Shail appeared in the 1980 series The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist,[2] portrayed Oscar Drill in Shock Treatment,[3] the 1981 follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and portrayed Guy Raines in the 1983 BBC production Johnny Jarvis.

He wrote the original songs and theme music for this production, for which he received a nomination for the Ivor Novello Awards.

In 1988 Shail appeared as the pimp "Billy White" in the TV mini-series of Jack the Ripper, starring Michael Caine.

In 2016, Shail returned to acting with a cameo role in the film Stranger, where he was cast as a psychopathic cowboy.

Gary Shail now lives in Dorset where he continues to compose and produce music in his own residential recording studio.