This person was born on the 14th April 1961 in the UK. Brought up by his father from the age of 4 after his Mother walked out. He dropped out of school at 16 and enrolled in acting classes at the Glasgow Arts Centre , after finding inspiration by reading Arthur Miller's “The Crucible”. While he was there he joined up with 4 other actors and they founded the Raindog Theatre Company . From there he made his first screen debut as Big Woody in the film Silent Scream .

At the beginning of the 90's he had a run of films starring in roles such as Steve - Riff Raff, Richard Fascetti- Tender Blue Eyes, Nick Cameron - Go Now & Prehistoric Shamen - Being Human

By the end of the 90's he was one of the more bankable foreign players in Hollywood. He started racking up more films playing characters such as George Lennox - Carla's Song, Colonel Ives - Ravenous, Plunkett - Plunkett & Macleane & Malachy- Angela's Ashes.

As well as the Raindog Theatre he is now also a partner in the British film production company called 4 Ways. By 2000 he was starring in huge Blockbuster films playing roles such as Renard - The World Is Not Enough, Eric Wirral - There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, Daffy - The Beach, Felix Desouza - The 51 st State & Danny Devine -Deadfish.

There are 3 roles which he has made his own first is on TV as the kind hearted highland policeman Hamish McBeth . And secondly as the raving psychopath Begbie in the hard hitting film Trainspotting and finally as Gaz the down and out steel worker come stripper in the OSCAR winning comedy The Full Monty he is of course: