About Ferdinand McKay

I was raised in the countryside of Portugal in a stone built house, with water from a well, solar panels and no television. My siblings and I had a little camera, and my very first role was to play my own stuntman.

I was bred in the council estates of Edinburgh, where I found my love for acting at the North Edinburgh Arts Theatre Project.

Frankie Malonie, an aspiring young Scottish rapper, was a character I created and brought to life, to process my experiences and to raise awareness on the struggles that plague working-class areas. In 2020, I shot my own feature film about Frankie’s story. During my time at the Conservatoire, I shot more music videos and created a live theatre show.

My training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland gave me the space to create, experiment and perform. On stage most days and most nights, credits include Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, LaBute’s a gaggle of saints, Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison, Martin Crimp's Attempts On Her Life, new writing, short films, and Une Vie Europeene – a multilingual theatre show we devised with actors from European countries.

Since graduating, my credits include Alijha in Wheel of Time S3 (Amazon), Erich in Outrageous (Britbox), Young Hugh in Silent Witness (BBC), and a leading role, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, in Truth & Treason (Kaleidoscope Pictures) - a WW2 drama, based on true events, of three teenagers who become peaceful resistance fighters at the height of Nazi Germany. Since moving to London, amongst several final stage auditions, I performed a piece called Firth of Forth at the Theatreship, written by Oli Fyne, which is being developed into a short film.

Watch the showreel