Oh Boy! Somewhere Boy. 

He’s hot, he’s a Scot and we’re pleased that for a day the ‘somewhere’ was a photoshoot for Make. 

 The critics have been raving about Lewis Gribben’s performance as ‘Danny’ the eighteen-year-old hero of Channel 4’s ‘Somewhere Boy’. After his mother is killed by a hit-and-run driver when he’s a baby Danny’s heartbroken and emotionally disturbed Dad keeps him locked in their remote house in the middle of nowhere to protect him from the ‘monsters’ in the outside world that want to take him away just as they took his Mum. With no access to broadcast television, Danny’s view of the world is formed by watching videotapes of old black-and-white movies but after another tragedy, he escapes and is confronted by reality and the fact that his life until then has been a fabrication. 

Lewis has been praised for his remarkably sensitive portrayal of Danny, displaying wonder and vulnerability as he discovers a world quite unlike the one that he has been led to believe exists. Set in an undefined part of the North of England Lewis perfected a northern accent, the first time he had to lose his natural Glaswegian voice, and spent the four months of the shoot ‘in character’. It has been cited as the ‘breakout role’ for Lewis that is predicted to propel him to stardom. 

Born in Glasgow in November 1999 (yes, he’s a youthful looking 23, not 18) Lewis is an only child who grew up with Asperger’s syndrome and dyslexia, and to encourage his interaction with other children his mother enrolled him at the age of seven in drama classes at the city’s Citizens Theatre. He loved it and the imaginary worlds he could conjure up through acting with the other children. Lewis thought of ‘The Citz’ as his second home and he continued to attend classes there until the age of 21. Lewis says that his autism helped him in engaging with and understand the slightly weird ‘outsider’ character of Danny in Somewhere Boy. 

Lewis’s first step up the professional acting ladder came in 2017 when after being hired as an ‘extra’, he was upgraded to ‘actor’ and a 10-second spot in Danny Boyle’s hit ‘T2 Trainspotting. Other credits since then have included Channel 4’s ‘Deadwater Fell’, opposite David Tennant, ‘Shetland’ for ITV, and BBC’s ‘Silent Witness. In 2019 he had a lead role as ‘Duncan’ in ‘Get Duked!’ the crazy Scottish-set coming-of-age black comedy. Watch out for more of Lewis in the forthcoming Paramount+ series ‘The Chemistry of Death, a psychological crime drama shot in Scotland and Norfolk. In the meantime, we are pleased that Lewis found the time to sit for Make Magazine.  

Grooming: Daisy Holubowicz using Fudge Hair and Nudestix
Fashion assistant: Abigail Hazard