Peter Capaldi

Peter Dougan Capaldi (born 14 April 1958) is a Scottish actor and director.

Capaldi has appeared in over 40 films and television shows since his appearance as Danny Oldsen in Local Hero (1983).

He played Beatles member George Harrison in John and Yoko: A Love Story (1985), had roles in The Lair of the White Worm (1988) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and was featured as Ozzy in a 1985 episode of Minder.

In 1992 he auditioned for, but did not get, the role of Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Capaldi's first starring role on television was as Luke Wakefield, a strange man who imagines he has witnessed a crime, in the BBC drama series Mr Wakefield's Crusade.

He played fictional Songs of Praise producer Tristan Campbell in two episodes of the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, and a transgender woman in ITV's Prime Suspect.

In Neil Gaiman's gothic fantasy Neverwhere, he portrayed the angel Islington.

Capaldi is also an audiobook narrator, and his many titles include several of the works of Iain Banks.

Capaldi won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film for his 1993 short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.

He went on to write and direct the drama film Strictly Sinatra and directed two series of the sitcom Getting On.

He starred as Rory in the 1996 television version of Banks's The Crow Road.

In the 1999 Channel 4 series Psychos, he played a mathematician with bipolar disorder.

Capaldi provided his voice for the animated film Haunted Hogmanay in 2006.

Capaldi made an appearance as a university professor in the sitcom Peep Show, and played a prime suspect in the 2007 series of Waking the Dead.

He voiced Chief Petty Officer Grieves in the BBC Radio Ministry of Defence comedy Our Brave Boys.

In 2007, Capaldi appeared as Mark Jenkins (Sid's dad) in the E4 teen comedy drama series Skins.

He also appeared in the 2007 British comedy film Magicians.

He returned for a second series in 2008 although his character died in the third episode.

He appeared in the Midsomer Murders episode "Death in Chorus" and ITV1's Fallen Angel.

He appeared as King Charles I in the Channel 4 series The Devil's Whore, aired in 2008.

He played Balthazar, one of the Biblical Magi, in the 2010 BBC adaptation of The Nativity.

In November 2011, he began playing Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, which then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London till April 2012.

He appeared in The Field of Blood as Dr Pete, for which he received a BAFTA Scotland nomination in the TV actor/actress category; he was beaten by his co-star Jayd Johnson.

He had a small role as a therapist in Big Fat Gypsy Gangster, written by and starring his Getting On co-star Ricky Grover.

In 2012, Capaldi played Randall Brown, the new Head of News, on the BBC2 drama The Hour.

He portrayed the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction series Doctor Who (2013–2017) and Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It (2005–2012), for which he received four British Academy Television Award nominations, winning Best Male Comedy Performance in 2010.

When he reprised the role of Tucker in the feature film In the Loop, Capaldi was honoured with several film critic award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

He appeared as a WHO doctor in World War Z (2013), and had a role in Maleficent (2014), but his part in the latter film was cut during post-production.

He starred in Inside the Mind of Leonardo, a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci.

In 2013 he portrayed Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian in The Fifth Estate.

Capaldi also played Mr Curry in the family film Paddington (2014) and its sequel Paddington 2 (2017), voiced Rabbit in the Disney film Christopher Robin (2018) and portrayed supervillain the Thinker in the DC Extended Universe film The Suicide Squad (2021).

Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Nancy ( Soutar) and Gerald John Capaldi.

His paternal grandfather was Italian, while the rest of his ancestry is Scottish and Irish.

His parents ran an ice cream business in the Springburn district, where they were neighbours and acquaintances of the family of Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, although the two men did not know each other as children.

He was educated at St Teresa's Primary School in Possilpark, St Matthew's Primary School in Bishopbriggs, and St Ninian's High School, Kirkintilloch, before attending the Glasgow School of Art.

Capaldi displayed an early talent for performance by putting on a puppet show in primary school.

While at high school, he was a member of the Antonine Players, who performed at the Fort Theatre in Bishopbriggs.

As an art student, he was the lead singer and guitarist in a punk rock band called The Dreamboys, whose drummer was future comedian Craig Ferguson.

The pair also performed a cabaret act together as Bing & Dean Hitler and wrote an alternative pantomime of Sleeping Beauty.

Capaldi went on to perform musical comedy cabaret in the guises of "bank clerk about town" Gavin Meekie and as one half of husband-and-wife TV evangelists Tom & Sammy Jo.