Hugh Bonneville was a member of the National Youth Theatre, studied Theology at Cambridge and made his professional debut at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, in 1986, bashing a cymbal in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and understudying Ralph Fiennes as Lysander. He then spent several seasons with the National Theatre where he appeared in School For Wives, Yerma, Entertaining Strangers, Juno and the Paycock and played Charles Surface in The School For Scandal and the title role in The Devil's Disciple. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991, appearing in Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Alchemist, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Virtuso and Amphibians. He also played Laertes to Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. His work at the RSC brought him a nomination for The Ian Charleson Award. Other theatre includes Habeas Corpus at the Donmar, directed by Sam Mendes, and seasons at Colchester, Leicester Haymarket and Chichester. He also appeared in My Night With Reg (Criterion & Playhouse), Us and Them (Hampstead) and Cloaca (Old Vic, directed by Kevin Spacey).

In recent years Hugh has become a familiar face to television audiences, with leading roles in The Cazalets, Take a Girl Like You, Armadillo, Daniel Deronda and The Commander. He appeared in the Emmy award-winning The Gathering Storm and played the poet Philip Larkin in Love Again. More recent credits range from comedies like The Robinsons, The Vicar of Dibley and Freezing, to hard-hitting dramas such as Tsunami: The Aftermath and Five Days. In 2007 Hugh received critical acclaim for his solo performance as Mr Pooter in BBC4’s Diary of a Nobody. In 2008 he appeared in Miss Austen Regrets, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, Bonekickers and Lost In Austen. Reprising the role he created in Five Days, Hugh appeared in Hunter on BBC1 in 2009. Television projects due to air in 2010 include The Silence for BBC1, Rev. for BBC2, Twenty Twelve for BBC4 and Marple: The Mirror Crack'd, Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express and Downton Abbey, all for ITV1.

Hugh made his feature film debut in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1993, directed by Kenneth Branagh. He has since appeared in more than a dozen films, including Mansfield Park, Stage Beauty, Asylum, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Man To Man, From Time To Time and Glorious 39. In 2002 Hugh won the New Talent Award at the Berlin Film Festival and a BAFTA Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of the young John Bayley in Iris and in 2009 he won Best Actor at the Monte Carlo Film Festival for his performance in French Film. Hugh is perhaps best known as Bernie, the dozy stockbroker, in Richard Curtis’ Notting Hill, directed by Roger Michell. Forthcoming film releases include Shanghai, Third Star and Burke & Hare.

In the mid 90’s, Hugh co-produced Beautiful Thing at the Duke of York’s Theatre and wrote Half Time with Christopher Luscombe, which he also directed. With BBC Films, he is currently developing his first feature as a Producer: a screenplay by Aschlin Ditta (Scenes of a Sexual Nature, French Film, The Catherine Tate Show), based on Me: The Authorised Biography, the autobiography of journalist Byron Rogers.

He is a patron of the medical charity Merlin and also of Scene & Heard, Giant Olive Theatre Company and The Centre Stage Academy.

He lives in West Sussex with his wife, Lulu, and their eight year old son, Felix.

(May 2010)