Rory Kinnear

Rory Michael Kinnear is an English actor who has earned distinction for his performances across theatre, film, and television. He is well known for winning two Laurence Olivier Awards for his stage work with the National Theatre, as well as for portraying Bill Tanner in four James Bond feature films and Dave Fishwick in the Bank of Dave movies.

Born in Hammersmith, London, on 17 February 1978, Kinnear comes from a theatrical background as the son of actors Roy Kinnear and Carmel Cryan. He grew up alongside two older sisters, and his grandfather was Scottish international rugby player Roy Kinnear, while actor Michael Williams served as his godfather. He attended Tower House School until 1991, St Paul's School in London until 1996, and studied English at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his university studies, he received acting training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Kinnear established his stage reputation through classical and contemporary theatrical productions. His early work included roles in Mary Stuart and as Laertes in Hamlet. In 2008, his performance as Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode at the National Theatre earned him both an Ian Charleson Award and his first Laurence Olivier Award. He continued to take on major theatrical roles, such as Angelo in Measure for Measure and the title character in Hamlet, winning an Evening Standard Drama Award in 2010. Later stage credits include The Last of the Haussmans, Young Marx, and Macbeth.

In 2013, Kinnear portrayed Iago in Othello at the National Theatre, a performance that earned him a second Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in 2014, alongside an Evening Standard Theatre Award shared with co-star Adrian Lester. Beyond acting, he wrote the 2013 stage play The Herd, which premiered at the Bush Theatre before running in Chicago. In 2016, he sang the role of Macheath in The Threepenny Opera, and he subsequently made his directorial debut in 2017 with the opera adaptation of The Winter's Tale for the English National Opera.

In film, Kinnear achieved widespread recognition playing MI6 chief of staff Bill Tanner in the James Bond movies Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die, also supplying his voice and likeness for several Bond video games. He won a British Independent Film Award for his role in Broken and appeared in projects such as The Imitation Game, iBoy, Peterloo, Men, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. He also portrayed real-life figure Dave Fishwick in Bank of Dave and its sequel Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger.

On television, Kinnear has taken on varied roles, including Prime Minister Michael Callow in the debut episode of Black Mirror, Denis Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley, and Bolingbroke in Richard II. He starred in the sitcom Count Arthur Strong, the thriller Lucan, and played the Creature in Penny Dreadful, winning a Satellite Award for the latter. His screen work further spans series such as Years and Years, Brexit: The Uncivil War, Guerrilla, Quacks, Ridley Road, Our Flag Means Death, The Diplomat, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. In audio media, he performed in the BBC Radio drama Slipstream in 2010.

In his personal life, Kinnear is engaged to actress Pandora Colin, and the couple has two children, a son born in 2010 and a daughter born in 2014. In May 2020, his quadriplegic sister, Karina, passed away from coronavirus.