Lucian Msamati | |
---|---|
Born | Lucian Gabriel Wiina Msamati 5 March 1976 London, England |
Occupation(s) | Actor, writer, director and producer |
Children | 2 |
Lucian Gabriel Wiina Msamati (born 5 March 1976) is a Zimbabwean actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in theatre, film, television and radio. His notable screen roles include Salladhor Saan in the HBO series Game of Thrones , J.L.B. Matekoni in the BBC/HBO adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency , David Runihura in the Netflix/BBC thriller Black Earth Rising, Ed Dumani in the Sky/AMC series Gangs of London and Cardinal Adeyemi in Conclave.
In theatre, Msamati was the first Black actor to portray Iago, in a 2015 production of Othello. He has also performed other significant roles such as Toledo in the National Theatre's revival of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 2016, Antonio Salieri in the National Theatre's revival of Amadeus in 2017–2018, and Arturo Ui in Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Lyric Hammersmith in 2008. Additionally, he portrayed Kevin/Albert in Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Royal Court Theatre and The Wyndhams Theatre in the West End from 2010 to 2011.
Msamati is a patron of Lewisham Youth Theatre, WildChild and The Actor's Children's Trust (ACT) and currently serves on the board of trustees at the Donmar Warehouse.
Msamati [1] was born at St Thomas' Hospital, [2] London [3] on 5 March 1976 and brought up in Zimbabwe by his Tanzanian parents, a doctor and a nurse. [4] After secondary education at Prince Edward School in Harare, he studied towards a BA honours degree in French and Portuguese at the University of Zimbabwe from 1995 to 1997. [1] [4] [3]
After university, he worked as an advertising copywriter and freelance radio presenter. He also worked as a voice-over artist, compère and after-dinner speaker.
In 1994, Msamati and some school friends founded the Over the Edge Theatre Company [5] in Harare. The company celebrated its 10th anniversary in December 2004, having toured Europe, the United States and South Africa. From 1998 to 2001, it performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland; some plays were written by Msamati. [4] The last few years have seen individual members pursuing other interests and although not officially disbanded, there are no immediate plans for an Over the Edge reunion.
In November 2010, Msamati was appointed the artistic director of British-African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi, [3] until being succeeded in 2014 by Natalie Ibu. [6] He has continued to work with Tiata Fahodzi, directing Boi Boi is Dead in February–March 2015. [3]
In the spring of 2015, Msamati became the first black actor ever to play Iago in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Othello (with Hugh Quarshie in the title role). [3] [7]
From October 2016 to March 2017 and from February to April 2018, he performed in the leading role of Antonio Salieri in Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus at the National Theatre, a performance which Michael Billington, in a four-starred review for The Guardian , described as "excellent". [8] [9]
In 2019, he starred as Sam in Master Harold and the Boys at the Royal National Theatre. [10] [11]
Msamati has appeared in several other theatrical productions in London, UK, including:
He has also appeared in several television productions, including episodes of the television series Ultimate Force and Spooks . In 2008, he took on his most prominent role, playing JLB Matekoni in the BBC/HBO-produced series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency . [15] He has guest starred in episodes of the BBC television series Luther , Ashes to Ashes , Doctor Who , Taboo, and Death in Paradise , as well as playing the part of the pirate Salladhor Saan in the HBO series Game of Thrones . [16] [17] He recently appeared as Lord Faa in His Dark Materials on BBC One. In 2020 Msamati appeared as Ed Dumani in Sky Atlantic's Gangs of London [18] and in an episode of the BBC's production of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads . [19]
Msamati appeared in the film The International (2009). Other film credits include Lumumba (1999), directed by Raoul Peck; the animated feature The Legend of the Sky Kingdom (2003), directed by Roger Hawkins and Richard II , directed by Rupert Goold. [20]
Msamati appeared as Matthew in the BBC Radio 4 drama Burned to Nothing (2011) by Rex Obano. [21]
Msamati permanently moved to the UK in 2003, [4] and now resides in London. [20] He is married and has two children, a son and a daughter. [2]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | The Legend of the Sky Kingdom | Italiano (voice) | Credited as Wina Msamati |
2009 | The International | General Charles Motomba | |
2016 | Seekers | Yusuf | Short film |
2019 | The Good Liar | Beni | |
2020 | Zog and the Flying Doctors | The Lion (voice) | Short film [22] |
2022 | See How They Run | Max Mallowan | |
2024 | Conclave | Cardinal Adeyemi |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | The Knock | Doctor | Series 3, episode 2 Credited as Wina Msamati |
2005 | Ultimate Force | Blessed | Episode: "Never Go Back" |
2006 | Spooks | Manu Buffong | Series 5, episode 4 Uncredited |
2008–2009 | The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency | JLB Matekoni | 7 episodes |
2009 | 10 Minute Tales | Flirty Orderly | |
2010 | Doctor Who | Guido | Episode: "The Vampires of Venice" |
Ashes to Ashes | Tobias Ndbele | Series 3, episode 7 | |
2012 | The Hollow Crown | Bishop of Carlisle | Episode: Richard II |
2012–2014 | Game of Thrones | Salladhor Saan | 3 episodes |
2013 | Death in Paradise | Dr Johnson | Episode: "Murder on the Plantation" |
Doctors | Joseph Segunle | Episode: "Thicker Than Water" | |
Holby City | Dumisani Themba | Episode: "Ask Me No Questions" | |
Luther | Ken Barnaby | 2 episodes | |
2015 | Inspector George Gently | Ellison | Episode: "Son of a Gun" |
Urban Myths | Herbert Muhammed | Episode: "The Greatest. Of All Time." | |
2017 | Taboo | George Chichester | |
Electric Dreams | The Director | Episode: "Crazy Diamond" | |
2018 | Kiri | Tobi Akindele | Miniseries |
Black Earth Rising | David Runihura | ||
2019 | His Dark Materials | John Faa | TV series |
2020 | Talking Heads | Wilfred Paterson | Episode: "Playing Sandwiches" |
2020–2022 | Gangs of London | Ed Dumani | TV series |
2023 | Best Interests | Derek | Miniseries |
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer which gives a fictional account of the lives of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, imagining a rivalry between the two at the court of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. First performed in 1979, it was inspired by Alexander Pushkin's short 1830 play Mozart and Salieri, which Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used in 1897 as the libretto for an opera of the same name.
Julian Wyatt Glover is an English actor with many stage, television, and film roles. Classically trained, he is a recipient of the Laurence Olivier Award and has performed many times for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Henry Goodman is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre.
Over the Edge (OTE) was a Zimbabwean theatre company that existed from 1994 to 2004. It was one of Zimbabwe's most prolific and successful independent theatre companies, known for imaginative re-inventions of Shakespeare and original African works. They had a long relationship with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and close links to Reps Theatre.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the first detective novel in the eponymous series by Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, first published in 1998. The novel introduces the Motswana Mma Precious Ramotswe, who begins the first detective agency in Botswana, in the capital city Gaborone, after her beloved father dies. She hires a secretary and solves cases for her clients.
Burn Hugh Gorman is an American-born English actor and musician. He is known for his television roles as Owen Harper in the BBC series Torchwood (2006–2008), Eastenders 2007, Karl Tanner in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2013–14), Major Edmund Hewlett in the AMC series Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–2017), 'The Marshal' in the Prime Video series The Man in the High Castle (2015), and Adolphus Murtry in Prime Video series The Expanse (2019). His film roles include Phillip Stryver in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Hermann Gottlieb in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) and its sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), Commander Hoff in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Father Damien in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).
Tiata Fahodzi – meaning "theatre of the emancipated" – is a British African theatre company founded in 1997 by Femi Elufowoju Jr. It receives funding as a National Portfolio Organisation of the Arts Council England.
Tears of the Giraffe is the second in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Botswana, which features the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.
Bryan Dick is an English TV, stage and film actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Ernie Wise in the BBC's BAFTA-winning biopic of Morecambe and Wise, Eric and Ernie.
Stuart McQuarrie is a Scottish actor who has performed extensively in theatre. In television he has appeared in Taggart (1990), Rab C. Nesbitt (1992), London's Burning (1994), Bugs (1997), Earth (1998), Silent Witness (2010), The Hollow Crown (2016), Foundation (2021), Shetland (2022), The Rig (2023). His other notable appearances include 28 Days Later (2002), Blood (2012), Mr. Turner (2014), Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), The Nest (2020), and White Bird (2024).
The Full Cupboard of Life is the fifth in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Gaborone, Botswana, and featuring the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe as principal detective.
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies is the sixth in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Gaborone, Botswana, and featuring the Motswana protagonist Precious Ramotswe.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a television comedy-drama series, produced by the BBC in conjunction with HBO, and based on the novels of the same name by Alexander McCall Smith. The novels focus on the story of a detective agency opened by Mma Ramotswe and her courtship with the mechanic Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni. The series was filmed on location in Botswana and was seen as one of the first major film or television productions to be undertaken in Botswana.
Oladipo Agboluaje is a British-Nigerian playwright. He was born in Hackney and educated in Britain and Nigeria, studying theatre arts at the University of Benin. He later wrote a doctoral thesis at the Open University on West and South African drama. Oladipo has taught at several universities including Goldsmiths, University of London, City University, London Met University, and the University of Greenwich. He is the course director of the Black British Theatre and Performance programme at the British American Drama Academy (BADA) in London.
Patrick O'Kane is an Irish actor who was born in 1965 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been part of the companies of the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He has appeared in London's West End and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In addition to his extensive stage work, O'Kane has appeared in movies and on television in many parts.
Yemi Ajibade, usually credited as Yemi Goodman Ajibade or Ade-Yemi Ajibade, was a Nigerian playwright, actor and director who, after settling in England in the 1950s, made significant contributions to the British theatre and the canon of Black drama. As an actor he is well-known for Dirty Pretty Things (2002), The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Danger Man (1964). In a career that spanned half a century, he directed and wrote several successful plays, as well as acting in a wide range of drama for television, stage, radio and film.
Claire Benedict is a British actress known for her work in classical productions on the British stage, but best known for portraying the principal character Mma Ramotswe in the continuing radio adaptations of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. She won a Time Out Award for Best Performance for her portrayal of Sophia Adams in Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, directed by Maya Angelou. She lives in Todmorden in the Pennines.
Oluwafemi Elufowoju Jr. is a British-born, Nigerian-raised performance practitioner working across the creative industries. After Alton Kumalo, founder of Temba Theatre Company, Elufowoju is the second theatre director of African descent to establish a national touring company in the UK. Elufowoju's stage work has been seen across most key flagship production houses in the UK, and has collaborated extensively with notable creatives within the film, television and radio sectors.
Gangs of London is a British action thriller crime television series created by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery. Based on London Studio's 2006 video game for the PlayStation Portable, it serves as the fourth installment in Sony Interactive Entertainment's The Getaway franchise created by Brendan McNamara and Katie Ellwood. Gangs of London follows the struggles between rival gangs and other criminal organisations in present-day London.
Michael Longhurst was artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre in Covent Garden, London (2019-2024). He was appointed as its fourth artistic director, succeeding Josie Rourke in the role.