Wil Johnson

For other people with the same name, see Will Johnson.

Wil Johnson
Born	Wilbert Charles Johnson (1965-04-18) 18 April 1965 (age 59) London, England
Education	Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts (BA)
Years active	1985–present
Known for	Waking the Dead Babyfather Emmerdale
Spouses	Alexandra Spiegel ​ ​ (m. 2001;div. 2010)​ Camilla Johnson ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	6

Wilbert Charles Johnson (born 18 April 1965) is an English actor, who has had notable television roles in Waking the Dead and Babyfather , and on stage in Othello . He played Dom Andrews in Emmerdale from 2012 to 2014.

Early life

Johnson was born in Muswell Hill, London, and raised in Tottenham. ^[1] His mother invested in stocks and his father worked for UPS. ^[2] Johnson had no interest in music while he was in primary school, but after he filled in a role for an absent drummer, he changed his mind. ^[3] He went to Mountview Drama School in Crouch End, London. He also joined another drama group at the Haringey Theatre. He also went to a dance group and learned ballet, contemporary dancing, and break dancing, which he performed for about seven years. He also attended National Youth Theatre for three years. ^[1]

Career

Johnson's first professional acting role came in the play Four Seasons at the 1985 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. ^[2] For the rest of the 1980s he made minor appearances in television series such as Casualty and London's Burning , before playing detective Stevie Johnson in the London Weekend Television series Anna Lee . From 1994 to 1995 he played the supporting role of Detective Constable Michael Skelton in Cracker . Between roles, Johnson worked for a local undertakers, driving the hearse and acting as a pallbearer.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 2000, he appeared in the BBC One television pilot Waking the Dead, as Detective Sergeant Spencer Jordan, a member of a specialised police unit tasked with investigating "cold cases". Waking the Dead returned for a complete series in 2001, and Johnson was a main cast member until the series ended in 2011. From 2000 to 2002, he appeared as Steve Robinson in Paul Abbott's popular drama series Clocking Off . From 2001 to 2002, he appeared as a main cast member in two series of the BBC's Babyfather . ^[4]

In 2004, Johnson played the title character in the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company's Othello .

He also played Marcus Kirby in the BBC One school-based drama Waterloo Road . He departed in the second half of the series.

In 2010, he appeared in In a Better World (film) as 'Dr. Najeeb'. ^[5]

He also performed in a play, called The Swallowing Dark at the Liverpool Playhouse and Theatre503. In 2011, he also starred as gangster boss Big Mike in Anuvahood and in 2008 as Big Man in Adulthood

In November 2011, Johnson appeared as 'Sean Dolan' a Consultant paediatrician in BBC One's Holby City . ^[5]

In 2012, it was announced that Johnson would be joining Emmerdale as single father Dominic "Dom" Andrews in the later part of the year. On 23 February 2014, it was announced that he would be leaving the show later that year following the death of his character's daughter, Gemma (Tendai Rinomhota). ^[6]

In 2013, he appeared as a gangster in a film thriller called Life Outside. ^[5] He also was a special guest DJ at a 'MonologueSlam' event (actors showcase) at 'The Green Carnation' cocktail lounge, Soho. ^[7]

In 2013, he also co-produced with Christian Ashaiku a film called Disorientated Generation (about a Nigerian man living in London). The film was partially funded by Enfield Council, ^[1] with a small grant from UK Film Council. The film was originally shot in 2006. ^[8]

In 2016, Johnson was cast as the Earl of Kent in the Talawa Theatre Company and Royal Exchange Manchester co-production of King Lear . ^[9] Johnson received praise for his performance, with The Guardian writing "giving depth to straight simplicity" ^[10] and the Manchester Theatre Awards saying that "... wrongest servant Kent is played with passion and often with humour by Wil Johnson". ^[11]

In 2016, Johnson received the British Urban Film Festival honorary award from fellow actor Charles Venn for 30+ years outstanding contribution to film and television.

He is an advocate of colour-blind casting in British television:

There are a lot more black and Asian actors who the nation knows by name, which is fantastic [...] [Colour-blind casting] happens regularly in theatre, but in mainstream television it could be implemented a lot more. I'm tentative to use the word 'stereotyping', because a lot of the black roles emerging on television I wouldn't categorise as stereotypical: my role in Waking the Dead certainly wasn't. ^[12]

Personal life

Johnson has six children. ^[2] His eldest daughter is composer, singer, songwriter and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson. ^[13]

Johnson married his wife Camilla in 2014.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	Go West Young Man		Short film
1998	Babymother	Byron	Television film
1999	A Woman Scorned	The Man	Short film
	Native	Tyrone	Short film
2001	South West 9	Freddy
	Buried Treasure	Luke	Television film
2002	f2point8	Rob	Short film
2003	Emotional Backgammon	John
2004	Yes	Virgil
2005	Franklin Haywire	Paul	Short film
2007	Deadmeat	Barry
2008	Adulthood	Big Man
2009	Stick with Me		Short film
	Colour Blind	Dan	Short film
	Disoriented Generation	Ishmael
2010	Pimp	Byron
	In a Better World	Najeeb
2011	Anuvahood	Mike
	Washed Up	Mitchell Barloe	Television film
2012	Hard Shoulder	Carl Foster
	Throw of a Dice	Duncan Beckford
	Black Smoke Rising	Simon
	Amina	Dr. Johnson
2013	Fedz	Trevor McBride
	Sokorates	Sokorates	Short film
	Killing All the Flies	Jonathan Edwards	Television film
	Dumar	Emmerson
2014	M.O.N.E.Y	Floyd Bennett
2017	Rabbit Punch	Trav	Short film
	This Is Axiom	Glenn	Short film
2018	Brixton Rock	Mr. Massey	Short film
2019	The Strangers	Mr. Fitzgerald
	Bad Day	Paul	Short film
2020	Transference	Dad	Short film
2021	Breathe	Trevor	Television film
	The Half You Hate	Director	Short film
	The Track	Nate	Short film
2022	Revelations	Thom	Short film
2024	Tell No Lies	Detective Wright
	He Who Dares to Win	Davey	Short film

Television

Year	Television	Role	Notes
1987	Casualty	Paul	Episode: "The Raid"
1988	London's Burning	Junior	Episode: "Series 1, Episode 1"
	ScreenPlay	Dekko	Episode: "Home Front"
1989	Dramarama	Kevin	Episode: "Snap Decision"
	Starting Out	Leo Young	Recurring role; 4 episodes
1990	The Bill	Dom Reeves	Episode: "Burnside Knew My Father"
1993	Mr Don & Mr George		Episode: "There's Been a Thing"
1994	The Bill	Carl Paston	Episode: "Dirty Laundry"
	Anna Lee	Stevie Johnson	Recurring role; 5 episodes
1994–1995	Cracker	Skelton	Recurring role; 10 episodes
1995	The Bill	Thomas Gadiki	Episode: "Neutral Territory"
1997	The Bill	Billy Elizee	Episode: "Solid Evidence"
2000–2002	Clocking Off	Steve Robinson	Recurring role; 14 episodes
2000–2011	Waking the Dead	Spencer Jordan	Series regular; 92 episodes
2001	Babyfather	Beres	Episode: "Series 1, Episode 1"
2010	Dispatches	Narrator	Episode: "Gun Nation"
2010–2011	Waterloo Road	Marcus Kirby	Series regular; 10 episodes
2011–2013	Holby City	Sean Dolan	Recurring role; 5 episodes
2012–2014	Emmerdale	Dominic Andrews	Series regular; 129 episodes
2014	Moving On	Peter Jackson	Episode: "Two Brothers"
2015	Lewis	Dax Kinneson	Episode: "Magnum Opus"
2016	The Five	Young Ray	Miniseries; 4 episodes
	Hollyoaks	Lionel Albright	Recurring role; 2 episodes
2017	Hetty Feather	Charlie	Episode: "Cannon Fodder"
2017–2020	Outlander	Joe Abernathy	Recurring role; 5 episodes
2018	Vera	Gary Whenchurch	Episode: "Darkwater"
2019	Carnival Row	Puck Butcher	Episode: "Aisling"
2021	Death in Paradise	Emmet Peterson	Episode: "I'll Never Let You Go"
	The Larkins	Old Reg	Recurring role; 5 episodes
2022	House of the Dragon	Ser Vaemond Velaryon	Recurring role; 4 episodes
2023	COBRA	Ben Fanshawe	Recurring role; 2 episodes

References

1. Eluka, Clare (12 October 2013). "Interview Wil Johnson". www.thepromota.co.uk. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
2. Staff (15 May 2009). "Since I started singing on YouTube I've thought of nothing else...". Evening Telegraph (Coventry Newspapers): pp. 30–31.
3. Peake, Jon (30 June 2001). "Dead not buried". The Sun (News Group Newspapers): p. 15.
4. "Babyfather". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC Drama. October 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
5. "Wil Johnson – (In A Better World – 2010)". mattjhorn.wordpress.com. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
6. Kilkelly, Daniel (25 October 2012). "'Emmerdale' announces four new characters". digitalspy.co.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
7. "Wil Johnson special guest DJ for Welcome 20th July". triforcepromotions.co.uk. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
8. Morris, Davina (25 April 2010). "different face of black British film-making". jamaica-gleaner.com. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
9. "Full casting announced for King Lear at Royal Exchange". 19 February 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
10. Brennan, Clare (10 April 2016). "King Lear review – two Lears acting up a storm". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
11. "King Lear". Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
12. Green, Chris (25 February 2008). "'Why TV makes me depressed'". The Independent (Independent News & Media): p. 4.
13. Grant, Dionne (8 February 2014). "Ayanna Witter-Johnson: String sensation | The Voice Online". The Voice Online. Retrieved 10 December 2021.

External links

• Official website
• Wil Johnson at IMDb