Grant Gillespie – actor, novelist, and screenwriter – lives in London’s Bloomsbury.

Grant’s the child of an Irish mother – a dancer – and (he’s just discovered from a DNA test) a Lebanese father. He was adopted in the 70s by a loving Cheshire couple with good intentions and raised in a small village called Poulton-le-Fylde (which means ‘pool town on the field’ and is possibly an up-sell).

He attended an ivy-clad private school populated by army and farmy kids who were mostly indulgent to this un-sporty, sensitive misfit. At eighteen, he won a place on a writing course with Helen Dunmore, further igniting his passion for creative writing. He longed to go to drama school, but his parents deemed it an unrealistic phase he’d grow out of. They may have been right, but he’s still waiting. They insisted he attended university and read economics or law. So he ran away from home.

He didn’t get to drama school but studied English Literature at Glasgow University (MA) where he mostly wore three-piece suits and cravats, and shirked lectures to write fiction and perform in plays by genius director/writers, Victoria Beattie and Nicola McCartney. He honed his acting skills at the Citizens, the Tron, the Tramway, the CCA, the Traverse, and in international festivals throughout Europe, Mexico, and Morocco.

His first acting agent, Meg Poole (Richard Stone Partnership) offered him representation, but said he may as well stay in Scotland as, unless he was ‘gay or played a recherché instrument, actors were ten-a-penny in London’. But, as someone of ambiguous sexuality, who was god-awful at the bassoon, he considered himself half-way there, plus the siren song of Soho and the West End was too strong to fight…

Now for the CV bit… He’s worked extensively in the theatre with directors Jamie Lloyd and Michael Grandage, in numerous ETT shows with Stephen Unwin (including King Lear at the Old Vic, starring Tim West),  and in several productions with Erica Whyman. Screen-wise, he can be seen in Living, The Kingsman, Florence Foster Jenkins, Catastrophe, Siblings, The Crown, George Gently, Victoria, Cast Offs, Joan, The Diplomat, and most soaps. Voice-wise, he’s currently the Otter in the Just Eat ads, has been in numerous BBC radio plays, done a stint of MOCAP work at The Imaginarium (who doesn’t want to wear a leotard and have Velcro balls stuck to them?) and has given life to the voices of both sinister and surprisingly heroic characters in the computer games Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Squadron 42.

Aside from treading boards and shouting into the dark, he’s always written. Acting and writing (plus wine, art, visiting the sea, and other people) are the things that keeps him mostly-sane and the closest he gets to meditation.

The brilliant Rakkit Productions have just released the audiobook of his debut novel, The Cuckoo Boy, read by the author, and available here on Audible, or you can buy a hard copy from Waterstones here. The novel was described as ‘an emotionally visceral debut,’ (Guardian). The Observer said that ‘through James and David, Gillespie explores the chasm between how children and adults perceive the world, and the devastating consequences of falling through this gap. The Cuckoo Boy is a savage indictment of hypocrisy and forced social convention.’ 

His short story, The Upper Hand is in He Played For His Wife and Other Stories (published by Simon Schuster) is sidled in beside Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and the lovely DBC Pierre. He’s currently finishing the edit of his next novel, Liminal, a coming-of-age ghost story set at the end of WW2.

He’s part of the production company 100 Names with Laurence Dobiesz, Lisa Kerr, Antonia Kinlay, Olivia Poulet, and Sam Swainsbury. Their first short Deliver Me, can be seen here. He wrote the screenplay for their second short, a satire, Just Do It, which placed for Best Screenwriter at GenreBlast, Bolton International, FilmFest Bremen, Short.Sweet Festival, YoFi Fest and can be watched here. Olivia, Laurence, and Grant have just secured funding to shoot a teaser for their upcoming feature, One Fell Out, a mockumentary about swingers. Watch this space…

Other screenwriting includes the pilot, Harvest – co-written with Kate Ashfield (acquired by Kate Lewis and Julia Walsh); his pilot, The Name of Action, made the semi-finals for the US, Shore Scripts pilot competition, placing it in the top 4% from 1000 entries; his pilot, Splinter, was a quarter-finalist in the SWN Awards and the screenplay of The Cuckoo Boy, co-written with Kate Ashfield, won Bronze in the Let’s Make It Screenwriting Contest. He’s just finished collaborating on a comedy pilot, Little Fish, with the fabulous children’s writer and professional miller, Gabrielle Djanogly.