Simon Russell Beale

© Dan Wooller

Simon Russell Beale was educated at St Pauls Cathedral Choir School and Clifton College in Bristol. After graduating with a first in English at Cambridge University he began training as an opera singer before he turned to acting. He started his theatrical career at The Royal Court, and went on to the Royal Shakespeare Company for 8 years. Since then, he has spent 20 years at The National Theatre. Not only has Beale performed all over the world, he has also appeared in award-winning TV and film. Beale has presented many BBC programmes about classical music. In 2019 he was appointed a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to the Arts.
Theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (The Bridge Theatre); John Gabriel Borkman (The Bridge Theatre); The Lehman Trilogy (Piccadilly Theatre and The Armory, New York); The Tempest, King Lear, Ghosts, Richard III, The Seagull, Edward II, Troilus and Cressida, The Man of Mode, Restoration (RSC); The Lehman Trilogy, King Lear, Timon of Athens, Collaborators, London Assurance, A Slight Ache, Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, The Alchemist, Life of Galileo, Jumpers, Humble Boy, Hamlet, Battle Royal, Candide, Summerfolk, Money, Othello, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Volpone (National Theatre), Mr Foote’s Other Leg (Hampstead/ Haymarket); Temple, The Philanthropist, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse); The Hothouse (Trafalgar Studios); Privates On Parade (Noel Coward Theatre); Bluebird (Atlantic Theatre, New York); The Cherry

Orchard, The Winter’s Tale (BAM, World Tour, Old Vic); Monty Python’s Spamalot (Palace Theatre, London & Schubert Theatre, New York); Julius Caesar (Barbican / International Tour); Richard II, Macbeth (Almeida Theatre); Jumpers (Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York); Jumpers (Piccadilly Theatre); Humble Boy (Gielgud Theatre).

Television includes: House of the Dragon, Douglas is Cancelled, Mary & George, Vanity Fair, Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, Penny Dreadful, Under The Covers, Monteverdi, Legacy, Perkinson, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, God’s Country, Symphony, Spooks, Sacred Christmas Music, American Experience, Dunkirk, Great Historians, Gibbon, A Dance To The Music Of Time.

Film includes: Firebrand, Radioactive, The Outfit, Benediction, Mary Queen of Scots, Operation Finale, The Death of Stalin (Winner of 2017 British Independent Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor), Museo, My Cousin Rachel, Tarzan, Savannah, Into The Woods, The Deep Blue Sea, My Week With Marilyn, Hamlet.