Background
McKay was born in Bury, Lancashire. His mother, Lynne, is a hairdresser, and his father, Stuart, is a railway worker
McKay was born in Bury, Lancashire. His mother, Lynne, is a hairdresser, and his father, Stuart, is a railway worker
He studied piano as a youth, and performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Number.
He also appeared in movies such as You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Rush. He has two siblings, Karen McKay and Tony Gardner. 3 at age 21. McKay subsequently halted his concert career and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting.
In the theatre, McKay has portrayed Orson Welles in the one-man play Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles at a number of venues, including the Edinburgh Festival and King"s Head (London).
He subsequently reprised the role in the United States at the 2007 "Brits Office Broadway" festival. McKay"s television appearances include portraying conductor Pierre Monteux in the British Broadcasting Corporation television production Riot at the Rite (2005).
His first film appearance was in Abraham"s Point (2008). After seeing a performance of Rosebud at the 2007 "Brits Office Broadway" festival, Richard Linklater cast McKay as Welles in his film Maine and Orson Welles, retaining McKay over the subsequent producer objections to his casting.
In this, his second film, McKay received critical praise for his performance as Orson Welles.
In 2013, McKay played Gerard in Strangers on a Train at London"s Gielgud Theatre. McKay has recently been seen in the biographical drama Rush, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts-nominated music film Northern Soul, and the Oscar-winning biographical drama The Theory of Everything, alongside Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.