David Hewlett - Career

Career

Hewlett got his first computer in his mid-teens and became a self-described "computer nerd". While attending high school in Toronto he launched his acting career, starring in student films by Vincenzo Natali. He dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue careers in acting and computing.

David Hewlett has appeared in many low-budget horror films, such as The Darkside and the minor cult favourites Scanners II: The New Order and Pin. He also guest starred in several television series. In 1996, he landed one of his better-known roles, as Grant Jansky on Traders. In 1997, Hewlett worked again with Natali, starring in the critically acclaimed thriller Cube as Worth the architect, a role that saw the rise of his stardom due to the commercial success of the low budget Canadian film.

A self-confessed science fiction fan, Hewlett has been quoted saying that Doctor Who is what first sparked his love for the genre and that he made science fiction when he was younger in Britain on his 8 millimetre camera with friends. Hewlett more or less had his early dreams of working in science fiction made into a reality when he first had a four-episode guest role on Stargate SG-1 as the Stargate expert Rodney McKay, which eventually grew into his starring role on Stargate Atlantis.

In 2007, David appeared as a guest star in the first episode of the TV series Sanctuary, a show produced by and starring Stargate actress Amanda Tapping. He played Larry Tolson – a patient suffering from a form of psychosis, who was shot and wounded before being taken into custody by police as a murder suspect. There are no plans for him to reprise this role.

In 2006 he wrote and directed A Dog's Breakfast starring himself, his sister Kate Hewlett, his dog Mars, and Stargate Atlantis costars Paul McGillion, Christopher Judge and Rachel Luttrell.