Thomas Luke Macfarlane Jr. was born on 19th January 1980 in London, Ontario (Canada), but currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Luke's family is made up of his parents, Thomas (who was the director of Student Health Services at the University of Western Ontario. Deceased on 12th April 2007 at the age of 61 years old) and Penny (who is a nurse of the mental health repart at the London hospital), his older sister Rebecca and Luke's twin sister, Ruth.

Luke attended Lester B. Pearson School for the Performing Arts and the London Central Secondary School. During his years at school Luke was the lead singer and a songwriter for the band Slipnaught, which began in his 8th grade along with some of his classmates at Lester B. Pearson School for the Performing Arts. The band named Fellow Nameless came from Slipnaught mainly because the band members hated the original name, and so, Fellow Nameless was born at London Central Secondary Shool. Fellow Nameless has produced one underground album, which was a half-studio, half-live CD album, and they recorded an additional ten songs that never got put out including three songs that were recorded for a development deal with Maverick Records (Madonna's label).

The band was nearly signed to Maverick Records and came close to success, but Luke later left it to start his acting career. Luke's musical talents include classical cello and the trumpet.

After attending London Central Secondary School, Luke was accepted into two prestigious acting schools: Canada’s National Theatre School in Montreal and Juilliard in New York City. Luke chose to attend Juilliard (he graduated in 2003) and for his audition he played the role of Edmund from Shakespear's play King Lear. During his experience at Juilliard he starred in several theatrical productions: Romeo & Juliet, Richard III, The School of Night, Blue Window, The Grapes of Wrath and As You Like It. At Juilliard, he was in Group 32 alongside Ugly Betty's star Michael Urie, who remains Luke's friend.

From the 14th November to the 21st of December 2003, at the Playwrights Horizons Theater, Luke played the character Brondie Chase in the play Juvenilia. In 2003 he also appeared in the music video Love's Divine, by the singer Seal. The video was staged in New York and Luke is the boy who runs after a taxi.

In May 2004 he played Stephen, the lead role in the American premiere of the play Where Do We Live? at the Vineyard Theatre. This production was cited by the 2005 GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding New York Theatre: Broadway and Off-Broadway. In 2004 Luke played in his first movie: Kinsey, in the main role of Bruce Kinsey, and Tanner on Tanner, in the supporting role Stuart DeBarge.

In 2006 Luke played in his first TV series, the FOX production Over There where he had the main role: Pvt. Frank “Dim” Dumphy. This series had a great success, because it was the first to talk about American soldiers in the Iraq war. In “Follow the money”, the last episode of this TV series, the song Howl by Luke and Fellow Nameless is played. In the same year he played another soldier: Lieutenant Sefton, a supporting role in Recalled, a short, and Vincent, a guest role in the movie Trapped Ashes.

Luke also played the role of Thomas in the off-Broadway production of The Busy World is Hushed  in Summer 2006 at Playwrights Horizons and from the 7th to the 11th of February 2007 for the L.A. Premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center.

From 2006 to the present, Luke is plays Scotty Wandell in the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters. Luke appeared, for the first time, in the second episode of the first season: “An act of will”. His character, who was a guest in season one and two, became regular from season three.

Besides, Luke was the last cast member to be added to the FOX pilot, Supreme Courtships, playing the role of conservative Allen Moore. The pilot was not picked up by Fox Broadcasting Company for the 2007/2008 season.

In 2007, Luke worked in a two part mini-series Iron Road, a China-Canada co-production for the CBC, filmed from late April to mid June 2007 in China (for five weeks) and in British Columbia (for two weeks). Luke played the lead role of James Nichols alongside Sun Li, Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole. While he was filming in China, Luke used his days off to explore the cities and countryside around the Hengdian World Studios and even learned to speak a little Mandarin. The movie was broadcasted on TV and theatres in 2008.

In 2008, Luke performed at Los Angeles Hayworth Theatre in the one-night only Howard Ashman's unproduced musical "Dreamstuff", directed by Michael Urie, as part of the Bruno Kirby celebrity reading series

On 15th April, 2008 he openly came out in an interview with the Canadian newspaper Globe & Mail.

In 2009, during a hiatus from Brothers & Sisters, Luke played the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Jazz Age at The Blank Theatre Company, Hollywood (from the 7th February to the 29th of March).

On Monday 16th November, 2009 Luke started to write a blog called Side Dish, Scotty's Food Blog, with the help of Brothers & Sisters author John Kazlauskas.

During the February 2010 hiatus from Brothers&Sisters he worked in a solo theater piece with his writer friend Keith Bunin, who is a writer for In Treatment.

 

Last Updated: September 2010

Biography written by the Ultimate Macfarlane webmasters. Do not reproduce without permission.