Scottish actor Stephen McMillan has been named in a prestigious list of upcoming British talent by film industry bible Screen International.
The Dundonian is one of 30 British actors and directors named on the publication’s Stars Of Tomorrow list.
Published annually since 2004, the list has been responsible for helping establish the careers of people such as Robert Pattinson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Blunt, Eddie Redmayne, John Boyega, Carey Mulligan, Florence Pugh and Jodie Whittaker.
Mr McMillan, 23, is best known for his roles in Netflix film Outlaw King, about Robert Bruce, and 2021 BAFTA-nominated drama Boiling Point, which saw him play a self-harming chef alongside Boardwalk Empire star Stephen Graham.
In the same year he acted with Mr Graham again when he appeared in hard-hitting BBC drama The North Water as a rating on an Arctic whaling ship who is sexually assaulted and killed.
READ MORE: BOILING POINT REVIEW
A former pupil of St Paul’s RC Academy in Dundee and at one time an aspiring footballer, Mr McMillan studied acting at Dundee College and it was from there that he was plucked from obscurity by Outlaw King director David Mackenzie to play a squire alongside Hollywood star Chris Pine as Robert the Bruce.
Interviewed in 2021 he described the experience as “insane 15-hour days in the Scottish Highlands wearing chainmail in the rain.” He added: “I was thrown into this environment with Chris Pine walking past … I was like ‘What is going on?’.”
One of his most affecting roles to date has been in short film Mind Yersel, shot by fellow Dundonian Bonnie MacRae, who won a scholarship to Columbia University in New York through social mobility charity the Sutton Trust.
The film deals with the issue of male suicide and was written by Ms MacRae after she read that Dundee had been named Scotland’s ‘suicide capital’. It features a to-camera monologue by Mr McMillan.
Speaking to Screen International, he said: “We released it on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and it blew up. I’ve had kids aged 11, 12 being like: ‘I’ve watched it, and I feel understood’.”
Mr McMillan is currently working on a spin-off TV series of Boiling Point, to be screened by the BBC, and earlier this year he featured in Sky Cinema’s Dead Shot playing a member of an IRA safe-house cell in 1970s London.
Next month he can be seen playing Richard E Grant’s son in The Lesson, a British thriller which also stars Julie Delpy and Daryl McCormack.
Among the other Scots who have featured on the Stars Of Tomorrow list since 2004 are James McAvoy, Richard Madden, Iain De Caestecker and Paul Brannigan and musician-turned-film director John Maclean, formerly of the Beta Band. In 2013, Rose Leslie, Chloe Pirrie and Freya Mavor all featured.
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