BIOGRAPHY

Long before Billy Burke ever “stumbled onto a film set” as he puts it, he began writing and performing original music. By today’s standards he might have been a late bloomer having learned his first guitar chords at the ripe old age of 17. Having grown up to the sounds of Elton John and Billy Joel, he felt “obligated” to learn to play piano as well. Instructing himself completely by ear, he soon became (again, in his words) “adept enough to get by, write songs and fake my way through accompanying myself”. Before he was old enough to legally patronize them he was playing in bars and nightspots, first in his hometown of Bellingham, Washington and later in the bigger city that would soon become indy music mecca, Seattle.

His first “real” band, “embarrassingly called” Hand In Hand, after being together for less than a year, found it’s way into the final four of a national battle of the bands competition. Burke says, “The band that actually won has never been heard from. I take solace in that”. He later formed another group around what he called a “caricature of himself” and named it Billy Black’s Outcast Theatre. Doing as they’re moniker suggested, they soon had a distinctly prominent yet largely underground following.

Dissatisfied with the moderate success and sensing the groundswell of a new movement that was beginning to overtake the Seattle music scene, Burke headed for Los Angeles to give a solo career a shot. There, having been granted a demo deal from Warner Brothers Records, he was paired with legendary producer Phil Ramone, (who as fate would have it, had hit records with both Billy Joel and Elton John). They recorded four of Billy’s original songs at Phil’s home studio in upstate New York only to later be given the heartbreaking news that the deal with Warner Brothers would not be going any further. To add a little insult to his injury, a subsequent return to Seattle to “get the band back together”, would manifest further disappointment. As Billy had foreseen, the so-called “Grunge” train had since left the station and there was appetite for little else.

However, music was not the sole artistic aspiration for Billy. In those few short years between Hand In Hand and the Warner Brothers let down, his gifts as an actor had won him roles in Daredreamer and To Cross The Rubicon, two independent feature films that were shot in Seattle. With those under his belt, he decided to “give himself a 25th birthday present” and move to L.A. once again to pursue some more acting and perhaps put another band together.” (Source billyburke.net)

Billy soon landed TV guest roles in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, 24, Gilmore Girls, Karen Sisco, Fringe, Monk.

“[In this business] it takes persistence and making your own luck,” he later told Beverly Hills Magazine. “The world is filled with extremely talented people who think that talent will carry them everywhere. It won’t. You have to pour your guts into everything that you do.”

His persistence paid off. He got to star as Phillip Stroh (the attorney who was a serial rapist and killer) in several episodes of The Closer and was Agent Gabriel Dean in several episodes of Rizzoli & Isles.

He appeared in movies like Jane Austen’s Mafia, Along Came a Spider, Ladder 49, Forfeit, Fracture, Drive Angry and others.

In 2008, he was cast in Twilight as Charlie Swan and would reprise this role in the following four movies of the franchise.

In 2010, Burke realized a life long dream and released his first CD Removed under an independent record label. The CD is a compilation of songs Billy had written over the years.

In 2012, he became the male lead character, Miles Matheson, in the apocalyptic TV Series Revolution which was created by Eric Kripke and produced by J.J. Abrams production company Bad Robot. For this role he got a nomination at the Saturn Awards 2012 in the Best Actor on Television category.

In 2014, after Revolution was cancelled by the network, Billy Burke took the opportunity and signed up for a one month stage tour as the male lead in Ghostbrothers of Darkland County, a musical written by Stephen King (story) and John Mellencamp (music).

From 2015 to 2017, he starred as veterinary pathologist Mitch Morgan in CBS’s show Zoo, based on the James Patterson novel.

He appeared in the films Freaky Deaky (2012), Highland Park (2013), Divine Access (2015, serving also as a producer) and Good After Bad (2017).

He also reprised his role as Phillip Stroh in the Closer spin-off Major Crimes with an ongoing impact on the show through its finale in 2018.

In the same year he starred in the action thriller film Breaking In and released his second album, the “Rock and Roll reverie” The Underkill, a collection of ten songs, proffering “a wink and a nod to all who concede that whether you view life as a constant party, a relentless beat down or like most of us, some mystifying place in between… this life is what we’ve got. It is both kind and cruel. It is endlessly abundant but owes us no favors…”

His most recent appearances on TV include shows like Chicago P.D., Most Dangerous Game, 9-1-1: Lone Star. He has recently starred in Maid, a new Netflix series created by Molly Smith Metzler and inspired by Stephanie Land’s memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive”, that premiered globally on October 1, 2021 and became one of the most watched shows in many different countries, earning several nominations at the 2022 AFI Awards, Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes.

He also voiced Commissioner James Gordon in the animated DC movies Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One and Part Two released in 2021.

In 2022 he joined the cast of the new CBS’ drama Fire Country where he plays Chief Vince Leone, a passionate third-generation Cal Fire doing his best to protect his community. The series soon became one of the most watched of the season and was renewed not long after its premiere. In episode 1×11 “Mama Bear” we see Vince playing and singing a song on stage, that is Burn, Billy’s latest single released on January 20, 2023.

In summer 2023, while the Fire Country production for Season 2 is on hold due to the writers and acors’ strike, he has filmed and exec produced an independent movie titled Mourning Rock, for which SAG granted an interim agreement.

•  For the complete discography and filmography, please visit our Music and Career pages.