Hugh Quarshie

Hugh Quarshie
Quarshie at German Comic Con 2024
Born	Hugh Anthony Kobna Amo Quarshie (1954-12-22) 22 December 1954 (age 70) Accra, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)
Nationality	British
Education	Bryanston School Dean Close School
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Annika Sundström
Children	3

Hugh Anthony Quarshie (born 22 December 1954) is a Ghanaian-born British actor. He is known for his long-running role as Ric Griffin on the BBC One medical drama Holby City (2001–20), and for playing Captain Panaka in the Star Wars film Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).

He is also known for stage roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which he has been a member since 1981 and an associate since 2005. ^[1] His film work includes Highlander , Nightbreed and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald . In 1987, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and in 2022 he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for playing Neville Lawrence in Stephen (2021). ^{[2] [3]} He has also won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and an Emmy Award.

Early life

A member of the Euro-African community of Ghana, Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry. He was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina (née Phillips; 1917–2004) and Richard Quarshie (1913–2006). His mother was of chiefly ancestry; her relatives currently serve as the chiefs of the Ghanaian village of Abii.

Hugh emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom at the age of three. ^[4] He was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset and Dean Close School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (during which time he played the role of Othello at the Tuckwell Theatre), before reading PPE at Christ Church, Oxford.

Career

Quarshie had considered becoming a journalist before taking up acting. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and has appeared in many stage productions and television programmes, including the serial Behaving Badly with Judi Dench. He is well known for playing the roles of Sunda Kastagir in Highlander , Captain Panaka in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , and Ric Griffin on the television series Holby City . He attended the Star Wars fan event "Star Wars Celebration" in 1999. He portrayed Lieutenant Obutu in Wing Commander .

He appeared in the 2007 two-part Doctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as Solomon, the leader of the shanty town Hooverville. He headed the cast of Michele Soavi's The Church (1989) as Father Gus, and played Aaron the Moor in the BBC Television Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus .

Quarshie has also narrated for television. His work includes the 2006 documentary Mega Falls of Iguacu (about the Iguaçu Falls), the 2009 adaptation of Small Island , and the 2010 BBC Wildlife series The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart .

Personal life

In September 2010, Quarshie featured in an episode of the television genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? , in which he traced his Ghanaian and Dutch origins. ^{[5] [6]} The episode revealed that Quarshie is part of his country's old mixed-race elite as one of his ancestors, Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, was a Dutch official on the Gold Coast. This also made him a distant relative of Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling. ^[7]

Political views

Quarshie is a supporter of the Women's Equality Party. ^[8]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Dogs of War	Zangaron Officer
1985	Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend	Kenge Obe
1986	Highlander	Sunda Kastagir
1989	La Chiesa	Father Gus
1990	Nightbreed	Detective Joyce
1999	Wing Commander	Lieutenant Obutu
	Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	Captain Panaka
2000	It Was An Accident	George Hurlock
	Threesome	Dave	Short film
2003	Conspiracy of Silence	Fr Joseph Ennis, SJ
2011	Ghosted	Ade
2012	Black Magic		Short film
2013	The Meeting	Jack
2018	Red Sparrow	Simon Benford
	Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald	Mustafa Kama
2020	What Matters	Ewan	Short film
2021	Fire Ants	Ewen
2022	The Railway Children Return	General Harrison
2023	Book Club: The Next Chapter	Ousmane
2024	The Return	Imphinomous

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Scene		Episode: "Wide Games"
1979	The Knowledge	Campion	TV movie
1980	Buccaneer	Major Nbodi	2 episodes
1981	Wolcott	Dennis St George	Miniseries
	The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs	Danny Young	TV movie
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Philostrate	TV movie
1983	Rumpole of the Bailey	Jonathan Mazenze	Episode: "Rumpole and the Golden Thread"
1983	Angels	Turi Mimi	2 episodes
1984	Sharma and Beyond	Man on Stairs	TV movie
1985	Titus Andronicus	Aaron	TV movie
	Alas Smith and Jones		1 episode
1986–89	ScreenPlay	Mike / Wallace	2 episodes
1988	A Gentleman's Club	Baba	Episode: A Question of Er...
1989	Behaving Badly	Daniel	4 episodes
1991	Chancer	Kazeem	2 episodes
	Press Gang	Inspector Hibbert	2 episodes
1992–94	Medics	Dr. Tom Carey	19 episodes
1992	Surgical Spirit	Fergus Debonaire	1 episode
	Virtual Murder	Dr. Mellor	Episode: A Dream of Dracula
	The Tomorrow People	Professor John Galt	5 episodes (The 5-part story officially known as "The Origin Story")
1993	The Comic Strip Presents...	Lieutenant Delaney	Episode: Gregory: Diary of a Nutcase
	Red Dwarf	Computer Voice	Episode: "Emohawk: Polymorph II"
1994	Horizon	Narrator (voice)	Documentary
	The Chief	Vincent Pierce	1 episode
	MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis	Inspector Rhodes	TV movie
	Shakespeare: The Animated Tales	Cassius (voice)	Episode: Julius Caesar
1999	The Murder of Stephen Lawrence	Neville Lawrence	TV movie
2000	Arabian Nights	Mustappa	Miniseries
2000	Jason and the Argonauts	Chiron the Centaur	Miniseries
2001	In Deep	Jim Craddock
2001–2020, 2022	Holby City	Ric Griffin	506 episodes
2004–2019	Casualty	Ric Griffin
2007	Doctor Who	Solomon	Episodes: "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks"
2009	Hot Cities	Narrator	8 episodes
2012	White Heat	Victor	6 episodes
2017	Still Star-Crossed	Prince Cosimo	3 episodes
2019	Absentia	Dr. Semo Oduwale	Season 2
2021	Stephen	Neville Lawrence	Miniseries
2021–2022	Breeders	Alex	6 episodes
2022	Vera	Dr. Leon Palmer	Episode: "Vital Signs"
	Silent Witness		Series 25; Episode: "History Part 1"
	Riches	Stephen Richards
2023	Maryland	Pete	3 episodes
2024	McDonald & Dodds	Clarence Adderley	Episode: "Jinxy Sings The Blues"

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Cymbeline	Posthumous	Royal Exchange, Manchester
1985	The Admirable Crichton	Crichton	Royal Exchange, Manchester
1995	Goethe's Faust	Mephistopheles	RSC
1995	Julius Caesar	Mark Antony	RSC
2015	Othello	Othello	RSC

References

1. "Hugh Quarshie: The RSC and me | Royal Shakespeare Company". www.rsc.org.uk. October 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
2. "Olivier Winners 1987". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
3. "Leading Actor". Bafta. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
4. "Hugh Quarshie". TheGenealogist. Genealogy Supplies. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
5. "Hugh Quarshie". Who do You Think You Are?. BBC Magazines. 2010. Archived from the original on 18 October 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
6. "Hugh Quarshie — Holby City's African chief". BBC News. 6 September 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
7. "Hugh Quarshie". GoldCoastDataBase. Retrieved 24 March 2019. Hugh Quarshie is related to Antonie Kamerling through Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling's brother Anthony Wilhelm Constantinus Gerardus Kamerling (1824–1875)(registration required)
8. Hugh Quarshie (23 April 2016). Hugh Quarshie: Give half your votes to equality on 5 May – WE think that's fair (Video). Women's Equality Channel. Retrieved 28 April 2016– via YouTube.

External links

• Hugh Quarshie at IMDb
• Hugh Quarshie Archived 8 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine StarWars.com

• Nicole Vassell, "'It's disappointing that Kwasi Kwarteng has allowed himself to be called Kwar-zee': actor Hugh Quarshie on the new assertiveness of young Black British people", The Independent.