Quick Facts
Biography
Colin Keith Gray is a Canadian actor, writer and film director. He played Frank Hardy on the TV show The Hardy Boys for thirteen episodes. He is known for directing the documentary film Freedom's Fury.
Gray was born in the American city of Ann Arbor, Michigan before his family moved to the Canadian city of Ottawa.
He played on the high school water polo (the sport of his future film Freedom's Fury) team for Lisgar Collegiate Institute. Gray also performed in various productions by the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society and at the Ottawa Little Theatre.
After high school, he moved backed to the States and graduated with degrees in political science and French literature from the University of Michigan ("Michigan") during a time when his sister (Megan Raney Aarons) and mother moved to the United Kingdom. After graduating from Michigan, Gray moved to New York City where he eventually earned a role in the Broadway production of Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story.
In 1995, Gray returned to Canada to perform in a lead role (Frank Hardy) alongside Paul Popowich (playing Joe Hardy) in the Toronto production of The Hardy Boys, produced and syndicated by New Line Television, a division of New Line Cinema.The characters were portrayed as in their early twenties, Frank working as a reporter and Joe still in college. The show was co-produced by Canadian broadcasting company Nelvana and was dubbed in French for airing in Quebec and France as well as in the United States. The show only lasted for one season of thirteen episodes due to poor ratings.
After the show ended, Gray moved to Los Angeles and earned small roles in television shows such as Saved by the Bell: The New Class before switching to writing and directing and setting up WOLO Entertainment with a friend.
His sister Megan joined him (branding their partnership as The Sibs) to write and direct Freedom's Fury, a 2006 feature documentary film about the clash between Hungary and the Soviet Union in 'Blood in the Water match', the water polo semifinal of the 1956 Summer Olympics during the Soviets' military reaction to the Hungarian Revolution. By working with his UMich alumni Lucy Liu, who was working on Kill Bill at the time, they were able to lure Quentin Tarantino on as co-executive producer with Liu in 2001.
The Canadian premiere earned them congratulations in the House of Commons in a Private Member's Statement by LiberalMP Andrew Telegdi. In the year of the film's release, Gray and Aarons were granted Hungary's highest civilian honour, theKnight's Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.
They now manage GRAiNEY Productions which has undertaken projects such as:
- Game Day! College Football to the Max, an IMAX 3D film about college football with Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll serving as executive producer
- Redlight a documentary with Lucy Liu about child sex trafficking that features Nobel Peace Prize nominees Mu Sochua and Somaly Mam.