Scottish multi-hyphenate Kevin McKidd has launched an indie on home turf, and says he’s using his Hollywood experience to make it work.
When Deadline speaks with him in his New York hotel, McKidd is in the throes of filming Conviction, the Elisabeth Moss-starring Hulu legal drama from House creator David Shore. After that, he’s headed to L.A. to direct some episodes of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, the show in which he starred as Dr. Owen Hunt before he said goodbye to the role in 2026 after almost two decades. Meanwhile, he’s recently wrapped on UK drama The Only Suspect.
In Conviction McKidd plays the husband of Moss’ Neve Harper, a confident lawyer who finally has her shot at a career-making case: a high-profile murder where the husband is accused of killing his wife by setting their home on fire.
The conversation, however, quickly turns to his native Scotland. McKidd is using the smarts he learned in the U.S. business to power up Ferryman Films, his indie label out of Edinburgh. “I’ve got access to this American skillset and these people who’ve been showrunners on big shows,” he says, “and then there are these Scottish writers with all this potential. It’s really been fun to see that cross-pollination.”
One project he’s working on but keeping mum about is Troubadour. “We’re developing that with Bruno Heller (Rome) who is the chieftain of it, but Kieran Hurley, who’s quite an accomplished Scottish playwright, is co-writing with him,” McKidd says.
His new indie banner has partnered with STV Studios, the production and distribution arm of Scottish broadcaster STV run by former NBCUniversal exec David Mortimer. An adaptation of William Shaw detective novel The Red Shore is the first collaboration resulting from the deal.
There’s also Friends Like These for the BBC in the works, a female-led show about a group of 30-something friends. Gillian McCormack (Counsels) is writing.
A Guilty Secret
One thing that has wrapped is psychological drama The Only Suspect, adapted by Simon Ashdown (Trigger Point) from the novel by Louise Candlish. It is for ITV in the U.K., with Farren Blackburn directing. Moving between the present day and mid-1990s London, it follows Alex (McKidd) and his wife, Beth, played by Amaka Okafor (Black Rabbit). The devoted couple’s seemingly picture-perfect suburban life hides a devastating truth linked to a dead body—Alex, it transpires, is the man who buried that body, and has been harboring the dark secret ever since.
“He’s very much a kind of antihero,” McKidd says of his character. “That’s a really delicious challenge—to have an audience root for a character while also having major mixed feelings about them. I find those characters a fantastic knot to untie.”
The setting for the 1990s part of the series is Camden, London, which was very much the epicenter of the U.K.’s Cool Britannia movement. It struck a chord with McKidd, given he was one of the stars of Trainspotting, a defining movie of that era. He played the memorable and tragic character of Tommy in the Danny Boyle film and recently attended a 30th anniversary screening of the film in Edinburgh.
“I spent my formative years exactly in the period of time in which we see the younger versions of these characters,” McKidd says.
“I didn’t kill anyone, thankfully,” he quips. “But there are those mistakes that you make in your twenties as you’re figuring out life, which is what this show is all about. I was able to get into that character because it weirdly reflected my own life, going back to this place in the same way as Alex as he has to go back and face what happened in the 90s.”
McKidd says viewers should buckle up for twists and turns. “Every episode keeps you guessing. Just when you think you know what’s happening, they pull the rug from under you. It has quite a dark psychology, but there’s a lot of humor in it too.”
Red Planet Pictures is producing. The venerable U.K. label is majority-owned by Fremantle, which is handling international sales and will be pushing at MIPCOM. It is Red Planet’s second Candlish adaptation after Our House, one of ITV’s biggest new drama launches back in 2022.
Explaining why McKidd was such a good fit for The Only Suspect, Red Planet’s Tom Mullens, who is an exec producer on the show, says: “He’s such a clever actor with great dramatic range and a chameleon-like versatility, which was essential for the part of Alex, a deeply complex character who goes on a cathartic journey across the four episodes.
“Not only do we see a charming and manipulative Alex as he protects his secret, but we also see a man who loves his wife and is faced with an impossible choice, knowing that by confronting his guilt and telling the truth, he might also destroy his life and marriage.”
Heading Home
McKidd starred in several U.K.-produced shows during his time on Grey’s Anatomy but still noticed a change when it came to filming The Only Suspect.
“On [Grey’s Anatomy] we have three cameras rolling all the time, every take. But with The Only Suspect it was a single camera, which is pretty much where I started, in indie films in the ’90s and the early 2000s.
“With three cameras, it can dilute what you’re doing. [Director] Farren Blackburn and the DP did such a good job at using that one camera and always placing it in the optimal position to get the most intense version of that setup.”
McKidd’s own directing work has made him more of a team player. “Before, I was probably a bit of a pain in the arse. I was like ‘You know, my character wouldn’t do that.’ Now I’m much more accommodating. I know what it is like to sit in that director’s chair.”
With experience in front of and behind the camera, he says he’s also happy to relinquish control when an acting gig comes up. “When I worked with Ben Williams, who was brilliant [as the director of Hideo Yokoyama adaptation Six Four], and Farren, the first thing I said to them was, ‘I’m not going to come in as this actor-director who’s going to be rolling his eyes at your choices. I can take that chip in my brain out and just focus on being an actor. I’m just going to put my complete trust in you.’”
Being an indie boss, meanwhile, is another skillset. It requires patience as the options are picked up, writers are attached and pitches made to buyers.
“I’ve got this underpinning of being a theater actor, really, who fell into all this TV and film,” McKidd says. “Then I was plugged into the Hollywood system, having come from very independent grassroots. I’ve got one foot in both camps, and that can benefit my acting, but also the company.”
With Conviction calling, McKidd signs off: “I’m always trying to be a moving target. That’s what I want for the company. I want to keep people guessing.”