Glaswegian Billy Boyd got bitten by the acting bug when he was cast as the Artful Dodger in a school production of the stage musical "Oliver!" at age 11. Although encouraged in his pursuit of the arts by his mother (she enrolled him in amateur dramatics at the Dolphin Arts Centre), he opted to train as a bookbinder when he left school just before his 17th birthday. After a four-year apprenticeship and two more years of actual work, Boyd decided the time had come to pursue his dream of acting. Planning to spend a year in the USA before enrolling in drama school, he learned there were still slots opens at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and went ahead and auditioned. While visiting America, he learned he had been accepted into the three-year diploma program.After graduating, the boyishly handsome Boyd was one of the lucky ones who immediately found work at the Byre Theatre in St. Andrews, playing the title role in the musical "Secret Diary of Adrian Mole" and later "The Slab Boys". He subsequently appeared at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre and the Traverse Theatre in such shows as "Trainspotting", "Widows Alexis" and "An Experienced Woman Gives Advice". A guest appearance as an autistic teenager on the popular Scottish series "Taggart" helped to raise his profile a bit. He segued to films with supporting roles in "Urban Ghost Story" (1998; released in Great Britain in 2001) and "Julie and the Cadillacs" (1999). Boyd enjoyed his greatest exposure to date when he landed the role of Peregrin 'Pippin' Took, one of the Hobbits who are entrusted with destroying a magical ring before it falls into the wrong hands in the highly anticipated Peter Jackson-directed version of J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings". Making three films simultaneously over a two-year period in New Zealand, Boyd was among the many of lesser known performers tapped to play the leading roles. When the first of the trio of movies, "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" opened in December 2001, he found his profile on the rise. Guaranteed exposure over the next two years as the subsequent films -- "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002) and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) -- opened, the actor made a surprising career choice by opting to return to his stage roots in the two-hander "The Ballad of Crazy Paola" at the Traverse Theatre. Boyd joined the cast of yet another absorbing, critically hailed adventure film when he took on the supproting role of coxswain Barrett Bonden in director Peter Weir's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003) opposite Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.
Profession(s):
Actor, musician, bookbinder
Sometimes Credited As:
Education
Dolphin Arts Centre Bridgeton, Scotland
Cranhill Senior Secondary School Cranhill, Scotland
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Glasgow, Scotland
2006 Cast opposite Peter Mullan in "On a Clear Day"
2004 Was the voice of Glen, chucky's offspring in "Seed of Chucky"
2003 Played Pippin in the "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
2002 Reprised role of Pippin in "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
2001 Starred in the stage play "The Ballad of Crazy Paola" at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh
2001 Breakthrough stage role as the hobbit Peregrin 'Pippin' Took in the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings"
1998 Appeared in the short "A Soldier's Leap"
1998 Feature film debut in "Urban Ghost Story"
1979 First stage appearance, as the Artful Dodger in a school production of "Oliver!" (date approximate)
Raised in Glasgow, Scotland
Worked as a bookbinder for six years (dates approximate)
Began career acting in Scottish theater in plays like "The Slab Boys" and "Trainspotting"
