Rikki David James Chamberlain (; born July 1973 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England) is a British actor best known for playing Samson in

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

Captain Mack Captain Mack is a British children's television show set in the town of Sunshine City. It was created and developed by John Lomas Bullivant, at ''Fireback Entertainment'', and was first broadcast in February 2008. The series formerly ran on CI ...

Early life

Chamberlain was born in the

Louise Margaret Hospital The Louise Margaret Hospital was opened in 1898 to cater for British Army soldiers' wives and children in the military town of Aldershot Garrison. It started with fifty-three beds and about half of its cases were maternity patients. In 1958 it bec ...

on 30 July 1973. After several

school detention School discipline relates to actions taken by teachers or school organizations toward students when their behavior disrupts the ongoing educational activity or breaks a rule created by the school. Discipline can guide the children's behavior or ...

s for ' mimicking' teachers at school, his form tutor suggested he audition for the newly forming youth theatre in the town's Gaiety Theatre. Activity in the Ayr youth theatre and the local Ayr school of dancing, led him to undertake a professional dancer's training at the Theatre School of Dance and Drama 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 ...

. After a knee injury enforced an eighteen-month break in his dancing career, he decided to undertake a training in acting to which he has often said he felt "better suited than being a dancer". This led to a BA (HONS) in

Performing Arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

Cumbria Institute of the Arts The Cumbria Institute of the Arts was a further and higher education institution in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. History Founded as the ''Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts'' in 1822, it proceeded as the ''Carlisle College of Art'', fro ...

and then a Post Graduate diploma from

Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, formerly Mountview Theatre School, is a drama school in Peckham, south London, England, founded in 1945. The Academy provides specialist vocational training in acting and musical theatre, as well as production ...

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 ...

, where he won the

Dame ''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...

scholarship to help with the cost of training.

Selected Credits

*''

'' (Samson - children's programme on CITV)'' *''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...

'' (Jaques) *''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. It ...

'' ( Dromio of

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

)

External links

* *http://www.citv.co.uk *http://www.captainmack.co.uk 1973 births Living people Alumni of the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts British male actors {{UK-screen-actor-stub