Gwilym Lee

Gwilym Lee is a British actor born on 24 November 1983 in Bristol to Welsh parents, Tom and Ceinwen. He grew up with three older siblings — Geraint, Owen, and Rhiannon — and relocated with his family to Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands during his childhood, though he maintains a strong connection to his Welsh heritage. Lee pursued his education at Cardiff University, where he studied English literature, before training in drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He received the Guildhall Gold Medal upon completing his studies there in 2008 and has since been based in London.

Lee's engagement with performance began early. As a teenager he joined a drama group, and at sixteen he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company on a production of Richard III. He also appeared in the 1997–1998 television adaptation of the Animal Ark books. His stage work drew significant recognition when he was commended in the 2008 Ian Charleson Awards for his performance in the National Theatre's production of Oedipus. The following year, in 2009, he played Laertes opposite Jude Law's title character in the Donmar West End season's production of Hamlet, a run that brought him to Broadway. Lee went on to win first prize at the 2011 Ian Charleson Awards for his portrayal of Edgar in the 2010 King Lear production at the Donmar Warehouse. In 2012 he appeared in the Donmar Trafalgar Studios production of Aleksei Arbuzov's The Promise, and in early 2014 he returned to the Donmar for their production of Versailles.

On television, Lee took on a leading role in the final series of Land Girls in 2011 and accumulated guest appearances on programs including Ashes to Ashes, Fresh Meat, Monroe, and Henry V. He has also contributed to radio productions, among them The Emerald Tiger, The Silver Turk, and an adaptation of The Cruel Sea. Beginning with the sixteenth series in late 2013, Lee joined Midsomer Murders as DS Charlie Nelson, the new sergeant to DCI Barnaby. That series included the show's 100th episode, portions of which were filmed in Denmark in collaboration with the Danish broadcaster DR. He remained with the series through 2016, when ITV confirmed he would not return for its nineteenth season.

Lee's film career reached a wide audience with his casting as guitarist Brian May in the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. The role earned him a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards. That same year it was announced he had joined the Hulu series The Great, in which he starred as Grigor Dymov — a composite character drawing on Catherine the Great's historical associates Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin, as well as a childhood friend of Peter III. The series ran for three seasons between 2020 and 2023. Among his other notable television credits are Midsomer Murders (2013–2016), A Song for Jenny (2015), Jamestown (2017), and Top End Wedding (2019). In 2023 it was announced that Lee had been cast in the second season of SAS: Rogue Heroes.