Career
Clayton has portrayed various villains in productions, which he joked may be because of his eyes or hair. [4] Clayton was part of the television series Exile , where he worked with actor John Simm, who inspired Clayton. [4] Clayton commented in 2018 that he aims to act in more British dramas. [4] Clayton was in the television series Young Dracula . [2]
In January 2018, it was reported that Clayton would portray Josh Tucker in the British soap opera Coronation Street as part of a male rape storyline. [7] Clayton had watched the soap opera when he was younger, adding, "When I look back at old videos of when I was younger at Christmas, you can hear the theme tune being played in the background!" [4] Clayton told the BBC that it was important to portray the issue of male rape, adding, "The great thing, with whatever soap is covering it, is you've got millions of people tuning into a programme"; Clayton also worked with a male survivor of rape on the storyline. [8] For his role as Josh, Clayton was longlisted for "Best Bad Boy" at the 2018 Inside Soap Awards. [9] Laura Morgan from Digital Spy assumed that Clayton's Coronation Street role would throw him "into the spotlight", adding, "what a way to begin your career". [4]
Clayton departed at the end of his initial stint and the character's exit aired on 1 October 2018. [10] Clayton called being on the soap an "honour", adding on social media, "Feeling so grateful & blessed - From being apart of this storyline/ working with such talented & sound people/ All the kind words & support from loved ones & complete strangers. It's meant the world to me". [11] He returned for another stint in 2019, with his return airing in October of that year. [12] Clayton was watching a film about Manchester City at the cinema when he got the call to return, and he thought it was "really nice" to be asked for another stint. [2] He did not find it difficult to get back into the character and considered some of his scenes to be the best that he had filmed in the soap. [2] He added, "There were a few scenes that were challenging because it was all fight co-ordination and very physical work all day. But it was really good to get myself into the mindset of being in the prison". [2] Clayton's final appearance as Josh aired in January 2020, when Josh faced prison for his rapes. [13]
In February 2022, it was reported that Clayton would join the cast of the new series of Waterloo Road . [14] He played police sergeant Mike Rutherford, which he continued to play into the show's 16th season in 2025. [15] Of joining the show, Clayton explained that he felt that he needed to be part of it as he is from Manchester and the show was returning to Manchester; he added, "everyone is just lovely, there's a great vibe to just the place itself so I think the audiences are going to love it". [5] He believed that the show was "capturing that essence" of being in a Manchester school as it reminded him of what people were like when he was in school. [5] Clayton and his co-star James Baxter did research into the impacts of fostering children on relationships for their storyline. [16]
In January 2026, it was announced that Clayton had joined the cast of the soap opera Hollyoaks as Jenson. [17] [18] [19] He was introduced as a love interest for established character Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe), who he meets at a rehabilitation facility. [20] [21]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
