Biografia
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, his mother was a midwife and his father served as a Royal Air Force Police mechanic before becoming a chief lecturer and engineer specializing in prosthetics and orthotics. He achieved junior Scottish bodybuilding champion status, securing several titles in his late teens. Motivated by childhood heroes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, he took part-time acting classes prior to enrolling in drama school. Following formal training, he worked in theatre, touring in Harold Pinter's classic "The Birthday Party" as the menacing McCann, and then playing Jerry in Edward Albee's "A Zoo Story," earning rave reviews.
Larkin's career is characterized by his portrayal of characters balancing vulnerability and toughness, adding depth and emotional complexity to roles that might otherwise seem one-dimensional.
As a struggling actor, he created his own projects, with his first work screened at the Sundance Film Festival. He gained notable recognition for "Scene" (2006), where he played a hapless actor trapped inside a movie, earning his first BAFTA Scotland Award. He went on to take on diverse roles in American and British independent films and smaller parts, including the Depression-era heist film "The Red Machine" (2009), and his self-written "Running in Traffic" (2009), portraying Cullen, a grief-stricken drug dealer alongside Kenneth Cranham, which won him his second BAFTA. In 2009, he received the Trailblazer Rising Star Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, presented by Sean Connery.
He showcased his leading man capabilities in several low-budget films, such as the action-heist "Battleground" (2011), before gaining over 40 lbs of muscle to play the imposing Russian soldier Dolokhov in "Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz" (2013).
In 2014, he appeared in Season One of Starz's "Outlander" as Geordie, alongside Graham McTavish and Caitríona Balfe, and starred in "Let Us Prey" (2014) as Jack Warnock, a brutal yet broken cop, opposite Liam Cunningham.
In 2016, he landed his first Hollywood role as SAS Lieutenant Will Davies in "London Has Fallen," starring Gerard Butler. This caught the attention of casting director Mike Leeder and action star Donnie Yen, who cast him as the lead antagonist Ernest Hunter opposite Yen and Andy Lau in the Hong Kong gangster epic "Chasing the Dragon" (2017). Inspired by Hong Kong's landscape, culture, and energy, he created the self-penned hitman trilogy "Dead End" (2017), which won over 50 international film festival awards.
He has made significant contributions to AAA video games and full-body motion capture, including roles in "Blood & Truth" (2019), "Horizon Zero Dawn" (2017), "Horizon Forbidden West" (2022), and "Final Fantasy XVI" (2023).
In 2021, he appeared as Wiglaf in the season finale of "Vikings" and starred in the Black Mirror-style film "Everything Was Fine" (2021), set entirely in a single hotel room. Larkin wrote, shot, and directed the entire film while in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
