Early life

Buchan was born in Stockport

Stockport

Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

, Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, and brought up in the suburb of Lostock in Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

. He attended the nearby Rivington and Blackrod High School

Rivington and Blackrod High School

Rivington and Blackrod High School is a Church of England, voluntary aided comprehensive and sixth form school in the North West region of England...

 in Horwich

Horwich

Horwich is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest from the city of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway close to the...

.

During A-Levels, and long before his acting career, he worked for Granada Studios

Granada Studios Tour

Granada Studios Tour was an entertainment theme park at the Granada Studios complex in Castlefield, Manchester which England operated from 1988 to 1999...

 as a tour guide, using amusing, unconventional methods to keep tourists interested. He also worked as a bartender at Manchester Airport, as a concierge at the De Vere Whites hotel in Reebok Stadium

Reebok Stadium

The Reebok Stadium is the home stadium of English Premier League football club Bolton Wanderers, and is located on the Middlebrook Retail Park in Horwich, in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. It is commonly known as 'The Reebok'...

, and as a labourer for several months in Italy.

In 2001, he graduated

Graduation

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...

 from Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 with a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in Modern Language

Modern language

A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication and dead classical languages such as Latin, Attic Greek, Sanskrit, and Classical Chinese, which are studied for...

s. Following that he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...

 (RADA).

Career

On the stage he has appeared as Mercutio

Mercutio

Mercutio a fictional character in William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. He is a close friend of Romeo, and Romeo's cousin Benvolio, and also a blood relative to Prince Escalus and Count Paris. As such, being neither a Montague nor a Capulet, Mercutio is one of the few in Verona...

 in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

Royal Exchange, Manchester

The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed Victorian building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann’s Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street...

 (2005). In 2008, he appeared in Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

's "The Man Who Had All the Luck

The Man Who Had All the Luck

The Man Who Had All the Luck is a play by Arthur Miller.David Beeves is a young Midwestern automobile mechanic who discovers he is blessed with what appears to be almost supernatural good fortune that allows him to overcome every seemingly insurmountable obstacle that crosses his path while those...

" at The Donmar

Donmar Warehouse

Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

. The play ran for six weeks in London, before going on a short UK tour. Andrew received the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award

Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards

The Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, commonly referred to as the MEN or M.E.N. Awards, recognise excellence in live British theatre. They are administered by the Manchester Evening News, and are presented at an annual ceremony in Manchester, England...

 for Best Actor in a touring production.

His career in television began in 2006 when he appeared as the vicar, St John Rivers, in the 2006 Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre (2006 TV serial)

Jane Eyre is a 2006 television adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. The story, which has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations is based on the life of the orphaned titular character...

and then as the regular character Scott Foster in the political satire Party Animals

Party Animals (TV series)

Party Animals is a British television drama series screened on BBC Two in 2007. It was produced by World Productions, the makers of No Angels and This Life....

. In 2007, he appeared as Jem Hearne in the award winning Cranford, in a cast that included Judi Dench

Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...

, Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton

Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...

 and Eileen Atkins

Eileen Atkins

Dame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...

. Also in 2007, he appeared as the teacher 'Sean Knowles', with Richard Coyle

Richard Coyle

Richard Coyle is an English actor.-Early life:Coyle was born in Sheffield, England to Irish parents. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further...

 and Indira Varma

Indira Varma

Indira Varma is an English actress. Her first major role was in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. She has gone on to appear in the television series Rome and Human Target.-Early life and background:...

 in ITV's The Whistleblowers. In 2008, he appeared in Season 4, Episode 1 of Bones

Bones (TV series)

Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...

as Dr. Ian Wexler.

In 2008 and 2009, he starred in the ITV1

ITV1

ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...

 drama The Fixer

The Fixer (TV series)

The Fixer is a British drama television series, produced by Kudos for ITV. Set in modern Britain, it follows the life of an ex-British Special Forces soldier arrested by police after he killed his aunt and uncle following his discharge from the military...

as the lead role John Mercer, a paid assassin targeting people who have escaped the law. The first season of The Fixer received a Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 award for Best Series.

In 2009, he appeared as Fishwick in the John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 biopic Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy is a 2009 British biopic about John Lennon's adolescence, his relationships with his guardian aunt and his birth mother, the creation of his first band, the Quarrymen, and its evolution into the Beatles. The film is based on a biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird...

acting opposite Kristin Scott Thomas

Kristin Scott Thomas

Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....

, and directed by Sam Taylor-Wood

Sam Taylor-Wood

Samantha "Sam" Taylor-Wood OBE , born Samantha Taylor, is an English filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. Her directorial feature film debut came in 2009 with Nowhere Boy, a film based on the childhood experiences of The Beatles songwriter and singer John Lennon...

.

In the BBC's four-part drama Garrow's Law

Garrow's Law

Garrow's Law is a British period legal drama about the 18th-century lawyer William Garrow. The series debuted on 1 November 2009 on BBC One and BBC HD. A second series was announced on 7 July 2010 and aired from 14 November 2010...

, he stars in the leading role as William Garrow

William Garrow

Sir William Garrow KC, PC, FRS was a British barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations today...

, which started on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 on 1 November 2009.

In December 2009, he appeared again as the carpenter Jem Hearne in the BBC's two-part Cranford Christmas Special

Return to Cranford

Return to Cranford is the two-part second season of a British television series directed by Simon Curtis. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was based on material from two novellas and a short story by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1863: Cranford, The Moorland Cottage and The Cage at...

.

In 2010, Andrew Buchan appeared as journalist and love interest Billy Marshall in the made-for-TV movie Abroad, based in part on the true-life experiences of Toronto's Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

 columnist and author, Leah McLaren

Leah McLaren

Leah McLaren is a Canadian author and newspaper columnist.Born in Peterborough, Ontario, McLaren attended Claude Watson School for the Arts in Toronto. She studied English literature at McGill University in Montreal, and Trent University in Peterborough, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in...

. This movie was released (broadcast) on CBC TV (in Canada) on 14 March 2010.
On 6 and 7 January 2011 he appeared in a dramatisation of the Laconia incident

Laconia incident

The Laconia incident was an abortive naval rescue attempt in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. On 12 September 1942, , carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers , was struck and sunk by a torpedo from Kriegsmarine...

 on BBC Television.

Personal life

Buchan is in a long term relationship with his fiancee, the actress Amy Nuttall

Amy Nuttall

Amy Nuttall is an English actress and singer most notable for playing the role of Chloe Atkinson in the long-running ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2000 until 2005.-Early life:...

.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2006	If I Had You	Marcus	TV movie
	Jane Eyre	St. John Rivers	TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode #1.4")
2007	Party Animals Party Animals (TV series) Party Animals is a British television drama series screened on BBC Two in 2007. It was produced by World Productions, the makers of No Angels and This Life....	Scott Foster	TV series (8 episodes)
	The Deaths of Ian Stone The Deaths of Ian Stone The Deaths of Ian Stone is a 2007 horror film directed by Dario Piana. It stars Mike Vogel, Christina Cole, Jaime Murray, and Michael Dixon....	Ryan
	Cranford Cranford (TV series) Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions...	Jem Hearne	TV series (6 episodes: 2007-2009)
	The Whistleblowers	Sean Knowles	TV series (1 episode: "No Child Left Behind")
2008	Bones Bones (TV series) Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...	Dr. Ian Wexler	TV series (1 episode: "Yanks in the UK: Part 1 and 2")
	The Fixer The Fixer (TV series) The Fixer is a British drama television series, produced by Kudos for ITV. Set in modern Britain, it follows the life of an ex-British Special Forces soldier arrested by police after he killed his aunt and uncle following his discharge from the military...	John Mercer	TV series (12 episodes: 2008-2009)
2009	Garrow's Law Garrow's Law Garrow's Law is a British period legal drama about the 18th-century lawyer William Garrow. The series debuted on 1 November 2009 on BBC One and BBC HD. A second series was announced on 7 July 2010 and aired from 14 November 2010...	William Garrow William Garrow Sir William Garrow KC, PC, FRS was a British barrister, politician and judge known for his indirect reform of the advocacy system, which helped usher in the adversarial court system used in most common law nations today...	TV series (12 episodes: 2009-2011)
	Nowhere Boy Nowhere Boy Nowhere Boy is a 2009 British biopic about John Lennon's adolescence, his relationships with his guardian aunt and his birth mother, the creation of his first band, the Quarrymen, and its evolution into the Beatles. The film is based on a biography written by Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird...	Fishwick
2010	Abroad	Billy Marshall	TV movie
	Coming Up	Ben	TV series (1 episode: "Eclipse")
	The Nativity The Nativity (2010 TV series) The Nativity is a 2010 British four-part drama television series. The series is a re-telling of the nativity and was broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD across four days, starting on 20 December 2010....	Joseph	TV series (4 episodes)
	The Sinking of the Laconia The Sinking of the Laconia The Sinking of the Laconia is a two-part TV film, first aired on 6 and 7 January 2011 on BBC Two, about the Laconia incident; the sinking of the former British ocean liner RMS Laconia during World War II by a German U-boat, which then, together with three other U-boats and an Italian submarine,...	Mortimer	TV mini-series
2011	Whitelands		short

External links