Paterson Joseph

Paterson Davis Joseph, born on 22 June 1964 in Willesden Green, Middlesex, is an English actor and author. The youngest of five children born to parents from Saint Lucia, Joseph grew up in north-west London and attended Cardinal Hinsley R.C. High School. Before pursuing acting, he worked briefly as a catering assistant at a hospital. He trained first at Studio '68 of Theatre Arts in London's South Kensington from 1983 to 1985 under Robert Henderson, then went on to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

Joseph launched his stage career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1990, appearing as Oswald in King Lear, Dumaine in Love's Labour's Lost, and the Marquis de Mota in The Last Days of Don Juan. Those performances earned him second prize in the 1991 Ian Charleson Awards. In 1992, he played Richard Henry in James Baldwin's Blues for Mister Charlie, directed by Greg Hersov at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. Joseph appeared on Broadway in 1995 in Hamlet. His theatre work also includes the title role in Othello at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, parts in Henry IV and King Lear, and a 2012 RSC production of Julius Caesar set in Africa in which he played Brutus. In 2006 and 2007, he took the leads in The Royal Hunt of the Sun and The Emperor Jones at the Olivier Theatre in London. In 2004, he directed a production of Romeo and Juliet with twenty young non-actors from the Harlesden area of London, a project documented for Channel 4 under the title My Shakespeare. His solo play Sancho: An Act of Remembrance, which he both wrote and performed, was staged in Oxford and Birmingham in 2015 and subsequently toured the United States. In late 2019 and early 2020, he starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Old Vic Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol.

On British television, Joseph built an extensive body of work across drama and comedy. He played Mark Grace in the BBC One series Casualty from 1997 to 1998, and Alan Johnson in the Channel 4 series Peep Show from 2003 to 2015. Other notable roles include Lyndon Jones in Green Wing (2004–2006), Greg Preston in the BBC's Survivors (2008–2010), and DI Wes Layton in Law & Order: UK (2013–2014). He also appeared in Safe House (2015–2017) and Vigil (BBC One, 2021–2023). Earlier television credits include the Marquis de Carabas in the 1996 BBC drama Neverwhere, Rodrick in the Doctor Who episodes "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways," Space Marshall Clarke in two series of the BBC sci-fi sitcom Hyperdrive (2007), and Benjamin Maddox in the BBC drama Jekyll (2007). In 2020, he played Home Secretary Kamal Hadley in Noughts + Crosses. In American television, Joseph portrayed "Holy Wayne" Gilchrest in HBO's The Leftovers (2014–2015) and Connor Mason in NBC's Timeless (2016–2018).

Joseph's film career began with a role as Benbay in Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father. In 2000, he appeared as Keaty in Danny Boyle's The Beach alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, and also appeared in Greenfingers that same year. He portrayed Giroux in the 2005 science-fiction film Æon Flux, starring Charlize Theron, and took a supporting role in The Other Man (2008) opposite Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas. In 2023, he played the villain Arthur Slugworth in the musical fantasy film Wonka, directed by Paul King.

Joseph's voice work includes narrating the National Geographic series Mega Cities from 2005 to 2011 and Wild Russia in 2009, as well as the BBC Two documentary Inside Obama's White House in 2016. In 2011, he appeared in the Doctor Who audio drama Earth Aid as Victor Espinosa, and in November 2016 he played the title role in the BBC radio adaptation of Neil Gaiman's How the Marquis Got His Coat Back. He also played Colonel Arbuthnott in the Audible production of Murder on the Orient Express, and read a BBC Radio 4 abridgement of George Lamming's 1953 novel In the Castle of My Skin, first broadcast in December 2020.

As a writer, Joseph published his debut novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho in October 2022 through Dialogue Books. The book charts the life of Charles Ignatius Sancho through fictionalised diary entries, letters, and commentary. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Jhalak Prize and won the 2023 RSL Christopher Bland Prize, awarded by the Royal Society of Literature. Joseph was also a contributor to the 2024 volume Encounters with James Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years. In October 2022, he was announced as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, succeeding previous holders of the role including Helena Kennedy, Jon Snow, and Shami Chakrabarti. He became a patron of OffWestEnd.com, a listings site for theatre outside the mainstream, in 2006, and has delivered keynote public lectures including the Memorial 2007 Annual Lecture at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and at Lancaster University.