Who is Scotland’s favourite celebrity? Top 10 revealed as actors dominate

Actors have dominated a list of Scotland’s favourite celebrities in 2022, with Gerard Butler coming top of the pile. The 53-year-old Angel Has Fallen star topped the list of the most Googled Scottish person in 2022.

Paisley-born Butler finished ahead of fellow actors Ewan McGregor and Karen Gillan, who had topped the list for the two years beforehand. Eternals star Richard Madden was fourth while tennis legend Sir Andy Murray was the top non-actor on the list, finishing ahead of chef Gordon Ramsay.

James McAvoy, Sam Heughan, Sir Rod Stewart and former Game of Thrones actress Rose Leslie made up the top 10 in the study, which also revealed the global impact of the death of Hagrid actor Robbie Coltrane last year.
Data provider Semrush looked at more than 400 famous Scots from the worlds of film and television, music and sport between 1 January and 31 December.

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Butler averaged 1.485 million global searches per month last year, peaking at 1.83 million in October when his movie Last Seen Alive became Netflix’s most-watched following its release in the US. He previously gained worldwide fame for his portrayal of King Leonidas in the fantasy war film 300 and has since starred in and produced a string of blockbusters.

He edged out McGregor who averaged over 1.418 million searches, including 3.35 million in June following the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. Guardians of the Galaxy star Gillan was the leading female and third place overall after averaging 1.233 million searches.

Richard Madden climbed from eighth place in 2021 to fourth last year after playing flying Ikaris in the superhero film Eternals, while Murray (1.117 million) was fifth as he returned to the world tennis top 50 following his hip surgery. Chef Ramsay saw a worldwide boost from his TV show Next Level Chef while James McAvoy starred in His Dark Materials and on stage in an award-winning production of Cyrano de Bergerac in London, Glasgow and New York.

Heughan starred in the sixth season of Outlander while regularly being touted as a future James Bond. Veteran rocker Sir Rod continued to make headlines – including in March when he filled in potholes near his home in Essex – and Rose Leslie appeared in Death on The Nile and on TV in the science fiction series The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Despite finishing fifth overall, two-time Wimbledon champ Murray was the top Scot across the UK and in Scotland, finishing ahead of fellow tennis star Cameron Norrie whose run to the semi-finals at the All England Club made him a household name. He pushed singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi into third place in Scotland.

The research also highlights spikes in online searches recognising specific events in the year. Throughout the world, no living star came close to the online impact made in a single month than the late Robbie Coltrane, who played giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. He is not counted on the official list but the research shows that over 16.6 million fans went online to pay tribute after he died in October, aged 72.

There were also spikes in searches for new Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa, PDC World Darts champion Peter Wright and boxer Josh Taylor. Olga Andrienko, Head of Global Marketing for Semrush, said: “Last year was a standout one for Scots around the globe, on the silver screen, on the stage and in the field of sports.”

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