Ruaridh Mollica

Ruaridh Mollica is a Scottish-Italian actor who has emerged as one of the most promising young performers to come out of Scotland in recent years. Born Ruaridh Silvio James MacGillivray-Mollica on 14 October 1999 in Prato, Italy, to a Scottish mother and an Italian father, he was raised in Edinburgh, where he attended Broughton High School.

Before committing fully to acting, he took an unusual route for a performer, graduating from Heriot-Watt University in 2021 with a degree in computer science. He had, however, been working on screen since childhood, with early appearances in “Sunshine on Leith” (2013) and the miniseries “Stonemouth” (2015).

His breakthrough came with the lead role of Max in the 2024 drama “Sebastian,” a performance that earned him a nomination for the British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performance and saw him named one of Screen International’s Rising Stars of Scotland for 2024.

On television he has built a varied CV, including the horror thriller “Red Rose” (2022), a leading role in the crime drama “Witness Number 3” (2022), and the Paramount+ prequel series “Sexy Beast” (2024), in which he played a young Teddy Bass.

His highest-profile role to date comes in the Marvel series “VisionQuest” (2026), where he plays Tommy Maximoff, also known as the super-speedster Speed — a part expected to raise his international profile considerably.

Openly queer and comfortable moving between British and Italian productions thanks to his dual heritage, Mollica represents a new generation of Scottish screen talent, combining formal versatility with the kind of breakout momentum that marks an actor on the rise. His mix of independent film, prestige television and a major franchise role has made him one of the more closely watched newcomers of his cohort.

Critics have noted his ability to shift between vulnerability and menace, a quality on display across his early films and his television leads. With a major Marvel role now behind him and a growing list of independent credits, Mollica is frequently cited among the Scottish actors most likely to break through internationally over the coming years, and he continues to take on projects on both sides of the Atlantic and in Europe.