Toby Jones

Toby Edward Heslewood Jones, born on 7 September 1966 in Hammersmith, London, is an English actor whose career spans stage, film, television, and radio. The son of actors Jennifer Jones and Freddie Jones, he grew up in Oxford and attended Christ Church Cathedral School and Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. Jones studied drama at the University of Manchester between 1986 and 1989, then continued his training at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris from 1989 to 1991.

Jones made his stage debut in 2001 in the comedy play The Play What I Wrote, a production that transferred from the West End to Broadway in 2003. The role earned him a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Nearly two decades later, he received a second Olivier Award nomination, this time for Best Actor, for his performance in a revival of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in 2020.

His film career began with Sally Potter's period drama Orlando in 1992, and he has since accumulated more than 60 screen credits. Early appearances included Naked (1993), Les Misérables (1998), Ever After (1998), and Ladies in Lavender (2004), the latter alongside his father. He portrayed Truman Capote in the 2006 biopic Infamous and took on the role of Karl Rove in Oliver Stone's W. (2008), as well as Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar in Frost/Nixon (2008). Further film credits include Finding Neverland (2005), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), The Mist (2007), The Painted Veil (2006), Amazing Grace (2006), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), in which he played British spy master Percy Alleline, My Week with Marilyn (2011), Berberian Sound Studio (2012), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Dad's Army (2016), in which he played Captain Mainwaring, Journey's End (2017), Empire of Light (2022), and Mr Burton (2025), in which he portrayed Philip Burton in a film about the early life of Richard Burton.

Jones has also established a prominent presence in major franchises. He played Arnim Zola in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and reprised the role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), both part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He portrayed Claudius Templesmith in The Hunger Games franchise across 2012 and 2013, appeared as dinosaur auctioneer Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and played Basil Shaw in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). His voice work includes Dobby in the Harry Potter films Chamber of Secrets (2002) and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010), Aristides Silk in The Adventures of Tintin (2011), and Owl in Disney's Christopher Robin (2018).

On television, Jones appeared in the Doctor Who episode "Amy's Choice" (2010) as the Dream Lord and played Samuel Ratchett in the Poirot episode "Murder on the Orient Express." He starred in Julian Fellowes's Titanic miniseries for ITV in 2012 and portrayed film director Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl the same year, a performance that earned him nominations for both a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film and a Primetime Emmy Award. He played Neil Baldwin in the BBC drama Marvellous (2014) and Roger Yount in the BBC series Capital (2015). From 2014, he appeared in the BBC Four series Detectorists, receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2016 and winning the award in 2018. He portrayed Culverton Smith in the Sherlock episode "The Lying Detective" (2017) and appeared in Wayward Pines from 2015 to 2016 and the MCU series Agent Carter in 2015. Jones co-wrote and starred in the BBC Two comedy series Don't Forget the Driver (2019), marking his first work as a television writer. He reprised his MCU role in the animated series What If...? in 2021. In 2024, he played Alan Bates in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a biographical dramatisation of the Horizon Post Office scandal; the series received a Peabody Award at the 85th annual ceremony.

Jones's radio work includes playing Lord Brideshead in a BBC Radio adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (2003), voicing the title character in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Oblomov (2005), reading a Radio 4 adaptation of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany (2009), playing Inspector Goole in a BBC Radio adaptation of An Inspector Calls (2010), portraying Napoleon Bonaparte in Anthony Burgess's Napoleon Rising on Radio 3 (2012), and playing Kotris in the Doctor Who audio drama Dark Eyes (2013). Since 2013 he has voiced Joey Oldman in the BBC Radio 4 series The Corrupted, and in 2020 he portrayed Falstaff in a BBC Radio 3 production of Henry IV.