Brandon Jay McLaren
Brandon Jay McLaren is an actor, born 1981.
Canadian television produced him, and it has employed him ever since. McLaren's first screen credit was the series Just Cause in 2002, and an early stretch in Power Rangers S.P.D. put him in the sort of job Canadian actors take to get a card and a showreel.
The film work stayed in supporting territory: a skater in Scooby-Doo 2, Toby in She's the Man, Mohawk in Love Happens. The two worth keeping are horror comedies, Jason in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Dazzle Darlington in Dead Before Dawn, and both are considerably better than that description promises.
Television is where the actual career is. He has been in Harper's Island, Falling Skies, Motive, Graceland, UnREAL, Slasher, Ransom, Snowfall, Firefly Lane, Turner and Hooch, The Cleaning Lady, The Rookie and Wayward. That is a serial-drama resume of remarkable persistence: an ensemble player who keeps landing in shows that need someone the audience will trust quickly, and who then discovers what the show wants to do with that trust.
He is not a star and the industry has never tried to make him one. He is the actor a network calls when a season needs a new regular who will not require three episodes of setup.
Movies (13)
- She's the Man (2006)
- Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
- Love Happens (2009)
- Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts (2009)
- Sea Beast (2008)
- Plush (2013)
- Hard Ride to Hell (2010)
- Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008)
- Messages Deleted (2010)
- D.C. Sniper: 23 Days of Fear (2003)
- Romantically Speaking (2015)
- Dead Before Dawn (2012)
TV (15)
Where to start with Brandon Jay McLaren
Begin with Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. The horror comedy is the best film on his list by a distance, and he is in the part of the cast that has to sell a very silly premise with a straight face.
For television, Graceland is the strongest showcase, an undercover-cop drama built for exactly his register. Slasher is the guilty pleasure: an anthology whodunnit that is broad, bloody and much better cast than it needed to be. Harper's Island is the earlier version of the same idea and holds up as a curiosity.
Snowfall and The Rookie are the recent big-audience credits and both use him in supporting arcs rather than as a lead, so temper expectations. She's the Man is the one your friends have seen, and he does more with a small part than the script asked for.
Horror, and horror that is joking
The genre run, which is where his fans came from. Tucker and Dale vs Evil is far smarter than its premise, Slasher gave him a lead, and Harper's Island is the one that killed a cast member a week.
Crime series, on both sides
Undercover officers and the people they are chasing, sometimes in the same year. Graceland and Ransom gave him leads; Snowfall and The Rookie put him on the other side of it, and the villain work is the better of the two.
Drama, and the lighter jobs
Everything that is neither horror nor a badge: family drama, network comedy and the early studio credits. She's the Man is the one people are surprised to learn he is in.