Out Spotlight

For Canada Day, today's Out Spotlight is a Canadian actor and musician. Today's Out Spotlight is Luke Macfarlane.

Thomas Luke Macfarlane , better known as Luke Macfarlane,  was born January 19, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada. His later father, Thomas, was the Director of Student Health Services at the University of Western Ontario, and his mother, Penny, is a mental health nurse at a London hospital. He attended London Central Secondary School with twin sister Ruth and older sister Rebecca.

Macfarlane attended the Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts, then later studied drama at Julliard in New York City, where he starred in the productions of Romeo & Juliet, Richard III, The School of Night, Blue Window, The Grapes of Wrath, and As You Like It before graduating from the drama division in 2003.

He was one of the four leads in Juvenilia at the Playwrights Horizons Theater from November 14–December 21, 2003. He went on to  play the lead role in the American premiere of the play Where Do We Live, staged at the Vineyard Theatre in May 2004. The production was cited by the 2005 GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding New York Theatre: Broadway and Off-Broadway. He also appeared with Jill Clayburgh and Hamish Linklater in the off-Broadway production of The Busy World is Hushed, again at Playwrights Horizons, in the Summer of 2006.  He reprised his role of Thomas for the L.A. Premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center from February 7–11 of 2007.

On television, he is perhaps best known for his role as Scotty Wandell on ABC's Brothers & Sisters, husband to Kevin Walker (played by Matthew Rhys), one of the "brothers" of the show.

His  previous TV roles include Pvt. Frank "Dim" Dumphy on the 2005 FX network television series Over There and played opposite Cynthia Nixon in Robert Altman's Tanner on Tanner on the Sundance Channel.

Macfarlane was the last cast member to be added to the Fox pilot, Supreme Courtships, playing the role of conservative Allen Moore, described as a trust fund baby trying to prove he's more than just a legacy in the court. The pilot was not picked up by Fox Broadcasting Company for the 2007–2008 season.  He was cast as the leading role in the two-part mini-series for CBC called Iron Road which filmed in China and British Columbia.

After several years of speculation about MacFarlane’s sexuality, including a relationship with fellow actor TR Knight,  the actor confirmed he was gay in an interview with the Canadian paper Globe and Mail in 2008.

"I don't know what will happen professionally," MacFarlane said. "That is the fear, but I guess I can't really be concerned about what will happen, because it's my truth. ... There is this desire in L.A. to wonder who you are and what's been blaring for me for the last three years is how can I be most authentic to myself - so this is the first time I am speaking about it in this way."

The timing of his confirmation was also in part due to an upcoming storyline on Brothers & Sisters that involves his character being “married” to Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys), his boyfriend on the show.

"From a standing outside perspective, and also as someone who is gay, I think that it's a very exciting time," MacFarlane said. "How exciting that we're saying, 'This can be part of the cultural fabric, now,' because it is two series regulars, two people that you invite into your home and you see every week. It's telling of the beginning of more waves and I'm very proud of that."

He was  also part of the one-night celebrity performed staging of Howard Ashman's unproduced musical "Dreamstuff". The musical was re-imagined by Howard's partners Marsha Malamet and Dennis Green and performed one night only at Los Angeles' Hayworth Theatre as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series, directed by Ugly Betty's Michael Urie. Luke starred in the show alongside Eden Espinosa, Vicki Lewis, Fred Willard and David Blue.

He joined the cast of Larry Kramer's A Normal Heart, and returned to join National company in 2012.    The story of a city in denial which "unfolds like a real-life political thriller—as a tight-knit group of friends refuses to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of an unspoken epidemic behind a wall of silence. A quarter-century after it was written, this outrageous, unflinching and totally unforgettable look at the politics of New York during the AIDS crisis remains one of the theater's most powerful evenings ever."

As a musician, Macfarlane was the lead singer and a songwriter for the band Fellow Nameless, which began in his 8th grade along with some of his classmates at Lester B. Pearson School for the Arts under the name of Slipnaught, a name they randomly chose from a dictionary because they did not have a name for the band when it came time to perform on stage. Fellow Nameless came from Slipnaught mainly because the band members hated the original name, and so, Fellow Nameless was born at London Central Secondary School. Fellow Nameless produced one underground album, which was a half-studio, half-live CD album, and they recorded an additional ten songs that never got put out including three songs that were recorded for a development deal with Maverick Records. They played a showcase for Danny Strick A&R of Maverick Records and in the end got passed over. The once thought of as defunct London, Ontario, based band, Fellow Nameless, later had two incarnations without Macfarlane as lead singer. The first incarnation came in the second quarter of 2004 with the creation of Van A Primer and a new singer, Matthew Pearn. Their current incarnation, as of March, 2006, has three of the remaining band members under the new band name of Cancel Winter.

Macfarlane’s other musical talents include classical cello and the trumpet.

Luke was recently voted  29th, on the 2012 After Elton's Hot 100.

Happy Canada Day!