Two of his maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were Northern Irish Protestants from County Londonderry who were among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912; William was also a member of the Orange Order.
Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes' daughter Nellie while playing for Derry City FC.
McLeod was descended from tenant farmers from the Isle of Mull.
At the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who, but they encouraged him to aim for more conventional work.
He later said that he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career.
He watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years and once spoke to Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow.
He was educated at Ralston Primary School and Paisley Grammar School; he acted in various school productions.
His talent was noticed by actress Edith MacArthur, who told his parents that she believed he would become a successful theatre actor after she saw him perform when he was 10 years old.
Tennant attended Saturday classes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before passing an official audition at the age of 16, becoming one of their youngest students and studying there between the ages of 17 and 20.
After discovering that there was another David McDonald already represented by the actor's union Equity, he created his stage name by adopting the surname of Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant, whom he had seen in Smash Hits.
He later legally changed his surname to comply with rules set by the American Screen Actors Guild (which was later merged into SAG-AFTRA).
Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school.
When he was 16, he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which was shown on television and was also screened in schools.
The following year, he played a role in an episode of Dramarama.
Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui co-starring Ashley Jensen; one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company.
He also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transgender barmaid called Davina.
1971
David John Tennant (McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor.
Tennant was born David John McDonald in Bathgate on 18 April 1971, the son of Helen (née McLeod; 1940–2007) and Alexander "Sandy" McDonald (1937–2016).
His father was a minister who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
He grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen in Ralston, where his father was the local minister.
1990
In the 1990s, he appeared in several plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.
1994
Tennant was awarded his first major TV role as Campbell Bain in the BBC Scotland drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), after impressing director David Blair during filming of another drama – Strathblair (1992).
As Tennant recalled from the audition, "they needed someone who could believably act 19 and bonkers".
During filming of Takin' Over the Asylum he met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir.
When he moved to London shortly afterwards, he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child.
He has subsequently appeared with Weir in many productions: as a guest in her spoof television series Posh Nosh, in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile (during which Weir played an alternative version of the Doctor), and as panellists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4 (Weir later guest-starred on Doctor Who itself after Tennant left the series).
1995
In 1995, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.
1996
One of his earliest big-screen roles was in Jude (1996).
Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in As You Like It (1996); having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone.
He subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.
1998
Tennant contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series (1998).
His roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, as well as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Edgar in King Lear, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.
2003
He also starred in the 2003 London production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.
2005
He is best known for portraying the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the sci-fi series Doctor Who (2005–2010; 2013).
He returned to the show as the fourteenth incarnation of the character from 2022 to 2023.
2008
Tennant has worked extensively on stage, including a portrayal of the title character in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet that was later adapted for television.
2013
His other notable screen roles include DI Alec Hardy in the crime drama series Broadchurch (2013–2017) and its 2014 remake, Kilgrave in the superhero series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), Crowley in the fantasy series Good Omens (2019–present) and various fictionalised versions of himself in the comedy series Staged (2020–2022).
2015
In 2015, he received the National Television Award for Special Recognition.
2017
He is also a voice actor, featuring in the animated series DuckTales (2017–2021).
