Bertie Carvel

Bertie Carvel, born Robert Hugh Carvel on 6 September 1977 in Marylebone, London, is a British actor whose stage work spans the West End, Broadway, and major regional theatres. The son of Guardian journalist John Carvel and psychologist Patricia Carvel, he was educated at University College School in London before reading English at the University of Sussex, where he earned a first class honours degree. He subsequently trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 2000 to 2003, supported by scholarships from The Wall Trust and the Sir John Cass Foundation.

Carvel's early stage career included appearances at the Hampstead Theatre in Revelations, at the Arcola Theatre in Rose Bernd, and at the National Theatre in Helen Edmundson's Coram Boy, in which he played Alexander Ashbrook across the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 seasons. He also appeared in the National Theatre's productions of The Life of Galileo and The Man of Mode, and played Enrico in Damned By Despair there as well. His performance in Parade at the Donmar Warehouse earned him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2008.

The role of Miss Trunchbull in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre became a defining credit for Carvel. His performance won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2012, a production that collected six additional Olivier Awards. He also received the TMA Award for Best Performance in a Musical and a nomination for the Evening Standard Award for the same role. In March 2013, Carvel reprised Miss Trunchbull when Matilda transferred to Broadway's Shubert Theatre, earning him a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical — one of only a handful of such nominations for an actor portraying a character of the opposite sex.

Carvel's second Broadway credit came with the play Ink, written by James Graham. He first played Rupert Murdoch in the production when it debuted at the Almeida Theatre in September 2017, before it transferred to the West End. In April 2019, Ink moved to Broadway with Carvel again in the role, and the performance brought him the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play. He had previously won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the same performance, making him a two-time Olivier winner.

Between his two Broadway runs, Carvel continued an active stage life in London. In 2015 he played both Pentheus and Agave in Bakkhai at the Almeida Theatre, and later that year appeared as Yank in The Hairy Ape at the Old Vic. In 2016 he made his directorial debut with Strife at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. In 2022 he returned to the Old Vic to play US President Donald Trump in Mike Bartlett's The 47th.

On television, Carvel starred as Jonathan Strange in the BBC One adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2015, opposite Eddie Marsan as Gilbert Norrell. That same year he began playing Simon Foster, the unfaithful husband at the centre of the BBC One thriller Doctor Foster, a role he continued through the second series broadcast in 2017. He also portrayed Nick Clegg in the Channel 4 drama Coalition. Since 2021, Carvel has played the title character Adam Dalgliesh in Helen Edmundson's television series Dalgliesh. He appeared as former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the fifth and sixth series of The Crown, beginning in 2022, and portrays Prince Baelor Targaryen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Among his earlier television appearances are roles in The Wrong Mans, Babylon, Bombshell, Hawking, The Crimson Petal and the White, Money, Midsomer Murders, Sherlock, and Doctor Who. He played Lord Carmarthen in John Adams and Max Mallowan in the television film Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures. On film, he appeared as Bamatabois in Les Misérables. In audio, he played Wormwood in Focus on the Family's 2009 adaptation of The Screwtape Letters alongside Andy Serkis, a production that was a 2010 Audie Award finalist. From 2011 to 2024 he was also the voice of the male Imperial Agent in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Originally from London, Carvel married actress Sally Scott in January 2019; the couple, who met in 2009, had a son named Ernest in May 2020. Carvel is a patron of the Globe Theatre's education department's Playing Shakespeare programme, which provides free resources and theatre tickets to secondary school students. In 2013 he was elected to Equity's Stage Committee and was re-elected for a further two-year term in 2015.