Fife-born actor, writer, producer and former stand-up comedian Richard Gadd is the first person to become a global household name before Stars of Tomorrow even had a chance to publish.

“Baby Reindeer went out on Thursday, April 11th, at 8am, and I remember I just put it on mute in the background so the algorithm picked it up,” he recalls. “By about midday, my phone started exploding. By the weekend, I’m getting 6,000, 7,000 followers an hour. And then we’re number one in the UK, then the US, and then within three weeks, we’re number one in 82 countries. It felt like everyone was talking about it and talking about me.”

Gadd’s groundbreaking series (which just won a Gotham) has launched a tsunami of headlines; it has also threatened lawsuits and a reflection on the value of the ‘based on a true story’ tag. This has, at times, threatened to overwhelm the value of the work. “It’s been such a huge cultural moment that I wasn’t expecting or prepared for, that it’s quite hard to think too far into the future.”

But he can sustain the pace: a long slog on the comedy circuit means Gadd has a raft of self-generated projects at various stages of development, plus he is a fine actor-for-hire, as his role opposite Daniel Mays in biographical drama Against The Law attests. All this will pass, and when it does, his next show will be Lions.

A 6x45-minute limited series for Mam Tor/BBC One, Lions starts production in Glasgow in early 2025, and tells the story — over four decades — of two estranged friends. It is another personal piece for a man who has consistently mined his own life through a slow progression of Edinburgh Fringe shows that moved on to London’s Soho Theatre (his one planned West End transfer, Baby Reindeer, was a casualty of Covid-19). But it is also what he dreamed of growing up in Fife, a superfan of The Office.

“That was my goal — I would write and star in my own comedy show,” says Gadd. “And then obviously my life took a darker dramatic turn.”

Another dream was to make a film in the great tradition of the British road movie: he cites Scottish caper Restless Natives as the inspiration. The fallout from Baby Reindeer means Gadd and his reps are more cautious than in the days before April 11. But they are taking — a lot of — meetings.

Contact: Abby Singer, Casarotto Ramsay , Richard Gibb, Markham, Froggatt & Irwin

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