Added by cal331 on 21 May 2011 03:41

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I'm not an American, but I play one on TV

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Decade: Rating: List Type:

4597

8.7

House M.D.

Englishman Hugh Laurie is the poster boy for this category.

cal331's rating:

1293

7.5

8.2

Chuck

Aussie Yvonne Strahovski plays American spy Sarah Walker. Fun fact: her native language is Polish!

cal331's rating:

1711

7.4

Gossip Girl (2007)

British Ed Westwick plays Manhattan's teenage tycoon Chuck Bass.

cal331's rating:

2330

6.6

Two and a Half Men (2003)

New Zealander Melanie Lynskey plays wacky Malibu neighbor Rose on 2.5 Men. Catch her using (I presume) her native accent in "Heavenly Creatures."

333

7.3

7.5

Hawaii Five-0

Aussie Alex O'Laughlin is Hawaiian cop Steve McGarrett in the remake.

Not his first American role, by the by...

2682

7.1

7.6

Grey's Anatomy

Doctor Owen. Kevin McKidd, also of 'Journeyman' is a Scot.

cal331's rating:

1081

7.6

8.1

The Mentalist

I don't watch this "Psych" ripoff :) but the other fake psychic detective Patrick Jane is played by Australian Simon Baker.

Welsh Owain Yeoman plays Wayne on the show, too.

1492

7.8

8.4

Fringe

Both Anna Torv (Olivia) and John Noble (Walter) play Americans but are from Down Under.

cal331's rating:

2237

7.7

7.9

True Blood (2008)

Stephen Moyer (UK) puts on a Southern accent, as does Anna Paquin (who is Canadian AND a New Zealander, apparently) as Bill and Sookie.

Swede Alexander Skarsgård plays a former Viking, now in America.

393

7.8

8.2

The Killing (2011)

Swedish sex symbol Joel Kinnaman does his best Kurt Cobain impersonation in this top-notch drama.

cal331's rating:

2769

7.8

8.1

The Walking Dead

Delicious Brit Andrew Lincoln plays Sheriff Rick.

Also starring Lennie James, who hails from the UK.

cal331's rating:

307

7.5

7.9

United States of Tara (2009)

Aussie Toni Collette plays several American-accented personalities in the Showtime dramedy.

cal331's rating:

332

6.7

7.3

Brothers & Sisters (2006)

Matthew Rhys (Welsh) plays American Kevin Walker on this show,

As does Rachel Griffiths,(Sarah Walker) who also appeared on...

1779

7.8

8.7

Six Feet Under (2001)

...as Brenda Chenowith.

1163

8.7

9.3

The Wire

Det. McNulty played by Dominic West (England)

Stringer Bell played by Idris Elba (England)

Tommy Carcetti played by Aidan Gillen (Ireland)

cal331's rating:

680

7.4

7.7

Torchwood (2006)

Captain Jack's John Barrowman was born in Scotland, and supposedly uses a Scottish accent at home. He uses the one he picked up living in America on the show, though.

cal331's rating:

512

7.5

Burn Notice

Gabrielle Anwar (Fiona) started the series with an Irish accent, which I guess was pretty bad even though she is British. Now they have her sport an American one all the time.

cal331's rating:

1636

7.8

8.7

Battlestar Galactica

Brit Jamie Bamber puts on an American accent as Lee Adama.

cal331's rating:

579

7.2

7.9

Eureka

James Callis is English; he plays time-traveling Dr. Grant on this show.

cal331's rating:

237

6.9

7.7

The Dresden Files (2007)

British Paul Blackthorne was American Harry Dresden. Interestingly, American Terrence Mann played a Brit in this show.

cal331's rating:

324

7.6

8.3

Life (2007)

One of my favorite characters of all time is Det. Charlie Crews of California, played with a terrific American accent by dreamy Damian Lewis.

cal331's rating:

107

7.4

7.7

Damages

Aussie Rose Byrne is American Ellen Parsons.

3079

7.4

8.3

Prison Break

British-born Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller played Chicago bros Linc and Michael on this show. Both guys were raised outside Britain, however.

cal331's rating:

725

7.1

7.7

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008)

The iconic role of Sarah Connor was played by British-by-way-of-Bermuda Lena Headey.

cal331's rating:

238

5.9

5.7

Bionic Woman (2007)

Brit Michelle Ryan played the titular American bionic unit in this pointless remake.

666

7.1

7.8

Law & Order

Englishman Linus Roache gamely tried on an American accent in the latter years of this program.

1498

6.7

8.2

Frasier

John Mahoney, who played Martin Crane, is actually British, though it's his TV sons who have the affected accents on this show.

1413

6.8

7.7

Nip/Tuck

Starred British Joely Richardson and Aussie Julian McMahon as Americans.

166

6.4

7.8

The Riches (2007)

My favorite transvestite, Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver both hail from the UK, and they played American grifters in this show.

124

7.1

7.6

Eli Stone (2008)

Title lawman Eli Stone is played by Scottish Jonny Lee Miller.

cal331's rating:

1276

7.8

8.3

Pushing Daisies (2007)

All-American pie waitress Chuck is played by British Anna Friel.

cal331's rating:

1359

6.3

6.5

Ugly Betty (2006)

Alan Dale, who played an Englishman on LOST, is actually a Kiwi. He played the American patriarch of the Meade family on UB.

Dale also played an American VP on "24".

cal331's rating:

173

7.4

8.2

Better Off Ted (2009)

Portia de Rossi is from Australia; she plays Veronica on BoT. She was also an American on "Arrested Development" and "Ally McBeal", but I like this show better. She rocked on 'Ted.'

cal331's rating:

110

7.3

7.4

Life on Mars (2008)

Dublin-born Jason O'Mara played NYPD Det. Sam Tyler in this unnecessary remake of the far superior original program.

908

6.1

Roseanne (1988)

Irish Glenn Quinn did such a good job at a midwest accent on Roseanne that people thought his actual accent, used on "Angel" was fake.

828

8.6

Deadwood (2004)

Al Swearingen's Old West accent was a little shaky - put it down to the character played by Ian McShane was a more recent immigrant from Old Blighty.

1621

8.6

9.4

Band of Brothers

Packed with Brit actors playing American, including Damian Lewis and Jamie Bamber, but also:
Shane Taylor (Doc Roe)

also:Peter Youngblood Hills (Shifty Powers)
Nicholas Aaron (Popeye Winn)
Dexter Fletcher (Sgt. Martin)
Robin Laing (Babe Heffron)
Rick Warden (Harry Welsh)
Matthew Leitch (Tab Talbert)
Marc Warren (Blythe)
Peter O'Meara (Lt. Dike) - Irish
Stephen Graham (Mike Ranney)

546

6.6

6.9

Without a Trace (2002)

Fully 2/3 of the team were not born on the American Mainland. Those sporting the US accents were Brit Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Viv...

Aussies Poppy Montgomery as Sam and Anthony LaPaglia as Jack.

cal331's rating:

649

6.9

7.9

Jericho (2006)

Here's Lennie James (UK) again, playing Hawkins, another American.

cal331's rating:

414

7.1

7.6

Moonlight (2007)

The aforementioned Alex O'Laughlin and Sophia Myles (British) play Americans in this show.

114

6.6

7.5

Still Standing (2002)

"Full Monty"-er Mark Addy played the All-American slob on this show.

(He's now back to being British on "Game of Thrones," as is...

6.8

7.4

New Amsterdam (2008)

...Dane Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played an American-accented immortal on this show.

7.2

Eleventh Hour (2008)

Rufus Sewell is British, though his character wasn't.

899

6.7

7.5

Roswell (1999)

Aussie Emilie de Ravin got to speak in her native accent for LOST, but as Tess she had to speak American.

cal331's rating:

283

5.9

6.7

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993)

Jewelry purveyor and British person Jane Seymour portrayed the old-west Doc.

1530

6.2

6.7

Xena: Warrior Princess (1995)

Lucy Lawless dropped her Kiwi accent to play action-heroine Xena.

558

7.7

8.4

Red Dwarf (1988)

Danny John-Jules played the Cat with an American Accent. Sadly, I have never seen this show.

445

7.5

7.3

The Secret Circle

Bad witch Faye is played by Aussie Phoebe Tonkin.

cal331's rating:

385

6.6

6.7

Terra Nova (2011)

Here's Jason O'Mara again, this time as the father figure in the time-traveling family drama "Terra Nova."

cal331's rating:

100

6.6

6.8

The River (2012)

Joe Anderson, who hails from the UK, stars as American Lincoln Cole in this show.

cal331's rating:

Load more items (7 more in this list)

In the past couple years, there seemed to be a rash of Brits and Australians and others copping an American accent (unnecessarily, in some cases) to play characters on American TV. According to a documentary, in 2008 one-third of all piloted American TV series had British people in a starring or main supporting role. Most of the shows on this list were on the air at the same time!

Here are some of them.

(Not rated in order of accent's effectiveness.)

Suggestions welcome; I'm still working on it. Note: I'm really looking at main characters, not guest spots, and trying to put in one picture per actor, even though some play more than one American role.