Screen star Dougray Scott to lead New York’s Tartan Day Parade

Crime and Vigil star Dougray Scott follows in the footsteps of Billy Connolly, Brian Cox and Alan Cumming

Scottish star Dougray Scott is to lead the annual Tartan Day parade in New York for the first time, organisers have revealed.

The actor will follow in the footsteps of Sir Sean Connery, Sir Billy Connolly, Brian Cox, Kevin McKidd and Alan Cumming when he heads through the heart of Manhattan in April.

Scott has revealed he will be wearing the Morrison tartan in honour of his mother when he leads around 1,500 participants, including pipers, dancers and clan members, in the annual procession.

Screen star Dougray Scott, pictured at the BAFTA Scotland Awards in Glasgow. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

He has been unveiled as “Grand Marshal” of the Tartan Day Parade, which has been staged in New York since 1999.

Scott, who grew up in Glenrothes in Fife, studied acting and performance at Fife College in Kirkcaldy before securing a place at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, where he was named most promising drama student.

After early roles in Taggart and Lovejoy, Scott first came to prominence in the drama series Soldier Soldier and The Crow Road.

He has been well known in the United States for more than 20 years since breakthrough roles in films like Ever After, This Year’s Love, Mission: Impossible 2, Deep Impact and Enigma.

Dougray Scott plays detective Ray Lennox in the ITV crime drama Crime. Picture: Buccaneer Media and Off Grid Film and TV

In recent years, Scott has played the lead role of troubled detective Ray Lennox in Crime, Irvine Welsh’s TV adaptation of his own character, and also starred in the most recent series of the hit BBC drama Vigil.

Other stars to lead the parade in recent years have included broadcaster Gail Porter, actress Karen Gillan and singer KT Tunstall.

Scott said: “I couldn’t be prouder or happier to have been asked to be the 2024 NYC Tartan Day Parade Grand Marshal. To be wearing the Morrison tartan, the tartan of my mother’s family. She’ll be looking down from on high with pride in her Scottish heart, God bless her Glaswegian cotton socks. May the chief let his sun shine all the way from Leith to NYC.”

Kyle Dawson, president of the New York Tartan Day Committee, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Dougray Scott to our NYC Tartan Week celebrations. Dougray is an excellent representative of how Scotland and Scottish people contribute so much to the artistic and cultural landscape of the United States, and we are proud to have him at the helm of this year’s parade.”

Dougray Scott appeared in the latest series of the BBC drama series Vigil. Picture: Jamie Simpson

The official parade on Saturday, April 6 is the centrepiece of Tartan Week celebrations, which are held annual across Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Broadcaster and Gaelic singer Joy Dunlop will be hosting the second year of a “Tartan Week Mòd", following the success of an inaugural event in 2023, which was the subject of a BBC Alba documentary.

Dunlop said: “I’m thrilled to be returning to NYC to host the second NYC Tartan Week Mòd. Our inaugural Mòd was such a positive of Gaelic language and culture and we look forward to welcoming friends old and new to this year’s event.

“It’s so important to have Scottish Gaelic represented, not only at the Mòd, but at subsequent events throughout the week and I think that it truly brings something extra special to the Tartan Week programming.”