Scott Kyle is a Scottish actor, best known for his roles as Ross in Outlander, Clancy in The Angels' Share, and Corporal Stu Pearson in the film Kilo Two Bravo. Kyle received the 2010 Stage Awards Best Actor Award for his role in the playSingin' I'm No A Billy He's A Tim.
Early life
Kyle grew up in Rutherglen, Scotland, the son of a single mother, and attended Stonelaw High School prior to taking an acting course at the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. While still a student, and working night shifts at a supermarket, he founded the NLP Company to create more opportunities for students wishing to act while still in school.
Career
Acting
Kyle's first professional role was in 2006's PondLife, a film from director Sean Wilkie, which chronicled the life of student filmmakers on their last day of school. While still in college, Kyle starred in writer Stephen Greenhorn's play Passing Places, which he both produced and took on tour throughout Scotland. He went on to feature as Romeo in director Laura Pasetti's production of Shakespeare's tragedy at the Charioteer Theatre, and in Sandwich, a short film centering on a retired mobster and a current crime lord. The film was transitioned into an internet series on YouTube entitled The Crews, which eventually screened on STV in Scotland. In 2010, Kyle's had a starring role in Des Dillon's play Singin' I'm No A Billy He's A Tim, which focused on the rivalry between Old Firm football fans. The play, which was produced by Kyle's company NLP, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where Kyle received the 2010 Stage Awards Best Actor Award for his role, before touring throughout Scotland and Ireland. In addition to the play, Kyle ran anti-sectarian workshops based upon its message at schools and youth groups in and around Glasgow. Later that year he starred opposite Coronation Street's Charlie Lawson in NLP's stage production of author Des Dillon's comedic play Blue Hen. Director Ken Loach's 2012 comedy The Angel's Share, a film revolving around Glaswegians who discover whisky, saw Kyle feature as Clancy in his first film role. That same year, he starred in director Laura Passetti's play Fleeto, about a young man who joins a gang after his best friend is stabbed, and director Rachel O’Riordan’s Cold Turkey At Nana’s, which focuses on heroin addiction. He would return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013 in the title role of the Finnish play Bad Boy Eddie. From there he would star in director Paul Katis' 2014 feature film Kajaki, where he portrayed real life soldier Corporal Stu Pearson in the story of a small unit of British soldiers positioned near the Kajaki Dam in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan during Operation Herrick in 2006. That same years saw Kyle's first radio production, BBC Radio Scotland's 2014 psychological thriller The Dead of Fenwick Moor, where he portrayed Stevie Caffrey. 2015 saw Kyle return to stage productions in Loranga, an adaptation of Barbaro Lindgren's book Loranga Masarun och Dartanjang. Kyle joined the cast of Starz' hit time travel drama Outlander, based upon best selling author Diana Gabaldon's popular book series, in 2016. He portrayed Ross the Smith, one of Jamie Fraser's men recruited from Lallybroch to fight for Price Charles Stuart in the Jacobite rising of 1745. The next year, during the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, Kyle starred in writer Mariem Omari’s four-person play One Mississippi, which focused on the voices of four men with mental health issues. In 2018, he starred as Bab Cunningham in Fraser Murdoch's animated short, , which premiered at World of Film: International Festival Glasgow in October of that year. Kyle and Murdoch, along with fellow cast member Gregor Firth, met while working on Outlander. That same year he featured in writer Adam Head's WWIfootball playThe Greater Game, which was based upon the true story of the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, the first football club to enlist together, at the Waterloo East Theatre in London. In 2019, he guest starred in the second series of BBC's medical drama Trust Me, opposite fellow Outlander cast member Richard Rankin. He would return to live theatre later that year in A War of Two Halves, a depiction of the Heart of Midlothian F.C. players that enlisted in the military en masse in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, which was performed at the club's stadium as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In addition to acting, Kyle runs acting workshops for children both within Scotland and abroad, and will partner with the Edinburgh Acting School, alongside Jen McGregor, to lead their ATCL Speech and Drama Diploma course in 2019. He will also be working with school leadership to develop a series of masterclasses and workshops that will be offered over the next year.
Theatre manager
Between 2012 and 2017 Kyle was the artistic director of the Bathgate Regal Community Theatre in Scotland, which was housed in a refurbished Category B listed former cinema. In 2017, Kyle was awarded a Pride of West Lothian - Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Theatre for helping to raise over £65,000 for improvements to the theatre through donations from his Twitter followers. He also organised several Scottish-themed events, including the annual Highland Fling, for fans in Scotland and North America. In late 2017, Kyle was appointed Program Manager for the Fife Cultural Trust, overseeing the bookings and events for theatres, libraries, museums and galleries in the area. He manages the Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall, the Lochgelly Centre, the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy, and Rothes Hall in Glenrothes. Of the position, he has said, "My idea is to have one person: you start there and they work with the theatres, bringing together their different programmes and using their marketing budget to promote the show".
