Hywel John

Hywel John is a Welsh actor and playwright born on 21 June 1980. He grew up in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and London, and received his education at Highgate School before enrolling at Bristol University in 1999. He subsequently trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art beginning in 2002.

John's Broadway appearance came in 2008, when he played the Bloody Sergeant and the Murderer in Rupert Goold's production of Macbeth, which featured Sir Patrick Stewart in the title role. The production traveled extensively before reaching New York, having played the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End, as well as Brooklyn Academy of Music, before landing at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. The production received a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Play in 2008 and was later adapted into a film by BBC Films and PBS in 2010.

His earlier stage acting credits include the role of English Boy in Peter Morris's Guardians, which won the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005, and Yuri in Ben Woolf's Angry Young Man, performed at Trafalgar Studios in London's West End, a production that took home both the Best Play and Best Show Awards at the Adelaide Festival in 2006. In 2010, he appeared as Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. On television, John played Dave in the Channel 4 sitcom The I.T. Crowd and Dr. Keith Newby in the BBC soap opera Doctors.

As a playwright, John made his debut with Pieces, which premiered at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in March 2010 under the direction of Kate Wasserberg, starring Steven Meo, Louise Collins, and Jennifer Kidd. The play subsequently transferred Off-Broadway to 59E59 Theatres in New York City later that year. The Guardian likened the work to that of Harold Pinter, describing it as "a demonic contemporary fairytale whose psychological surety will leave you in pieces," while The Stage called it "a fascinating piece, always gripping often very funny with a Brothers Grimm-like atmosphere."

His second play, Rose, was commissioned by actor Art Malik and premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2011, with Malik and his daughter Keira in the cast. The London Evening Standard characterized the script as "subtle and compelling," calling the play "a gem," and The Telegraph described it as "a well-crafted, relevant, winningly performed new play." Among his other works, Sevens Bridge received a public reading at Manhattan Theatre Club in December 2010 with Zawe Ashton, while Joe was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith and the Latitude Festival in 2012, and Boy was produced at The Last Refuge the same year.