River City actor who raised £22k for The Celtic FC Foundation runs workshop in Falkirk

Frank Gilhooley is a star of Still Game, River City, Outlander and much more but acting wasn’t his first choice of career. He grew up in the mining community of Loanhead in Midlothian and trained as a landscape gardener, eventually setting up his own business.

His arrival on stage came in 2001 via the Edinburgh Theatre Workshops community play and later that year found himself in a production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Since then he has had various roles across the TV and film industry, including Mark in Still Game and the manipulative Incestual rapist John Maclean in River City in 2017/18 where he caused a stir with his realistic and creepy performance of the character, before playing the loveable but violent character Dickson, for Oscar nominated director David Mackenzie in Outlaw King.

Talking about his more recent work, Frank said: “I recently performed for Warner Brothers as the crazy Scottish daunting larger than life character Horns, in their new eight- part series Mrs Davis, written by Damon Lindelof of Lost, all about an AI algorithm that takes over the world.

“Just before that I performed for Macallans Whisky in their wonderful short film Spirit of 1926. A great informative film about the amazing Nettie Harbington who forged the business of Macallans, with a single bottle she distilled in 1926 selling recently for £1,452,000.”

He is also involved with the charity group, The WanderBhoys, and his trek along the Inca Trail in Peru to the lost city of Machu Picchu raised £22,000 for The Celtic FC Foundation.

Next Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10, he will be in Falkirk’s Trinity Church with his acting workshop Going Deep. He said: “It’s a deeply emotional performance workshop for would be creatives of all genres, and also for people who simply need a help with their mental health and self esteem.

“The last class I ran in Falkirk was just before Covid hit. This is the re-launch of classes across the country and I’m delighted to be starting in Falkirk.”

Classes are from 9am to 6.30pm and for details of cost and how to book visit here