their careers. Of course, it's nice to get a big cheque and be able to buy a massive house, but my view is that we're not here long, so why not do something of value?
- I'm an enthusiast for people, and I don't want them to become the enemy. I've seen that happen to colleagues who are disturbed the whole time, but there's a certain degree of control you can have if you keep yourself to yourself. The kind of actors I admire move through different characters and genres. That's the kind of actor I try to be. If you want that, you have to be circumspect about your private life.
- [when asked about fans] You get the occasional odd person.
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