Adrian Lester

Lester appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost, a musical adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, set in the 1930s.

The film itself was poorly received, but Lester received a British Independent Film Awards nomination for his performance.

In The Day After Tomorrow, Lester had a minor role as Simon, one of the three researchers who drink a toast of "twelve-year-old Scotch" shortly before freezing to death.

Adrian Anthony Lester (born Anthony Harvey; 14 August 1968) is an English actor, director and writer.

He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the London stage, and has also been nominated for a Tony Award.

Lester was born in Birmingham, the son of Jamaican immigrants, Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company.

From the age of nine, Lester sang as a boy treble in the choir of St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham.

At 14, he began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre.

After leaving Archbishop Masterson RC School, he attended Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College for one year, before completing three years of training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Lester received an Ian Charleson Award commendation and a Time Out Award for his 1991 performance as Rosalind in Cheek by Jowl's all-male production of As You Like It.

In 1992 he played Paul in the UK premiere of John Guare’s Six Degrees Of Separation, alongside Stockard Channing at the Royal Court Theatre in a production that transferred to the West End’s Comedy Theatre.

In 1993, he played Anthony Hope in the National Theatre's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

He has also appeared on stage as Robert in the Donmar Warehouse production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, for which he won an Olivier Award, and in the title role of Hamlet (Carlton TV Theatre Award).

In 1997, Lester starred in an episode of Silent Witness.

It was in a two-part episode of series two entitled "Cease upon the Midnight", where he played the part of Danny Morris.

In 1997 Lester married actress and writer Lolita Chakrabarti, whom he met while they were both students at RADA.

They live in East Dulwich, south-east London with their two daughters.

Lester played campaign manager Henry Burton in Mike Nichols' film Primary Colors (1998), based on the novel by Anonymous (Joe Klein).

His character is believed to represent George Stephanopoulos.

This part earned him a Chicago Film Critics Association award nomination for "Most Promising Actor".

On American television, Lester appeared on the sitcom Girlfriends from 2002 to 2003, as Ellis Carter, a film star who dated Tracee Ellis Ross's character, Joan Clayton.

In 2003, Lester played the title role in Henry V at the National Theatre.

Lester is known for playing a big-time con artist named Michael "Mickey Bricks" Stone on the BBC television series Hustle between 2004 and 2012.

In late 2005, Lester had a major guest-starring role in Channel 4's police drama The Ghost Squad.

Lester filmed scenes for Spider-Man 3 (2007), as a research scientist who is sought after by The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) to find a cure for his ailing daughter.

He was seen in one teaser trailer for the film; however, his scenes were cut from the final theatrical version.

In 2008, Lester starred on the BBC drama Bonekickers, a programme focusing on a team of archaeologists.

The character was written out of the fourth series and replaced by Ashley Walters, although Lester returned from the fifth series (2009) onwards.

He played the character Myror in a 2009 episode of the British television drama Merlin.

In 2010, he played the part of Brick in Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London.

In 2010, Lester appeared in the documentary When Romeo Met Juliet together with his wife Lolita Chakrabarti as acting mentors to the pupils of two Coventry schools involved in a production of Romeo and Juliet.

Lester recorded Alpha Force: Survival, an audio book written by Chris Ryan.

In 2012, Lester appeared as Ira Aldridge in the play Red Velvet, written by his wife Lolita Chakrabarti.

Lester played the part of Othello in the Shakespeare play of the same name in 2013 alongside Rory Kinnear as Iago at the National Theatre.

Both actors won the Best Actor award in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for their roles; the award is traditionally given to only one actor, but the judges were unable to choose between the pair.

In 2018, he played Sky Masterson in the Royal Albert Hall production of Guys and Dolls.

In 2021, Lester appeared in the live-streamed production of Hymn written by his wife Lolita Chakrabarti for the Almeida Theatre.

The play co-starred Danny Sapani and was performed with social distancing in place in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions.

Lester made his Broadway debut in the 2021 production of The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes.

His performance earned him a Tony Award nomination.