Tom McKay

(He/Him)

Tom’s breakthrough project is the Mysteria Ecclesiae story expansion for the game Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Growing up near the RSC in Stratford, Tom fell in love with theatre from a young age, providing the first step towards what would become his lifelong passion for TV, film and games. It led to him training at LAMDA, after which he spent a decade working almost exclusively in theatre, at the National, the Almeida, the Donmar and in the West End, before moving into TV where the majority of his working life is now spent, including this year’s Channel 4 hit Dirty Business; and finally, to his venture into games through Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It is a path that has left the performer with the strong belief that the barriers between the various mediums should be “dismantled rather than re-enforced”.

As the first and only game Tom has ever worked on Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been a ten-year journey, with breakthrough project, the story expansion Mysteria Ecclesiae the final piece of the downloadable content puzzle. For a performer in an open world role playing game where the player has endless choice as to how they mould their central character, this has meant taking on the unique and rewarding challenge of portraying myriad nuanced iterations of that beautifully complex character over the course of a decade.

In his own words…

“I think the slow-burn nature of my career has been its biggest blessing. I’ve been lucky to learn the craft of what I do very steadily, without the pressure or exposure of being landed centre stage from day one. This has allowed me to play a really broad palette of characters and explore different ways of working, without ever being pinned down to a single casting type, style or medium; just gently chipping away, working with brilliant people and constantly observing and learning from them.

“What I love most about my work is immersing myself completely in other people’s imaginary worlds from a story perspective, and in other people’s skins from a character perspective. With Kingdom Come Deliverance specifically, the game’s incredible fanbase is a major inspiration; as the character’s potential has become far broader (especially with the gay romance option of which I am massively proud), so the fanbase has become far more diverse and inclusive, which is a very beautiful thing.”