Paul Higgins is a Scottish actor, best known for appearing in the British television series The Thick of It, Utopia and Line of Duty. Higgins was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was raised as a Roman Catholic, but now he considers himself a lapsed Catholic. As a teenager, he trained to be a priest, but gave his training up aged 17 when he began dating. Higgins has appeared onstage in Paul and Black Watch, and in the film Complicity. He played Alan in Staying Alive, a hospital drama on ITV. He has also played Jamie McDonald, an aggressive press officer, in the BBC show The Thick of It and its spin-off feature-length film, In the Loop. In 2009, he appeared as Gil Cameron on the BBC drama Hope Springs. He played Michael Dugdale in Channel 4's acclaimed conspiracy thriller Utopia. In 2013 he appeared in series 1 of the BBC series Line of Duty and returned for season 4 in 2017. He wrote a play titled Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us, which was performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland in November 2008.
2025Brian and Maggie (2 Episodes) as Geoffrey Howe
2024Kill as Don
2024Meat Puppet as University Dean (voice)
2022Slow Horses (3 Episodes) as Struan Loy
2022The Ipcress File (6 Episodes) as Minister
2019Greed as Jim McBride
2018The Party's Just Beginning as Luisaidh's Dad
2018Apostle as Frank
2017Victoria & Abdul as Dr. James Reid
2016Charlie Cloudhead as Charlie
2016Couple in a Hole as John
2015Raised by Wolves (6 Episodes) as Sean Garry
2013Lawless as Simon Harding
2013The Wrong Mans (1 Episode) as PC Hennessy
2013Utopia (12 Episodes) as Michael Dugdale
2012Line of Duty (6 Episodes) as ACC Derek Hilton
2011Case Histories (1 Episode) as Ian Kelso
2011Vera (1 Episode) as Clive Stringer
2009Hope Springs (8 Episodes) as Gil Cameron
2009New Town as Hamish
2009No Holds Bard as Struan Robertson
2009In the Loop as Jamie McDonald
2008The Last Enemy (5 Episodes) as Professor Lawrence Cooper
2007Shell as The Salesman
2007Spinners and Losers as Jamie
2007A Hartley Story as Hartley
2007The Rise of the Nutters as Jamie
2006Red Road as Avery
2006Low Winter Sun as David Westwood
2005The Thick of It (1 Episode) as Jamie
2002Birthday Girl as Drew
2002Murder (4 Episodes) as Lee Finch
2000Beautiful Creatures as Aidan
2000Complicity as Andy
1998Bedrooms and Hallways as John
1996Riot as Gang Member
1996Silent Witness (2 Episodes) as Det Sgt Nick Wallace
1994The Negotiator as Det. Sergeant Andrew Coyne
1994Being Human as Soldier
1993Rik Mayall Presents: Micky Love as Writer
1993Rik Mayall Presents (1 Episode) as Writer
1989The Simpsons (1 Episode) as Hamish (voice)
1988Tumbledown as Saltemarsh
1988A Wholly Healthy Glasgow as Murdo Caldwell
2014Hangar 10 ... Producer