Oliver Chris
Acting · Writing
Born November 7, 1978, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK
Oliver Graham Chris is an English actor. He has appeared in television series, TV films, and on the stage. His work has included theatrical productions in London's West End and New York City's Broadway. Chris was born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 7 November 1978. He passed his eleven-plus exam and attended Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys before moving to the Michael Hall Steiner School in his fourth year. He later graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In 2005, he completed an evening class at Birkbeck College and was subsequently accepted for a degree course in history, politics and philosophy. Chris has appeared in several comedy series, including The Office, Green Wing, According to Bex, Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd, Rescue Me and Bluestone 42. In 2004, Chris re-wrote the lyrics to the Beatles' "Let It Be" to a song about the England football player Wayne Rooney and recorded it in collaboration with the actor Stephen Campbell Moore and a number of other actors and journalists. The song was reprised and re-recorded, with rewritten lyrics, for the 2006 Fifa World Cup and became a hit on YouTube, with 200,000 views. Chris has also narrated most of the Alex Rider series of audiobooks by Anthony Horowitz, although Dan Stevens replaced him as reader for Snakehead, Crocodile Tears and Scorpia Rising. In early 2006, Chris played the role of Captain Leonard in Sharpe's Challenge, starring Sean Bean, while 2007 saw him in the TV comedy Bonkers, written by Sally Wainwright as well as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Wilton's Music Hall. In 2006, he also appeared as Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He later appeared in Peter Hall's production of The Portrait of a Lady. He made his West End debut in late 2008 in Lisa Kron's comedy, Well. In 2010, he appeared alongside Judi Dench in Hall's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Rose Theatre, Kingston. Chris was cast in Ben Miller's feature-length debut comedy film Huge, which premiered in June 2010. In 2011, saw him appear in two episodes of Silent Witness, whilst also playing one of the leading roles in the National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors alongside James Corden. He appeared in three series of the BBC Three comedy Bluestone 42, about a British bomb disposal detachment in Afghanistan. He also played Dr Richard Truscott in the ITV medical drama series Breathless, set in the 1960s, which ran for one series from October 2013. From 2014 to 2016, Chris played Prince William in the play King Charles III, appearing in the West End and on Broadway. In May 2017, he appeared in the same role in the BBC Two film adaptation.
Filmography
- 2026The Magic Faraway Tree — Mr Watzisname
- 2025The Choral — Major Dobson
- My Lady Jane — Narrator (voice)
- Rivals — James Vereker
- 2024Shoshana — Ralph Cairns
- Maternal — Guy Cavendish
- 2023What's Love Got to Do with It? — James
- 2023White Widow — Andrew
- 2022Living — Hart
- 2022National Theatre Live: Jack Absolute Flies Again — Writer
- A Very British Scandal — George Emslie
- 2021Beauty and the Beast: A Comic Relief Pantomime for Christmas — The Beast
- Foundation — Director Sef Sermak
- 2020Dolittle — Sir Gareth
- 2020Emma. — John Knightley
- 2020Miss Marx — Freddy
- Miss Scarlet — Basil Sinclaire
- Trying — Freddy
- 2019National Theatre Live: A Midsummer Night's Dream — Theseus / Oberon
- 2018Man of the Hour — Hector
- 2018The Little Stranger — Tony Morley
- 2018The Queen and I — Prince Charles
- 2017King Charles III — William
- Motherland — Paul
- 2017National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night — Orsino
- 2017National Theatre Live: Young Marx — Engels
- Milo Murphy's Law — Additional Voices (voice)
- The Crown — James Colthurst
- 2015The Scandalous Lady W — Viscount Deerhurst
- The Musketeers — Duke of Beaufort
- Bluestone 42 — Nick
- Breathless — Richard Truscott
- 2011Is This a Joke? — Driving Me Nuts
- 2011National Theatre Live: One Man, Two Guvnors — Stanley Stubbers
- 2011Sean Lock: Rogue Landlord
- 2010Huge — Darren
- FM — Matt Kyle
- Fairy Tales — Vukoosin Ergovich
- Bonkers — Marcus Lewis
- 2007Green Wing Special — Boyce
- Phineas and Ferb — Mr. Macabre (voice)
- The IT Crowd — Daniel Carey
- Tripping Over — Sam
- According to Bex
- Nathan Barley — Max Herbert
- 2004Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason — Director in Gallery
- Green Wing — Boyce
- 2003Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster — Percy Bysshe Shelley
- 2003The Gathering — Brett
- 2003The Other Boleyn Girl — Henry Percy
- Rescue Me — Luke Chatwin
- 2002The Real Jane Austen — Tom Lefroy
- 2001Lorna Doone — Charley Doone
- The Office — Ricky Howard
- Lorna Doone — Charley Doone
- Silent Witness — Dr James Sabiston
- Sharpe — Leonard