Early life

McKidd was born on 9 August 1973 in Elgin, in the north-east of Scotland, the son of Kathleen, a secretary, and Neil McKidd, a plumber. At the age of 17, he worked at the Macallan distillery in Speyside then later went to work with a family of coppersmiths called the Lumsdens, and was an apprentice to famous Elgin coppersmith Alan Lumsden. He attended Seafield Primary School and Elgin Academy, and was a member of the local amateur dramatic group, Moray Youth Theatre. Planning to study engineering, he attended the University of Edinburgh, but dropped out and instead enrolled at Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh to study drama. He also joined Edinburgh University's student theatre company, Bedlam Theatre where he performed as a member of the improvised comedy troupe The Improverts.

Career

After playing Tommy in Trainspotting, McKidd was cast as Father Deegan in the 1996 Christmas episode of Father Ted. Subsequent roles include Malky Johnson in Small Faces. In 2004, he played James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, in the BBC mini-series Gunpowder, Treason & Plot.

In 1999 he was part of an ensemble cast in Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy, depicting the development of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. The actors researched their historical characters and used this knowledge during extensive rehearsals to help develop dialogue for scenes blocked out by Leigh. McKidd, like the rest of the cast, did his own singing in the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas portrayed in the film.

In 2001 he played Elliot in the British film Understanding Jane, directed by Caleb Lindsay. He appeared in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, and in the 2002 film adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. In Neil Marshall's horror film, Dog Soldiers, he appeared as Pte Lawrence Cooper. In the 2005 BBC drama, The Virgin Queen, he played Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

In 1998, McKidd was in the four part BBC2 series Looking After Jo Jo, playing the role of Basil. He was also one of the main stars of the joint HBO/BBC series Rome, where his portrayal of the soldier/politician Lucius Vorenus received critical acclaim.

McKidd also starred in the premier of Caryl Churchill's newest play, Far Away. He played Todd, the romantic partner of Joan, and her co-worker as hat maker.

Additional work includes his role in the Silence of the Lambs prequel Hannibal Rising (film) (2007). In late 2007, McKidd began his role as the lead character in the American Fantasy television series Journeyman on NBC. The show suffered from low ratings and only thirteen episodes were produced.

His role in Rome led to McKidd's casting in the medical drama series Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Owen Hunt. He made his directorial debut in the series's seventh season, directing the episode "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)". He won the award for "Best Performance in a Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline" at the 14th Prism Awards for his work in "Grey's Anatomy". He played the role of Poseidon, god of the seas, and the father of Percy Jackson in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

McKidd has done voice work and voiced the character of Jezz Torrent, flame haired lead singer of the fictional Scottish hard rock band Love Fist in the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City". He is also credited with playing a voice-over for the character John "Soap" MacTavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. McKidd was in talks in 2008 to portray Connor MacLeod in a big screen remake of the 1986 fantasy movie Highlander, though the role has subsequently been associated with Ryan Reynolds. In 2012, he voiced the characters of Lord MacGuffin and his son Young MacGuffin in the Disney/Pixar film Brave. Having grown up in Elgin, McKidd used a variation of the Doric dialect for Young MacGuffin, and one of the running gags of his lines is that not even Lord MacGuffin is entirely sure what he is saying.

Speyside Sessions

McKidd instigated The Speyside Sessions, a Scottish folk music album recorded in 2011/12 at Hogmanay in his home town of Elgin. Many of the contributors to the album are old school friends of McKidd's. The album was released on 15 June 2012 in aid of Save the Children.

Most tracks on the album are traditional Scottish folk songs: "Now Westlin Winds", "Both Sides the Tweed", "Charlie is My Darlin'", "The Water is Wide", "The Fairie Dance", "Fareweel Tae Tarwathie", "Iaun Ghlinn Cuach", "Muckin' O' Geordie's Byre", "The Lea Rig", "Barnyard's O Delgaty", "John Anderson", and "Raggle Taggle Gypsy". More contemporary tracks are "These are My Mountains" and the album's sole new original tune, "Diane of Pitgaveny".

In addition to McKidd, contributors to the album include James D. Reid, Nick Lloyd Webber, Bryan Tolland, Paul Anderson, Shona Donaldson, Delane Morrison-Wallace, Morna Young, Carron Anderson, Ali Napier, Dan Conroy, Rose Oke Millett, Garry Morrison, Bob Sharp, Jen Lunan McKee, Carey Lunan, Gayle Anderson, Donald Lunan, Diane Lunan, Dave Martin, Colin Reid, Jason Sinclair, Lesley Skene, Lynsey Mason, Mick McGrory, Stuart McConachie, Iain Robertson, and Karin Gleason.

Personal life

McKidd has been married to Jane Parker since 1999 and they have 2 children together. In August 2015, McKidd and his family became American citizens.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1996	Small Faces	Malky Johnson
1996	Trainspotting	Tommy MacKenzie
1997	Regeneration	Callan
1997	Richard II	Henry Percy
1998	Hideous Kinky	Henning
1998	Bedrooms and Hallways	Leo
1998	The Acid House	Johnny	International Fantasy Film Award - Best Actor
1998	Dad Savage	H
1998	Looking After Jo Jo	Basil
1999	Topsy-Turvy	Durward Lely
2001	Understanding Jane	Eliott
2002	Nicholas Nickleby	John Browdie
2002	Max	George Grosz
2002	Dog Soldiers	Pvt. Lawrence Cooper
2002	That Old One	Tom Furness
2003	The Key	Duncan
2003	AfterLife	Kenny Brogan
2003	16 Years of Alcohol	Frankie	BAFTA Scotland - Best Actor in a Scottish Film - Nominated British Independent Film Award Best Actor - Nominated
2003	Does God Play Football	Father Davis
2004	De-Lovely	Bobby Reed
2004	The Purifiers	Moses
2004	One Last Chance	Seany
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	English Sergeant
2006	The Rocket Post	Thomas McKinnon
2007	The Last Legion	Wulfila
2007	Hannibal Rising	Kolnas
2008	Made of Honor	Colin McMurray
2010	One Night in Emergency	Peter Forbes
2010	Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief	Poseidon
2010	Bunraku	Killer #2
2011	The Great Ghost Rescue	Hamish
2012	Comes A Bright Day	Cameron
2012	Brave	Voice: Lord MacGuffin/Young MacGuffin
2013	Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox	Voice: Thomas Wayne/Batman
2014	Home Sweet Hell	Freeman

Television

Television
Year	Television / Series	Role	Other notes
1996	Father Ted	Father Deegan
1999	The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns	Jericho O'Grady
2000	Anna Karenina	Count Vronsky
2000	North Square	Billy Guthrie
2004	Gunpowder, Treason & Plot	James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell	Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming - Best Actor
2005	The Virgin Queen	Duke of Norfolk
2005-2007	Rome	Lucius Vorenus
2007	Journeyman	Dan Vasser	Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television
2008-present	Grey's Anatomy	Dr. Owen Hunt	Main Cast (Season 5-present) 2010 Prism Award - Best Performance in a Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline 2011 Prism Award - Best Performance in a Drama Series Episode - Nominated
2014	Toy Story That Time Forgot	Reptillus Maximus	Television special
2016	Star Wars Rebels	Fenn Rau

Director

• Grey's Anatomy (2010) Seattle Grace: Message of Hope (Webisodes)

  "No Comment" (October 14, 2010)

  "Take One" (October 21, 2010)

  "Award-Winning" (November 11, 2010)

  "The Sizzle" (November 18, 2010)

• Grey's Anatomy (2011-present), television series

  "Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go)" (2011)

  "Poker Face" (2011)

  "Let the Bad Times Roll" (2012)

  "I Saw Her Standing There" (2012)

  "Do You Believe in Magic" (2013)

  "Two Against One" (2013)

  "I'm Winning" (2014)

  "I Must Have Lost it on the Wind" (2014)

  "Time Stops" (2015)

  "Sledgehammer" (2015)

Video games

• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) — Jezz Torrent
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) — Captain John "Soap" MacTavish
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) — Captain John "Soap" MacTavish

[ Source: Wikipedia ]