Grant Gillespie

Grant Gillespie’s an actor, novelist, and screenwriter living in the West End of London.

Though he didn’t create this website, he wrote the content and – though it’s ‘form’ to write in the third person – it’s unnerving, and he can’t sustain it for more than a few sentences…

There, that’s over. From now on, it’s my love-it or cocking hate-it, authorial voice. (Disclaimer: the content will be a tad listy for the sake of expediency – not wit – to avoid anyone’s TLDR – Too Long Didn’t Read – apparently – switch.) So, to make a much longer, more tangential story somewhat shorter and more linear… I’m the child of an Irish dancer and Italian father (that’s all I know) adopted in the 70s by a loving Cheshire couple with very good intentions. I was dragged up in a small Lancashire village called Poulton-le-Fylde, which may sound exotic and pseudo-French but it means ‘pool town on the field’ and even that still strikes me as an up-sell. Sleepy, net-curtain twitching, all-too-white, Poulton is also close to the more aptly named Blackpool, as that is certainly a ‘black pool’ full of day-trippers and acid-trippers and stag dos. I still have the literal scars from ‘fun’ nights out in that town.

I was sent to an ivy-clad Grammar school full of army kids and farmers, who were mostly kind and though I will always be drawn to the Northern wit, warmth and say-it-like-it-is bluntness, I always felt like an outsider there – not entirely surprising, being a square-peg, round-hole, only (lonely) child, of dubious parentage who was glaringly unwilling and unfit for rugby or the obligatory Cadet Force. Aside from the company of my imaginary friend, David, characters in books and on-stage were my nearest and dearest and this is where my love – and need – for writing and acting began. Both crafts – and wine – have been my sanctuary ever since.

Aged eighteen, I won a place on a creative writing course with the writer Helen Dunmore and then went on to study English Literature at Glasgow University (MA). My parents – perhaps wisely – wouldn’t consider drama school as an option deeming my desire to be an actor as an unrealistic ‘phase’. (Perhaps it was, but I’m not of of it yet). So, I spent my academic years wearing three-piece suits and cravats and shirking lectures to write pretentious fiction and perform in plays. I was fortunate enough to work with some brilliant director/writers, including Victoria Beattie and Nicola McCartney, and learnt my trade on the job, performing at the Citizens, the Tron, the Tramway, the CCA, and the Traverse, plus international festivals throughout Europe, Mexico and Morocco.

My first agent, Meg Poole (Richard Stone Partnership) saw me at the Edinburgh Festival and offered me representation, but said I may as well stay on in Scotland for a while as unless I was ‘gay or played a recherché instrument, as actors are ten-a-penny in London’. But I thought, ‘I’m bi and crap at the bassoon, so I’m half-way there,’ and the siren song of Soho was already too strong for me to ignore… and it’s been my stomping ground ever since.

Okay, here comes the brief CV bit: I worked extensively with Stephen Unwin for the ETT, including a celebrated production of King Lear at the Old Vic starring Timothy West. I’ve subsequently worked with other theatre greats, including Jamie Lloyd, Michael Grandage, and Erica Whyman. Screen-wise, I’m in Living, the Kingsman, Florence Foster Jenkins, Catastrophe, Siblings, The Crown, George Gently, Victoria and Cast Offs, have just filmed Joan (ITV) and am booked on The Diplomat (Netflix). Voice-wise I’ve been in BBC radio plays, done a stint of MOCAP work at The Imaginarium (who doesn’t want to wear a grey leotard and have Velcro balls stuck to them?) and have given life to the voices of both sinister and surprisingly heroic characters in the computer games Bloodborne, Dark Souls and Squadron 42.

As I mentioned, aside from treading boards and shouting into the dark, I’ve always been compelled to write. It’s the closest I come to meditation.

My novel, The Cuckoo Boy, was described as ‘an emotionally visceral debut,’ (Guardian), which is pithy and pleasing. And 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.’ My short story, The Upper Hand, was published by Simon Schuster in: He Played For His Wife and Other Stories, sidled in beside heavyweights including the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, DBC Pierre. I’m just finishing the edit for my next novel, Nothing Dies, a coming-of-age ghost story set at the end of WW2. I’ve also written for Perspective Magazine. My review of Philip Hensher’s brilliant novel, To Battersea Park, can be read here: perspectivemag.co.uk/books-march-2023/.

I’m part of the production company 100 Names with Laurence Dobiesz, Lisa Kerr, Antonia Kinlay, Olivia Poulet, Sam Swainsbury. Our first short Deliver Me, can be watched here: vimeo.com/384737186 and I wrote the screenplay for our second film, a satire, Just Do It, which is currently doing the festival circuit (placing for Best Screenwriter at GenreBlast, Bolton International, FilmFest Bremen, Short.Sweet Festival, YoFi Fest). I’m also regular contributor to the drama series, The Other 1%.

My screenwriting, includes the pilot, Harvest – co-written with Kate Ashfield – acquired by producers Kate Lewis and Julia Walsh; my 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; my pilot, Splinter, was a quarter-finalist in the SWN Awards and the screenplay of my novel co-written with Kate Ashfield won Bronze in the Let’s Make It Screenwriting Contest. I’ve also just finished collaborating on a comedy pilot, Little Fish, with the fabulous children’s writer and professional miller, Gabrielle Djanogly.

Deep breath. Humble brag over and out.