Roger Allam

Roger William Allam, born on 26 October 1953 in Bow, London, is an English actor whose career spans stage, film, television, and radio. His father served as rector of St Mary Woolnoth, and the family relocated from Bromley-by-Bow to Putney and later to Muswell Hill during Allam's childhood. He received his education at Christ's Hospital and Manchester University.

Allam's stage career has been closely associated with major British theatrical institutions. He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1983, playing Mercutio, and that same year appeared on Broadway in All's Well That Ends Well. Between 1985 and 1986, he originated the role of Inspector Javert in the London production of Les Misérables. He later left the role to take part in the RSC's 1986 production of The Archbishop's Ceiling, a decision Arthur Miller noted in his 1987 autobiography Timebends, writing that Allam gave up the lead in a major hit because he had performed it over sixty times and found Miller's play more challenging at that point in his career.

His work at the Donmar Warehouse, the National Theatre, and Shakespeare's Globe has earned him six Laurence Olivier Award nominations and three wins. He won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in 2001 for his portrayal of Captain Terri Denis in a revival of Privates on Parade, which opened in December 2001 at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. In 2000, he played Adolf Hitler at the Royal National Theatre in David Edgar's Albert Speer. In 2003, he appeared as former West German federal chancellor Willy Brandt in Michael Frayn's Democracy, which opened at the Cottesloe Theatre before transferring to the West End. Allam played Max Reinhardt in Frayn's Afterlife in 2008, staged by Michael Blakemore on the National Theatre's Lyttelton stage.

At Shakespeare's Globe, Allam played Falstaff in both parts of Henry IV during the 2010 season, a performance for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. In 2013, he played Prospero in The Tempest at the Globe alongside Colin Morgan as Ariel. Additional stage credits include co-starring with Gillian Anderson in Michael Weller's What the Night Is For at the Comedy Theatre in November 2002, appearing in David Harrower's Blackbird at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 alongside Jodhi May in a production directed by Peter Stein, and performing in the 1960s farce Boeing-Boeing at the Comedy Theatre in February 2007 with Mark Rylance, Frances de la Tour, and Tamzin Outhwaite. He played Albin/Zaza in La Cage aux Folles at the Playhouse in London in 2009, and appeared as Serebrayakov in Uncle Vanya at the Chichester Festival Theatre in April 2012. In December 2004 and January 2005, he played Abanazar in a pantomime production of Aladdin at the Old Vic, co-starring Ian McKellen, Maureen Lipman, and Sam Kelly, a role he reprised at the same venue in 2006–07 alongside McKellen and Frances Barber.

On television, Allam is widely recognized for playing DCI Fred Thursday in Endeavour, the prequel to Inspector Morse, beginning with the first series in January 2012. He portrayed the character across seven series, with the show also broadcast in the United States as part of PBS Masterpiece Mystery. His wife, actress Rebecca Saire, and their son William appeared together in the Endeavour episode Raga in February 2020. Allam played Illyrio Mopatis in the HBO series Game of Thrones and appeared as Peter Mannion MP in the BBC comedy The Thick of It, first in the 2007 special episodes and continuing through the final series in 2012. He played Brigadier Adrian Stone in the BBC series The Missing in October and November 2016. In March 2022, he debuted as Antoine Verlaque in Murder in Provence, a BritBox crime drama based on the detective novels by ML Longworth, with Nancy Carroll playing his partner Marine Bonnet.

His film credits include the role of the Queen's private secretary in Stephen Frears's 2006 film The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, and the crime novelist Nicholas Hardiment in Frears's Tamara Drewe, adapted from Posy Simmonds's comic strip, with Gemma Arterton in the title role. He appeared as Lewis Prothero in the 2005 film V for Vendetta and as Royalton in Speed Racer.

Allam's radio work has been extensive. He played Inspector Javert in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Les Misérables in 2001, and in the same year voiced Jean Valjean in a separate BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the same novel. He is known for playing First Officer Douglas Richardson in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Cabin Pressure. Since January 2020, he has co-starred with Joanna Lumley in the BBC Radio 4 comedy drama Conversations from a Long Marriage, which reached its sixth series as of May 2025. He also voices the demon Azazel in the 2022 Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Additionally, Allam has narrated audiobooks including Solar by Ian McEwan and An Introduction to Buddhism by the Dalai Lama, and narrated the Channel 4 series The Auction House.

Allam is married to actress Rebecca Saire, and they have two sons, William and Thomas, both of whom are actors. He identifies as politically left and has publicly criticized Donald Trump.