Rupert Graves

Rupert Graves is an English actor born on 30 June 1963 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, to Mary Lousilla Graves, a travel co-ordinator, and Richard Harding Graves, a music teacher and musician. He was educated at Wyvern Community School, and his first job after leaving school was as a circus clown. Graves went on to build a career spanning more than 25 films and more than 35 television productions, as well as significant stage work on both sides of the Atlantic.

Graves first gained widespread attention through costume-drama adaptations of E. M. Forster novels, appearing in A Room with a View in 1985 and Maurice in 1987. Subsequent film roles included A Handful of Dust in 1988, The Madness of King George in 1994, Different for Girls in 1996, and Intimate Relations in 1996, the last of which earned him the Best Actor award at the 1996 Montreal World Film Festival. On television, he was acclaimed for his portrayal of Young Jolyon Forsyte in the 2002 miniseries The Forsyte Saga, and from 2010 to 2017 he starred as DI Lestrade in the BBC series Sherlock.

His stage career includes notable London credits alongside his Broadway work. He appeared as Presley Stray in the original production of Philip Ridley's The Pitchfork Disney at the Bush Theatre in west London in 1991, a performance that won him Best Actor at the 1991 Charrington London Fringe Awards. He performed opposite Vanessa Redgrave in Martin Sherman's A Madhouse in Goa in 1989, and played Eddie in the Peter Hall Company's production of David Rabe's Hurlyburly at the Old Vic and Queen's Theatre during 1997 and 1998, earning a nomination for the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

Graves appeared on Broadway between 1999 and 2002, with credits including The Elephant Man and Closer. His Broadway debut earned him a Theatre World Award in 1999. He later married Australian-born production co-ordinator Susie Lewis.