David Ian Hewlett (born April 18, 1968) is a British-born Canadian actor best known for his role as Dr. Rodney McKay on the science fiction television show Stargate Atlantis.

Early life

David Ian Hewlett was born on April 18, 1968, in Redhill, Surrey, UK, and moved with his family to Canada at an early age. Hewlett became a regular on the series Traders and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and starred in the movie Cube.IMDB profile He ran Darkyl Media, a web site design firm1998 Interview with Monitor.ca. He also founded Fusefilm.com, an internet community for filmmakers.

Career

Hewlett got his first computer in his mid-teens and became a self-described "computer nerd." While in high school in Toronto his acting career also began, starring in student films by Vincenzo Natali. He dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue careers in acting and computing. He appeared in many low-budget horror movies, such as The Darkside and the minor cult favourites Scanners II: The New Order and Pin. He also guest starred in several television series. In 1996 he got one of his better-known roles, as Grant Jansky on Traders. In 1997 Hewlett starred in Natali's critically acclaimed thriller Cube as Worth the architect, a role that saw the rise of his stardom due to the commercial success of the low budget Canadian film.

Hewlett is also a self-confessed science fiction fan, and is quoted as saying that Doctor Who is what first sparked his love for the genre and that he made science fiction when he was younger in England on his 8 millimetre camera with friends. Hewlett more or less had his early dreams of working in science fiction made into a reality when he first had a four-episode guest role on Stargate SG-1 as the Stargate expert, Rodney McKay, which eventually grew into his current starring role on Stargate Atlantis.

In 2007, David appeared as a guest star in the first episode of the web series Sanctuary as Larry Tolson – a patient suffering from a form of psychosis who was shot and wounded, and taken into custody by police as a homicide suspect.

Personal life

David Hewlett was previously married to Soo Garay, whom he divorced in 2004. He became engaged to Jane Loughman in late 2006, and announced their engagement in early January 2007. The couple share their house with the rottweiler-terrier mix Mars, whom they adopted from an animal shelter and who is now one of the stars of their new dark comedy feature film "A Dog's Breakfast". On October 6 2007, at 9:11 p.m., Jane gave birth to their first child, Sebastian Flynn Loughman Hewlett. David and Jane were wed on June 21, 2008 at Warwick Castle in Warwick, England .