[4] The same year Heughan launched his own whisky brand, The Sassenach (named after his Outlander character's nickname for his wife, Claire[5]), winning consecutive double golds in the 2020 and 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

His parents had been part of a hippie community in London called Gandalf's Garden which was heavily influenced by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, inspiring them to name Heughan and his older brother after characters from The Lord of the Rings.

[8][12] While enrolled at RSAMD Heughan performed in numerous plays including The Twits at Citizens Theatre, an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, Aeschylus's Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

[19] The following year he appeared in several episodes of the Scottish soap opera River City and portrayed adulterous husband Pony William in David Harrower's play Knives in Hens at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

[31][32][33][34][35] In 2009, Heughan landed a recurring role as Scott Nielson, Nurse Cherry Malone's boyfriend and a secret drug dealer in the BBC soap opera Doctors.

[38] He went on to star in BBC's television film First Light, the story of RAF pilot Geoffrey Wellum's experiences flying a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, as documented in his WWII memoir of the same name.

[39][40] From there he featured in PBS's BAFTA-winning mini-series Any Human Heart, the story of author Logan Mountstuart's life in the context of historical events surrounding him, based upon William Boyd's novel of the same name.

[44] Hallmark Channel's original film A Princess for Christmas starred Heughan as Prince Ashton in 2011, a role which saw him appear opposite Roger Moore and secure a nomination for Most Inspiring Performance in Television at the 20th Annual Grace Awards.

[45] He was the first cast member officially announced, to great praise by the author of the series, Diana Gabaldon, who said, "That man is a Scot to the bone and Jamie Fraser to the heart.

[61] That same year, in his first voice-acting project, Heughan appeared in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment video game Lego DC Super-Villains as the Mirror Master.

[62][63] It was also announced that Heughan would portray Corporal Jimmy Dalton in Bloodshot, an adaptation of the best-selling comic book from the Valiant universe, opposite Vin Diesel and Michael Sheen.

[65] In November 2018, Heughan was cast as Tom Buckingham, the lead role in SAS: Red Notice, a film based on the novel of the same name by Andy McNab.

[66][67][68] In 2019, it was announced that Heughan would play Paul Newman in To Olivia, a biopic about Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl starring Keeley Hawes and Hugh Bonneville.

[72] Heughan was also cast alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Celine Dion in the romantic drama Love Again, a remake of the German film SMS Fur Dich.

[80][4] Clanlands serves as a companion to Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip With Sam and Graham, an eight-part television series conceived by and starring Heughan and McTavish that premiered on the Starz channel in February 2021.

'[89] In 2015, Heughan started the organisation My Peak Challenge, a training, nutrition, and support programme that provides participants with a sense of community as they work towards personal goals, while concurrently raising money for charity.

[95][96][97][98] In 2018, he ran both the Stirling and EMF Edinburgh Marathons in the space of a month to raise money for Cahonas Scotland and their Testicular Cancer Education and Awareness Programme.