Ruaridh Mollica

Ruaridh Silvio James MacGillivray-Mollica, born on 14 October 1999, is a Scottish actor, writer, and director. He gained widespread recognition for his starring role in the 2024 feature film Sebastian, which earned him a nomination for a British Independent Film Award. On television, he has appeared in prominent roles in series such as the Channel 5 drama Witness Number 3 and the BBC Three series Red Rose. In 2024, Screen International named him among its Rising Stars Scotland.

Born in Prato, Italy, to an Italian father and a Scottish mother, Mollica grew up in Scotland and attended Broughton High School in Edinburgh. He joined the Strange Town youth theatre group, where he met his talent agent. Alongside his early acting pursuits, he attended Heriot-Watt University, participating in snowsports and graduating in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science. Although he was accepted into a master's degree program in Cybersecurity at a London university, he declined the offer after being cast in a major television project.

Mollica started his career as a child actor, making his television debut at age twelve in an episode of the BBC One drama Case Histories, followed by an appearance as a background dancer in the musical film Sunshine on Leith. He worked intermittently over the next several years, taking on minor roles such as playing a younger version of a main character in the 2015 television drama Stonemouth and appearing in the 2018 romantic film Tell It to the Bees.

During his final year of university, Mollica returned to acting when his agent secured him the lead role in Sean Lionadh's 2022 short film Too Rough, which won a Scottish BAFTA. This led to his first recurring television role as Patrick Hume in the BBC Three horror series Red Rose, followed by his first leading role on television in Channel 5's Witness Number 3. During this period, he also performed on stage in a production of Wasted at the Jack Studio Theatre.

His breakthrough film role came in 2024 as the lead character Max Williamson in Mikko Mäkelä's feature Sebastian, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and earned Mollica a British Independent Film Award nomination for Breakthrough Performance. That same year, he portrayed a younger version of Stephen Moyer's character Teddy in the Paramount+ series Sexy Beast. His other work includes a role in the film Sukkwan Island, a West End stage debut alongside Joe Locke in Samuel D. Hunter's play Clarkston, and a casting in Marvel's VisionQuest.

In his personal life, Mollica identifies as queer and bisexual, expressing a preference for the term queer. He has noted that relocating from Edinburgh to London provided him with the opportunity to embrace his sexuality and connect with queer culture, aligning his personal growth with the release of his prominent film work.