Biography

A British actor born in Surrey, England. After training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he was a member of the innovative theatre company Red Shift, founded by Jonathan Holloway, and appeared in all their early productions - most notably as Bosola in their much-lauded production of 'The Duchess of Malfi' which established their ground-breaking reputation at the 1983 Edinburgh Festival. After leaving the company, he began a long career as a stage actor performing across the UK and in Europe. His most notable theatre performances include the title role in 'Cyrano de Bergerac', Atticus in 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Casy in 'The Grapes of Wrath', Bernard Nightingale in 'Arcadia'. In more recent years he has been appearing in London's West End including 'Yes, Prime Minister' (the 3rd actor after Nigel Hawthorne and Henry Goodman to play the part of Sir Humphrey) and 'The Audience' with both Helen Mirren and Kristin Scott Thomas. He is a frequent performer at the Royal National Theatre in such productions as 'The Doctor's Dilemma', 'Emil and the Detectives', 'Home', 'Our Country's Good', 'As You Like It' and 'Absolute Hell'. In 2019 he played a variety of characters in the acclaimed London revival of David Hare's 'The Permanent Way'. His most recent film work includes the NT Live production of 'The Audience', 'The 12', 'The Name of the Prime Minister' and 'The Shriving'. On television he has appeared in 'The Crown', the long-running series 'Casualty', the sitcom 'Not Going Out' and period drama 'The Scandalous Lady W'. In the soap opera 'Canary Wharf' he played regular character Barry Brennan, showbiz newspaper columnist. His voice work includes the computer game 'Runescape', numerous audio book titles available on Audible including the last two Erast Fandorin novels by Boris Akunin, radio dramas for the BBC and the Audible thriller serial 'Six Degrees of Assassination' starring Andrew Scott and Freema Agyeman. For Big Finish, he played the hilariously imperturbable Maitre D' in their Dr Who spin-off 'The Diary of River Song'. In 2000, he directed the feature-length comedy thriller 'Weyback'. Since 2015 he has been researching and developing a documentary film investigating the mysterious story of a supposedly cursed long-lost 1930s British comedy film.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jonathan COOTE