Benjamin John Gareth Davies (born 19 September 1980) is a Scottish actor.
Early life
Benjamin John Gareth Davies was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
on 19 September 1980, the son of Welsh parents. He grew up in England, where he was educated at
Tavistock College
Tavistock College is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Tavistock, Devon, England. There were (as of April 2020) approximately 1800 students attending. The schools draws students from a catchment area of about radius.
T ...
in
Tavistock
Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...
and
Priory School in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
before joining the
Drama Centre in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
at the age of 17; he trained in acting under
Yat Malmgren
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...
,
Reuven Adiv
Reuben or Reuven ( he, רְאוּבֵן, Standard ''Rəʾūven'', Tiberian ''Rŭʾūḇēn'') was the first of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob’s oldest son), according to the Book of Genesis. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Re ...
, and Christopher Fettes.
His earliest performances were with the
National Youth Theatre
The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth th ...
and at the
Theatre Royal in
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
and
Glyndebourne Opera House
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundred ...
.
[
]
Career
Davies was cast by the theatre director Dominic Cooke
Dominic Cooke (born 1966) is an English director and writer.
Early life
Born in Wimbledon, south London, Cooke was brought up seeing a lot of theatre as a teenager from free theatre tickets provided by the Inner London Education Authority.
...
at the Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...
, where he won a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performer
The Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performer was an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awar ...
for his portrayal of Danny in Grae Cleugh's ''Fucking Games''. He then appeared at the Traverse Theatre
The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco.
The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary pla ...
to work with Wilson Milam
Wilson Milam is an American theatre director from Bellevue, Washington who works in the United States, UK and Ireland. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Martin McDonagh's ''The Lieutenant of Inishmore'' as well as ...
, then to the National Theatre Studio
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. In ...
. He played Dill in a production of Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numero ...
's ''To Kill a Mocking Bird
''To Kill a Mockingbird'' is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 and was instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' has become ...
''. Later that year, he worked with the avant-garde film director Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the ...
on '' The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story'' with Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981.
Born in ...
and ''The Tulse Luper Suitcases
''The Tulse Luper Suitcases'' is a multimedia project by film maker and artist Peter Greenaway, initially intended to comprise four films, a 16-episode TV series, and 92 DVDs, as well as websites, CD-ROMs and books. The project documented the i ...
, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea'' with Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
.
Davies played Dominic Morrison in ''Sea of Souls
''Sea of Souls'' is a BBC paranormal drama series, recounting the fictional activities of a group of investigators into psychic and other paranormal events. Produced in-house by BBC Scotland and for the final season by Carnival Films, init ...
'' for the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, then played Lawrence in the first ever production of ''Lovely Evening'' by Peter Gill for Daniel Evans' directorial début at the Young Vic Theatre
The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth.
The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 2018 ...
. Later that year, he joined the Oxford Stage Company
Headlong is a British touring theatre company noted for making bold, innovative productions with some of the UK’s finest artists.
Jeremy Herrin took over the artistic directorship of the company in 2013, and is the current artistic director.
Ar ...
, appearing in '' Rookery Nook'' by Ben Travers
Ben Travers (12 November 188618 December 1980) was an English writer. His output includes more than 20 plays, 30 screenplays, 5 novels, and 3 volumes of memoirs. He is best remembered for his long-running Aldwych farce, series of farces first ...
for Dominic Dromgoole
Dominic Dromgoole (born 25 October 1963)[DROMGOOLE, Dominic Charles Flemi ...](_blank)
's final show with the OSC. Davies played Mickybo in ''Mojo Mickybo'' by Owen McCafferty
Owen McCafferty (born 1961) is a playwright from Northern Ireland.
Early life
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, McCafferty in 1961 he was brought up in London from the age of 1 until aged 10 when his parents returned to Belfast. He was educat ...
at the Trafalgar Studios
Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million Pound sterling, pound restoration project aiming to reinstate ...
in the West End theatre
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1 ...
.
In 2013, Davies had his first Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
role in ''Fast & Furious 6
''Fast & Furious 6'' (titled on-screen as ''Furious 6'') is a 2013 American action film directed by Justin Lin and written by Chris Morgan. It is the sequel to '' Fast Five'' (2011) and is the sixth installment in the ''Fast & Furious'' franc ...
''.[ He returned to the stage for the ]National Theatre of Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...
in the John Tiffany
John Richard Tiffany (born c. 1971) is an English theatre director. He directed the internationally successful productions ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'', ''Black Watch'' and ''Once''. He has won 2 Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, a Drama ...
production of ''Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...
'' which toured the UK, USA, and South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. He returned to television screens for the crime drama '' Suspects'', and went on to work with the American Israeli contemporary video artist Omer Fast
Omer Fast (born in Jerusalem 1972) is an Israeli video artist.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Israel, Fast spent much of his teenage years in Jericho, New York while his father pursued a medical degree in both countries. He received ...
on his first feature film ''Remainder
In mathematics, the remainder is the amount "left over" after performing some computation. In arithmetic, the remainder is the integer "left over" after dividing one integer by another to produce an integer quotient (integer division). In algebr ...
'', an adaptation of the book by British author Tom McCarthy Thomas McCarthy (also Tom and Tommy) may refer to:
Academia
*Thomas A. McCarthy (born 1940), American professor of philosophy
*Thomas J. McCarthy (born 1956), American professor of polymer chemistry at the University of Massachusetts
*J. Thomas Mc ...
. He returned to the American stage in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
to work with Steven Berkoff
Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director.
As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously k ...
on his production of ''The Hairy Ape
''The Hairy Ape'' is a 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich ...
'' by Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
in 2016.
Partial filmography
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Benjamin
1980 births
Laurence Olivier Award winners
Living people
Male actors from Edinburgh
Scottish male film actors
Scottish male stage actors
20th-century Scottish male actors
Alumni of the Drama Centre London
21st-century Scottish male actors
National Youth Theatre members