Patrick Brammall shows his dramatic side as ‘Colin From Accounts’ ends

Patrick Brammall is currently having the kind of year that most actors dream of.

In May, he appeared as Anne Hathaway’s new love interest in the summer blockbuster “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and this week he headlines not one, but two television series premiering on back-to-back days.

On Thursday, Brammall returns for the third and final season of “Colin From Accounts,” the romantic comedy he created, produces, writes and stars in with his wife, Harriet Dyer. The uproarious sitcom follows the ups and downs in the messy relationship between bar owner Gordon Crapp (Brammall) and general practitioner Ashley Molden (Dyer) along with their adopted dog, which they named Colin From Accounts. All eight episodes drop in full on Paramount+.

But before “Colin,” on Wednesday, audiences can see a very different side of Brammall with the first two episodes of his harrowing drama “Last Seen.” In the six-episode series, the Canberra, Australia, native plays grief-stricken police dispatcher Ian Ridley, who finds evidence that his 3-year-old daughter, who disappeared 11 years ago and is presumed dead, may be alive and closer than anyone could have imagined. Based on Ryan David Jahn’s 2011 novel “The Dispatcher,” the series was adapted by executive producer Kris Mrksa and drops a new episode weekly through Oct. 7 on Apple TV.

Being such a heavy role enveloped in a dark subject matter, Brammall initially didn’t believe he was the right actor for the project. His friend and casting director Kirsty McGregor, who cast “Colin” and “Last Seen,” disagreed. “Kirsty said, ‘They’re throwing around some pretty big names, all Australian names and I threw your name in there,’” he recalls. Given Brammall is known more for comedy roles like “Colin,” he was asked to submit an audition tape.

After sending it in, McGregor asked him to redo the tape, offering a few notes, including that he needed to physically be more still. Fortunately, Dyer had a solution.

“Patty can be very flappy, especially from comedy so he gesticulates a lot. I remembered something that they did to a boy in my drama school who was doing [the same thing] and they tied his hands next to his body. I was wearing a dressing gown and I tied Patty’s hands down [with the belt],” she recalls, laughing. “He sent the tape on and everyone was crying, they were so moved and he won the role.”

Brammall reflected on his busy year personally and professionally, including how being a new dad helped him access what his “Last Seen” character confronts and whether he’s up for a big action role next. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

With the year you’re having, was there a master plan or is it just how things have fallen into place?

Oh no, it’s completely random. We’ve got two kids under 5. [Joni is 4 and Mabel is 1.] We can’t plan anything. It’s been a big 18 months, actually. We started writing Season 3 of “Colin” in August or September 2024 and then mid-February 2025, we all moved to Melbourne to shoot “Last Seen.” Then we went to Montreal for five months for Harry to shoot [the CBS sitcom] “DMV.” We came to Sydney for seven months to make Season 3 of “Colin.” There were a couple of other potentially exciting things on the table and I was like, “I can’t throw my hat in the ring for that.” We have to be parents.

What was the appeal of playing the role of Ian in “Last Seen”?

The appeal of it initially was to get away from comedy. I haven’t had a big acting meaty role like that for a long time. Gordon [on “Colin”] is like breathing to me because we created those characters and he’s an extension of me. With Ian, he’s a man who has lost so much. He’s got a lot of psychological and emotional trauma that he’s dealing with.

As I got into the material, I felt as a new dad that I could access something emotionally that I wouldn’t have been able to do before. For me, parenting is a humbling experience daily and I felt it was something about this that tapped into a vulnerability and a rawness. It was a long 100-day shoot, sitting in an emotional state that it’s like an open tab always for the entire length of the shoot.

How did you get inside Ian’s head with how he’s lived through the past 11 years since his daughter disappeared?

Our director is Christian Schwochow and he wanted to come at [the show] in a psychologically real way so we were constantly earthing things and he would be very particular about creating the space [to work] and the crew was very sensitive to it.

I had some pages [in the script] where I didn’t have to do anything, really. I just had to be open and it was deeply emotional. It’s a strange thing for me anyway, as an actor, to let this bucket of sadness start to spill over but there’s a real joy in it because it’s pretend and I’m tapping into it all. And then it’s “cut,” and you shake it off and sleep well that night.

[Schwochow, who directed all six episodes and is an executive producer, says of Brammall, “I hope Patty doesn’t hate me for saying that, but basically, he’s quite a normal, down-to-earth guy. You could cast an action hero type of guy, but I wanted someone who’s very intelligent, who could be any father in the world. Patty wants to go to places where he has never been as an actor.”]

Because you’re so involved with every facet of “Colin,” how was it to just go in and be an actor for “Last Seen”?

Amazing. I don’t have to do anything. The director, the first AD, the DP, they’d all have meetings at the end of every day, like “What’s happening tomorrow? What are we doing?” And 95% of the show was on location and it was sprawling all around regional Victoria [Australia], which I think that’s one of the great strengths of it. But we were traveling everywhere and I didn’t have to worry about any of the logistics. I loved that.

Shifting to “Colin,” the new season starts with a three-year time jump from the end of Season 2 with Gordon’s ill-received proposal to Ashley. Why was three years a good time to pick back up with them?

There’s a practical element that is we needed the characters’ ages to catch up to our own ages a little bit. We wrote the pilot in 2017 when Harry was still in her 20s but by the time we got to make it, she was 32 or something and I was already 44. There’s only four weeks story time between Season 1 and 2 and, personally, I turned 50 this year and no one’s believing that Gordon is still 42. It’s just fun to go, “What’s happened in the interim? What’s happened to all our characters?”

Was it a big conversation between you and Harriet about ending the show after this season?

We were on the same page about it. I think there’s a practical component to it, which, again, is two kids under 5. The first two seasons we made just with Joni and the third season was Joni and Mabel and it’s a different thing. Don’t get me wrong, “Colin” is one of the joys of our lives, but it takes a lot out of us even though it’s highly collaborative. We wouldn’t be able to do it just ourselves.

Creatively, it also felt very right. It felt like the three seasons serve as a three-act structure, honestly. And we reset things in Season 3 so it’s will they, won’t they again. We feel like, leave on the crest of the wave. The audience can sniff out when you’ve lost the spark of it. We didn’t want to do that.

How was writing and shooting the last episode of the series?

Shooting Episode 8 and writing it, you want to land the plane properly and the idea we had for it does that. Hopefully we executed it well. I think it’s a satisfying ending and we wanted to make it joyful as well, obviously. There was a little bit of pressure knowing that it was the final thing and it was emotional shooting it as well. I think it’s a good ending. I hope people find it that way.

Since your 2026 also included a big movie with “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” what have you learned the most this year?

To be present. I just turned 50 and I feel like I have a level enough head. Maybe the dish would have run away with the spoon as a 20-something year old, but I’ve been around the block enough times to know that it’s all a balance. I’ve always loved to work and I still love to work, but it’s not more important than my kids.

Amid everything else, you also voice Uncle Rad on “Bluey.” Are your kids aware of your connection to the show?

I have tried to drum it into our eldest and she doesn’t want to hear about it. She’ll be at school in Australia and one of the other kids would go, “Are you Uncle Rad?” And I’ll say, “Yeah, I am,” and Joni will look at me like, “No, you’re not.” I can just see in her eyes, it’s like, “Shut up, Dad.” She’s only 4 and she’s already embarrassed by me.

After juggling romantic comedy and heavy drama, do you want to do something next like a John Wick or James Bond action project?

I’ve never had a plan and I don’t intend to start now. I’ll keep working with Harry. We want to create more stuff together. That’s one of the great things about this gig as an actor is you don’t know what’s coming. I’m open as long as I can juggle it with family but, yeah, if someone’s got a John Wick thing, let’s talk.