Profile Text
Gilchrist in 2009, s_bukley / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Keir David Peters Gilchrist
Place of Birth: Camden, London, England, U.K.
Date of Birth: 28 September, 1992
Ethnicity: Scottish, English, Northern Irish
Keir Gilchrist is a Canadian actor and musician. His roles include the films The Sadness of Johnson Joe Jangles , The Right Way (2004), Horsie’s Retreat , Dead Silence (2007), Just Peck , Hungry Hills , It’s Kind of a Funny Story , It Follows , Dark Summer , The Stanford Prison Experiment , The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards , Len and Company , Tales of Halloween , The Good Neighbor , Katie Says Goodbye , Heartthrob (2017), Castle in the Ground , Flashback (2020), An Intrusion , The Featherweight , Freaky Tales , Running on Empty (2024), and By Design (2025); and the shows The Winner , Life with Derek , United States of Tara , Delete , Atypical , Love & Death , and The Walking Dead: Dead City . He is the guitarist for grindcore band Whelm and death metal band Phalanx.
His brother is actor Evan Gilchrist. Keir was born in England, to Canadian parents, and was later raised in the U.S., including Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, New York, and, eventually, in Toronto, Ontario. His ancestry includes Scottish, English, and Northern Irish.
Keir’s paternal grandfather was John Gilchrist (the son of John Gilchrist and Annie Morrison Andrew). Keir’s grandfather John’s parents were born in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Keir’s great-grandfather John was the son of Robert Gilchrist and Marion Rae Young. Annie was the daughter of John Andrew and Ann Morrison Campbell.
Keir’s paternal grandmother was named Eileen Boyd.
Keir’s maternal grandfather was Douglas Dennison Peters (the son of Dr. Wilfrid Seymour Peters and Mary Gladys Dennison). Keir’s grandfather Douglas Peters was born in Brandon, Manitoba, and was a banker, economist, and a Member of Parliament for Scarborough East (ON), for the Liberal Party, from October 25, 1993 to June 2, 1997. Wilfrid was the son of William Seymour Peters and Anne Louisa Dunlop. Mary Gladys was the daughter of Albert Dennison and Elizabeth Riley.
Keir’s maternal grandmother was Audrey Catherine Clark (the daughter of Francis Elwood Clark and Edna Elaine Mills). Audrey was born in Oxbow, Saskatchewan. Francis was the son of David John Clarke and Emma Esther Short. Edna was the daughter of John Stuart Mills and Merta Gwindalene Staples.
Keir’s matrilineal line can be traced to his great-great-great-great-grandmother, Edna Pearson, who was born, c. the 1820s, in Canada, and to her parents, Joseph Pearson and Rachel Webb.
Sources: Obituary of Keir’s paternal grandmother, Eileen (Boyd) Gilchrist – http://www.legacy.com
Obituary of Keir’s maternal grandfather, Douglas Dennison Peters – http://www.legacy.com