He is known for playing the crime reporter Tom Kirkwood on the hit Canadian police drama Night Heat [2] from 1985 to 1989.
[4] He began performing while still in high school, and ultimately left Montreal to study acting in New York with Lee Strasberg.
Royal also appeared in guest roles in Star Trek: Voyager, Amerika, Forever Knight, Mutant X, Relic Hunter, The Practice, JAG, and The Border.
He played Chief Constable Stockton in the Canadian detective show Murdoch Mysteries and Judge Phillip Hopkins in three episodes of Suits.
In 2011, he returned to the stage in Toronto, where he had not performed live since the early-1980s, to star in a one-man play, The Disappearing Act, which he also wrote.