Paul Gross

Paul Gross is a Canadian actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, and producer born on April 30, 1959, in Calgary, Alberta. His father, Robert "Bob" Gross, was a career soldier, colonel, and tank commander, and his mother, Renie Gross, was a writer and art historian of Irish descent. During his adolescence, the family relocated to Arlington, Virginia, where Gross attended Yorktown High School. He has credited drama teacher Timothy Jecko with inspiring him to pursue acting. He later studied at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, leaving before completing his degree but returning afterward to finish the remaining coursework and earn his fine arts diploma. During his student years he appeared in stage productions including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, and As You Like It. His student play The Deer and the Antelope Play, co-produced by the university's drama department and Theatre Network, received both the Clifford E. Lee National Playwriting Award and the Alberta Culture Playwriting Award.

Gross first gained widespread recognition through the Canadian television series Due South, in which he played RCMP Constable Benton Fraser from 1994 to 1999. Creator Paul Haggis was initially uncertain about casting him, and Gross himself was reluctant to take the role, but the two met and Gross was ultimately cast. When the series was revived for its third season, he returned as Fraser and also took on responsibilities as executive producer and writer, contributing several episodes. He won three Gemini Awards for his work on Due South, two for acting and one for writing, and at the time was reported to be the highest-paid performer in Canadian television history, earning an estimated CA$2–3 million per season.

His subsequent television work included starring roles in Slings & Arrows from 2003 to 2006, in which he appeared alongside his wife, actress Martha Burns, and Republic of Doyle, where he played Kevin Crocker across nine episodes between 2011 and 2014. On the film side, Gross wrote and directed the curling comedy Men with Brooms, which later spawned a television series of the same name. In 2008 he wrote, co-produced, directed, and starred in the war film Passchendaele, inspired by stories from his grandfather, a First World War soldier. The film opened the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival on September 4 of that year and went on to win five awards at the 29th Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, as well as the Golden Reel Award for Canada's top-grossing film of 2008. On March 2, 2009, Gross received the National Arts Centre Award in recognition of his work on the film. He also produced the 2011 feature film Breakaway with Akshay Kumar, starring Camilla Belle and Vinay Virmani. His 2015 contemporary war drama Hyena Road was released on October 9 of that year.

Gross made his Broadway debut in Noël Coward's Private Lives, which began performances in Toronto on September 16, 2011, co-starring Kim Cattrall, before transferring to Broadway, where it opened on November 6 and closed on December 31, 2011. He subsequently appeared on Broadway in Good Night, and Good Luck. His stage work has continued beyond Broadway; during the 2023 season of the Stratford Festival, he played the title role in King Lear.

In recognition of his broader contributions to Canadian culture, Gross received the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015. That same year he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to Canadian film and television as an actor, writer, and director. Gross married actress Martha Burns in September 1988. The couple have two children, Hannah Gross, who is also an actress, and Jack Gross.