This ruggedly handsome Scottish-born actor achieved a screen breakthrough as a foul-mouthed, amoral Welsh policeman in the art-house "Twin Town" (1997) before landing more mainstream roles in "Deep Impact" and "Ever After" (both 1998). Dougray Scott trained at the Welsh College of Music and Art (studying under future co-star Dorien Thomas) before embarking on a stage career. Roles on British television soon followed and the actor first registered with audiences as a cast member of "Soldier, Soldier". which detailed the lives of contemporary British Army officers.
Scott also scored as the older brother of the hero (played by Joe McFadden) in the BBC drama "The Crow Road" (1996). He made his film debut in the brief role of the Dragoon Captain in "Princess Caraboo" (1994) and offered supporting turns in the lame sequel "Another 9 1/2 Weeks" and as English poet and author Robert Graves in Gillies MacKinnon's flawed but well-crafted "Regeneration" (both 1997). Somewhat surprisingly, based on his turn as the loose cannon corrupt cop in "Twin Town", Scott was tapped to play Tea Leoni's cameraman boyfriend in "Deep Impact" (although most of his scenes ended on the proverbial cutting room floor) and the Prince in "Ever After" (both 1998), a revisionist retelling of the Cinderella tale starring Drew Barrymore. He subsequently completed the romantic comedy about mate swapping "This Year's Love", with Kathy Burke, Jennifer Ehle and Ian Hart, and "Gregory's 2 Girls" (both 1999), a sequel to Bill Forsyth's 1981 hit "Gregory's Girl".
Scott got his biggest international exposure when he played Tom Cruise's adversary in the big screen blockbuster "Mission Impossible 2" (2000), a role he accepted, thinking it a wiseer career move, after already being cast as the mutant Wolverine in the superhero film "X-Men"--the role would catapult his replacement, Hugh Jackman, to superstardom. He next appeared as the operative Jericho opposite Kate Winslet in Michael Apted's finely crafted World War II codebreaking drama "Enigma" (2001), and played the timid small town Italian picture framer Jonathan Trevanny whom the amoral Thomas Ripley (John Malkovich) attempts to persuade into assassinating his rival in the adaptation of author Patricia Highsmith's "Ripley's Game" (2002). Scott was an able Sir Thomas Fairfax to Tim Roth's Oliver Cromwell in the British historical drama "To Kill a King" (2003), and was a contract killer trying to free himself from a tragic past in "The Poet" (2003). In 2004 the busy actor co-starred with Jennifer Love Hewitt in the romantic comedy "The Truth About Love"; played Frankie the Fence in the quirky Brit crime drama "One Last Chance" (2004); appeared in the ensemble of the romantic comedy "Things to Do Before You're 30" (2004); and starred in the UK telepic Essential Poems for Christmas."
He resurfaced for American audiences in the 2005 thriller "Dark Water" as the adversarial ex-husband of Jennifer Connelly who begins to doubt her ability to raise their daughter after she believes her apartment becomes the center of paranormal activity. The Scottish thespian was tapped to star in NBC's one-hour crime pilot "Heist," playing the head of a group of thieves out to rob three Beverly Hills' jewelry stores, directed by Doug Liman.