Daniel Rigby

Daniel Rigby is an English actor and comedian born on 6 December 1982 in Cheshire, England. He is the cousin of Blossoms frontman Tom Ogden. Rigby attended Cheadle Hulme School before studying performing arts at Stockport College, then went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Before establishing himself as a screen and stage actor, Rigby worked as a stand-up comedian. He appeared at the Latitude Festival, won the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year in 2007, and was nominated for the So You Think You're Funny competition that same year. His television career began in 2007 with the BBC period drama Lilies.

Rigby's most prominent screen credit came in 2011, when he played the late comedian Eric Morecambe in the BBC television film Eric and Ernie. The performance earned him the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor, with Rigby beating Matt Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch, who were nominated for their respective roles as the Doctor and Sherlock Holmes. From 2011 to 2014, he voiced the character Copenhagen across three series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy Warhorses of Letters, appearing alongside Stephen Fry.

On Broadway, Rigby appeared in One Man, Two Guvnors in 2012. His stage work has also included Tom Basden's Holes at the Arcola Theatre in London, where he performed alongside Mathew Baynton from July to August 2014. In 2022 and 2023, he starred as The Maniac in Tom Basden's adaptation of Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, with productions in both Sheffield and London. His performance as Alan Turing in Breaking the Code at the Royal Exchange in Manchester earned him the Best Actor award at the 2016 Manchester Theatre Awards, presented in March 2017.

In 2015, Rigby narrated the BBC children's television series Teletubbies reboot. He voiced the title role in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom ReincarNathan in 2019, alongside Diane Morgan and Josh Widdicombe. In 2021, he wrote and performed the audiobook novel Isaac Steele and the Forever Man. He appeared as Jack Trotter in the Disney+ series Renegade Nell in 2024, and is set to portray Vernon Dursley in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series.