Burn Gorman

Born: 1st September 1974 (as Burn Hugh Winchester Gorman)
Episodes Broadcast: 2006-2008

Biography

Burn Gorman was born in Los Angeles, California, where his father was a linguistics professor. When he was seven years old, the family returned to the United Kingdom. Gorman subsequently attended the School of Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in acting. His first television job was a two-month stint on Coronation Street at the end of 1998, and he was soon working steadily on shows like Merseybeat, Funland, Bleak House and Dalziel And Pascoe. Gorman also began accruing movie credits, amongst them Layer Cake starring Daniel Craig, the romantic comedy The Best Man, and Penelope with Christina Ricci. An accomplished musician and disc jockey, he co-founded the beatboxing quartet Drool Skool, with which he performed under the stage name BB Burn. In 2004, Gorman married schoolteacher Sarah Beard; they would have a son, Max, and daughters Nell and Rosa prior to their divorce in 2017.

In 2006, Gorman joined the cast of the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, on which he played caustic medical doctor Owen Harper. During the programme's second season in 2008, the character went through a major evolution after suffering a fatal injury, only to be revived in a state of living death. Much of the year's concluding episodes dealt with Owen's attempts to come to terms with his new existence, before he died again -- permanently, this time -- in the season finale, Exit Wounds. The same year, Gorman narrated the Torchwood drama Everyone Say Hello from BBC Audio. He made two more movies around the same time: the family film Fred Claus and the thriller The Oxford Murders. After leaving Torchwood, Gorman's television projects included Bonekickers and Wuthering Heights.

During the 2010s, Gorman divided his time between the small screen and the silver screen. Amongst his television credits were Game Of Thrones, TURN: Washington's Spies, Jamestown and The Expanse, while he could be seen in movies such as Johnny English Reborn, The Dark Knight Rises, Pacific Rim and its sequel, and Crimson Peak. In 2017, Gorman reprised the role of Owen Harper for the range of Torchwood audio dramas from Big Finish Productions, starting with Corpse Day. He later played other roles for the company's various Doctor Who-related series. Gorman's credits during the Twenties counted the likes of Halo and The Offer on television, as well as the films Enola Holmes and the animated Guillero del Toro's Pinocchio.

Credits
Actor, Owen Harper
Everything Changes
Day One
Ghost Machine
Cyberwoman
Small Worlds
Countrycide
Greeks Bearing Gifts
They Keep Killing Suzie
Random Shoes
Out Of Time
Combat
Captain Jack Harkness
End Of Days
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Sleeper
To The Last Man
Meat
Adam
Reset
Dead Man Walking
A Day In The Death
Something Borrowed
From Out Of The Rain
Adrift
Fragments
Exit Wounds

Updated 25th April 2023