Daniel Weyman

Daniel Max Weyman is an English performer who has built a broad career across stage, television, film, and audio narration. He gained widespread international recognition for portraying the Stranger, later revealed as Gandalf, in the television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Prior to this role, he was established through major screen roles in television dramas such as Foyle's War and Silent Witness, as well as leading parts in feature films like Just Inès.

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1977, Weyman was raised by his parents, Richard S. Weyman and Judith Weyman, alongside an older sister named Nicola and a younger brother named George. Pursuing an interest in drama, he completed his formal acting education at the Nottingham New Theatre, from which he graduated in 2000.

Weyman began establishing his career on stage with a variety of prominent theatrical productions. He appeared as Jaques in a Sheffield Crucible production of As You Like It and starred as the titular character in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby at the Chichester Festival Theatre, earning a nomination for Best Performance in a Play at the 2006 TMA Awards. His theatrical work continued with roles such as Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2010. He subsequently performed in productions of Kafka's Dick, King Lear, The Crucible at the Bristol Old Vic, and 4000 Days at the Park Theatre. In 2016, he played Miles in a stage adaptation of Sideways at the St James Theatre, and later co-starred with F. Murray Abraham in The Mentor, which transferred to the West End's Vaudeville Theatre in 2018.

His early television credits include roles in the 2004 Midsomer Murders episode The Straw Woman, the 2005 drama Colditz, the docudrama Dunkirk, and Van Gogh: Painted with Words in 2010. Weyman joined the main cast of Foyle's War for its eighth and ninth series, playing Adam Wainwright, the spouse of Honeysuckle Weeks' character. He also appeared in the Agatha Christie adaptation Dead Man's Folly in 2013 and joined the cast of Silent Witness in 2016 as Max Thorndyke, returning for its twenty-first series. He later guest-starred in an episode of Vera in 2018 before being cast in 2020 as the Stranger in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

In cinema, Weyman made his leading film debut playing Tom Jackson in the 2010 movie Just Inès. He subsequently portrayed Arthur Havisham in the 2012 film adaptation of Great Expectations, and filmed scenes for Rupert Everett's The Happy Prince and Amma Asante's World War II drama Where Hands Touch. Beside his screen and stage appearances, Weyman has worked extensively in audiobooks, radio, and voice acting. His audio performances include Doctor Who and Sapphire and Steel dramas, and he won the Audible Best Narrator award in 2017. His narration on titles such as Meltdown, Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud, Angelmaker, and Crusher earned recognition on various prominent audiobook lists.