Ferdinand Kingsley

Ferdinand James M. Kingsley is an English actor. He is known for his work across film, television, theatre, and radio. Among his notable portrayals are Hamza Bey in the film Dracula Untold, Charles Elmé Francatelli in the television series Victoria, Irving Thalberg in the film Mank, Hob Gadling in the Netflix adaptation of The Sandman, and the mysterious villain A.M. in Reacher on Amazon Prime Video.

Kingsley was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to actor Ben Kingsley and theatre director Alison Sutcliffe. He is of predominantly English descent, with a paternal grandfather of Khoja Gujarati descent and a great-grandfather believed by his family to have been of German-Jewish or Russian-Jewish descent. Kingsley received his education at the RSC theatre nursery, Warwick School, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Kingsley's stage career includes performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company in productions of Troilus and Cressida and Little Eyolf. He played Rosencrantz in the National Theatre's 2010–11 production of Hamlet, for which he earned a commendation at the 2010 Ian Charleson Awards. He also played Phaeax in Welcome to Thebes and portrayed both Jesus and God the Father in the August 2012 staging of the York Mystery Plays.

On screen, Kingsley appeared in the film The Last Legion as Young Ambrosinus in flashbacks to the younger days of the character played by his father. He played Albert Aurier in the BBC production Vincent Van Gogh: Painted With Words and Bushy in Richard II, part of the BBC's The Hollow Crown series aired in Summer 2012. In 2013, he starred in the short film Dance in Colour by The Crookes, played murdered Jewish anarchist Joshua Bloom in the BBC period drama Ripper Street, appeared in Agatha Christie's Poirot: Elephants Can Remember, and played Obed Hendricks in the BBC feature film The Whale.

Kingsley played Hamza Bey in Universal Pictures' 2014 feature Dracula Untold. From 2016 to 2019, he starred in ITV's drama series Victoria as the Italian British cook Charles Elmé Francatelli. In 2020, he played film producer Irving Thalberg in the movie Mank.

In 2022, Kingsley appeared in episode 6 of the Netflix series The Sandman as Hob Gadling. In 2023, he portrayed George Wilkins in the Apple TV+ series Silo and played the villain A.M. in the second season of Reacher. On the air, he has portrayed Aldrich Kemp in Julian Simpson's series Who is Aldrich Kemp, Who Killed Aldrich Kemp, and Aldrich Kemp and the Rose of Pamir.