Noel Clarke

Noel Anthony Clarke (born 6 December 1975) is an English actor, producer, screenwriter, and director.

Clarke has had recurring television roles as Wyman Norris in the revived series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (2002–2004) and as Mickey Smith in the first two series of the revival of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who (2005–2006).

Making his film debut in I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003), Clarke has gone on to star in films including Centurion (2010); 4.3.2.1. (2010); Fast Girls (2012); Storage 24 (2012); Star Trek Into Darkness (2013); I Am Soldier (2014); The Anomaly (2014); I Kill Giants (2017); Mute (2018); 10x10 (2018); The Corrupted (2019); Twist (2021); and SAS: Red Notice (2021), some of which he also wrote, directed, or produced.

Clarke won the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performer in 2003, the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2009, and received the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award in 2021.

The latter was suspended on 29 April 2021 in the wake of allegations of verbal abuse, bullying, and sexual misconduct by 26 different women.

Clarke was born in Notting Hill, West London, to Trinidadian parents Gemma (née Clarke), a nurse and part-time laundrette worker, and Alphaeus Baptiste "Alf" Clarke, a carpenter.

He has an older half-brother.

His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and he was brought up by his mother on a council estate in Ladbroke Grove where his mother still lives.

Clarke has also acted on the stage, and won the Laurence Olivier Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" in 2003 for his performance in the play Where Do We Live at the Royal Court Theatre.

Clarke began his filmmaking career when he wrote the screenplay for the film Kidulthood, a film about a group of teenagers growing up in Ladbroke Grove, West London.

Clarke wrote the film based on his own experiences growing in Ladbroke Grove, which he began developing with director Menhaj Huda and producer George Isaac.

Rising to prominence for playing Mickey Smith in Doctor Who (2005–2010), he received critical acclaim for writing, directing, and starring as Sam Peel in the films Kidulthood (2006); Adulthood (2008); and Brotherhood (2016) and for starring in, co-creating, and writing Bulletproof (2018–2021), which all depicted black working-class characters in London.

Made on a budget of £560,000, Kidulthood was released theatrically on 3 March 2006, earned £1,209,319 during the opening weekend of its release and received praise and some controversy for its depiction of teenage life in London.

He later became a series companion in the episode "School Reunion", and reprised his role as Mickey in the episode "Journey's End" in 2008 and in 2010 in "The End of Time" Part 2, and also starred in the Doctor Who audio series Dalek Empire: The Fearless, which was released from September to December 2007.

Clarke's other television work includes appearances in Casualty and Metrosexuality.

He also wrote "Combat" which is an episode of the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, and West 10 LDN, a pilot for BBC Three about kids on a rough housing estate.

In 2008, following the success of Kidulthood, Clarke was hired to write and star in Adulthood, where he also made his directoral debut.

On directing his first film, Clarke described his experience: "Directing for the first time was definitely a challenge and tiring at times. It was a steep learning curve and if you're willing to do stuff and go with it, then it pays off."

Adulthood grossed £1,203,319 during its UK opening weekend, with an overall gross of £6 million, becoming the second-highest grossing British film of 2008.

In 2009, Clarke was awarded a BAFTA award in the category of Orange Rising Star Award.

As a result of the success of Kidulthood, Adulthood, and his BAFTA win, he was ranked at number 83 in the MediaGuardian 100, an annual ranking of media people in The Guardian.

Following his BAFTA win, Clarke appeared in low-budget and commercially unsuccessful British films such as Heartless, Doghouse and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (all 2009) and Centurion (2010).

In 2010, he signed a deal with Icon.

In 2010, Clarke turned to mainstream films by writing and co-directing 4.3.2.1., a heist movie about four feisty girls who get caught up with a diamond theft heist.

Starring Emma Roberts, Tamsin Egerton, Ophelia Lovibond, Shanika-Warren Markland, Mandy Patinkin, Helen McCrory, Kevin Smith, Susannah Fielding, Camille Coduri and Clarke, 4.3.2.1. received generally mixed to negative reviews and was a box office bomb.

Following 4.3.2.1., Clarke continued to either co-write or star in more mainstream British films including Fast Girls, a sports film about two women and their race and personal differences as they become professional sprinters and join the British relay team for a World Championship event, and Storage 24, a science fiction-horror about a group of people become trapped inside a storage facility with a highly unwelcome guest.

Both films were released in 2012 to generally mixed-to-positive reviews.

After an uncredited and deleted role in the 2012 Marvel Comics Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, in 2013, Clarke played Thomas Harewood, a family man with a wife and a young daughter, in Star Trek Into Darkness.

The film was released on 15 May 2013.

In 2015, Clarke founded the company Unstoppable Film and Television with friend and fellow actor Jason Maza, and they have written, directed, and starred in several productions.

In 2015, Clarke created a short-lived superhero series, The Troop, for Titan Comics.

The first issue was released in December 2015, and received critical acclaim.

After years of reluctance, in 2016, Clarke returned to write, direct, co-produce and star in Brotherhood, a sequel to Adulthood and the third and final instalment in his Hood Trilogy.

The film was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 29 August 2016 to mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.

It was also a box-office success, earning £1.98m in its opening week for an overall gross of over £28.7 million in the UK, becoming the highest-grossing film in the trilogy.

In 2018, when appearing on the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, Clarke discovered that his maternal great-grandparents emigrated to Trinidad from Saint Vincent, while his paternal grandmother, Menelvia Clarke (née Bedeau), emigrated there from Grenada.

Clarke studied media at the University of North London, and worked as a personal trainer before going on to take acting classes at London's Actors Centre.

In 2018, Clarke co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in the Sky One police procedural series Bulletproof, alongside Ashley Walters.

The series follows NCA detectives, and best friends, Aaron Bishop (Clarke) and Ronnie Pike Jr. (Walters), who investigate some of the country's most dangerous criminals, including traffickers, drug dealers and armed robbers, while being overseen by their boss Sarah Tanner (Lindsey Coulson).

Inspired by the film Bad Boys, the series had been considered for development for several years.