Keir Gilchrist is good at making awkward young men worth listening to. We value his quiet sincerity most in It Follows, where his tenderness gives us a reason to care between the scares.
Fi1m perspective
In It Follows (2015), Keir Gilchrist’s Paul is an admirer, and his scenes with Maika Monroe’s Jay give the film time for affection. David Robert Mitchell lets these young people care about one another, and Gilchrist makes that care convincing. We were moved by the tenderness between Paul and Jay because it made her safety matter beyond the next scare. This is where we rate him most highly: in a supporting part that gives us another reason to worry about the person at the centre.
His casting has often centred on young men struggling with personal or social difficulties. United States of Tara (2009–2011) gave him Marshall Gregson, while It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) put him in the lead as Craig Gilner. Then came the longer commitment of Sam Gardner in Robia Rashid’s Atypical (2017–2021), across four seasons. The useful quality linking those opportunities is his understatement; these parts need room for uncertainty without making every hesitation an event.
A supporting actor in horror can easily become someone whose only job is to be in danger. Paul has an attachment to Jay that matters before the film needs another fright, and Mitchell gives their quieter exchanges space. Gilchrist also fits into a group whose willingness to help one another keeps the waiting from becoming mechanical. We would not ask for him to be more conspicuous here; the performance works because the affection remains part of the story.
There is a limit to what that sincerity can do. The first season of Atypical drew criticism for inconsistent tone and writing around Sam, despite Gilchrist’s vulnerable, specific performance. An actor can make a character worth attending to without making every scene persuasive. We would be wary of parts that keep asking him to supply sympathy while giving him too little else to play. Start with It Follows, and accept that its occasionally hazy rules are a more substantial problem than anything in his supporting work.
Biography
Keir David Peters Gilchrist is a Canadian actor born on 28 September 1992 in Camden, London, to Canadian parents. He spent his early years in London before the family moved to Boston, New York City and then Toronto, where he attended the Annex Children's Theatre.
Gilchrist is known for his roles as Marshall Gregson in the Showtime series United States of Tara (2009–2011) and as Sam Gardner in the Netflix series Atypical (2017–2021). His film work includes It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010) and It Follows (2015), in which he played Paul. He is also the vocalist of the grindcore band Whelm and the death metal band Phalanx.
