Ricky Whittle

Richard George Whittle (born 31 December 1979) is a British actor.

Richard George Whittle was born on 31 December 1979 in Oldham, England, to Harry and Maggie (Goodwin) Whittle.

He is the oldest of three children.

His mother is from England and his father is from Jamaica.

His father was in the Royal Air Force so the family moved to a different country every few years.

However, Whittle was primarily raised in Northern Ireland and revealed that he'd been bullied as a child because he was the only Black Child in school.

At one point, Whittle told his mother he wanted to be white so he could fit in.

Whittle studied law at Southampton Solent University where he was football team captain.

In order to pay for text books, he started to model.

However, Whittle left university just before graduation.

Whittle took up modelling in college.

Whittle first came to prominence as a model for Reebok in the early 2000s.

He is known in the United Kingdom for his role as Calvin Valentine in the soap opera Hollyoaks.

He would go on to become the face of Reebok in 2000.

Whittle made his acting debut in 2002 the television series Dream Team which aired on Sky 1.

The actor said the show was a "dream job" for a young actor just starting out.

Whittle's agent surprised him and sent him to audition for Dream Team.

Whittle credits his career to his co-star Terence Maynard whom he auditioned with.

Whittle left the show in 2006 after series 9 and in May 2006, it was announced that Whittle had joined the cast of the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks in the role of Calvin Valentine.

In 2009, he finished second in the BBC reality competition Strictly Come Dancing.

In December 2009, it was announced that Whittle would leave Hollyoaks and the character would be killed off in 2010.

In an interview with Digital Spy he explained his reasons for leaving Hollyoaks and revealed his plans to try his hand at American television and film.

He only planned to do four years with the series.

In the summer of 2009, Whittle joined series 7 of the BBC reality series, Strictly Come Dancing.

He was paired with professional dancer Natalie Lowe.

Whittle would place second after sports presenter Chris Hollins.

He permanently relocated to Los Angeles in the summer of 2011 to further his career.

Upon his arrival in the US, Whittle met with someone to put a reel together.

The meeting led to him signing with manager Ken Jacobsen.

Jacobsen has also represented James Franco, Michelle Williams and Hilary Swank.

Not long after, Whittle was cast in the feature film Austenland opposite Keri Russell, Jane Seymour and Jennifer Coolidge.

Whittle joked that he only booked the role because of his body as the audition tape he submitted cut off his head.

He found it ironic that it filmed on location in the UK when he travelled to Los Angeles to pursue American TV projects.

After that, Whittle had no problem booking gigs.

However, his immigration status caused him to pull out of a few projects.

Whittle was set to film an episode of the NBC sitcom Up All Night when his management contacted him the night before to inform him that the network wouldn't accept his visa.

After this incident, Whittle decided to apply for his green card.

In 2012, Whittle crossed over to American television when he booked a recurring role on VH-1's Single Ladies, followed by a recurring role on ABC's Mistresses in 2014.

From 2014 to 2016, Whittle appeared in The CW's post-apocalyptic drama The 100 as Lincoln.

Whittle starred in the Starz television series American Gods for three seasons.