Richard Rankin is a Scottish film, television and theatre actor as well as a photographer. He was born on 4 January 1983 in Lennoxtown, Glasgow. His birth name is actually Richard Harris. He changed his name to Rankin, his mother's maiden name, to avoid any confusion with the famous Irish actor of the same name.
Rankin is best known for the Scottish sketch show Burnistoun, for playing Roger Wakefield MacKenzie in the Starz drama Outlander, and for playing the lead role in the 2024 TV series Rebus, adapted from the Inspector Rebus novels by Ian Rankin.
Initially his career path was set to be an IT professional, with a healthy helping of wanting to be in a boy band. However, when he visited Los Angeles at the age of 21, his objectives changed. He started his training as an actor the following year, at Langside College.
He first came to the public's attention, as an actor, in the Scottish comedy series Burnistoun, and he toured extensively in the award winning play, Black Watch. Although, his very first plays were A Clockwork Orange at Langside College, and Pillow Man at Citizens Theatre. An iconic role, as Captain Thomas Gillan in Crimson Field, led to many other equally strong roles in BBC productions such as Silent Witness, The Syndicate, From Darkness, and Thirteen. In July of 2016, he made his debut in Outlander, based on a book of the same name by author Diana Gabaldon, as Roger Wakefield MacKenzie. He also appeared in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom.
