Paul McGann (born November 14, 1959) is an English actor who made his name on The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. He is also known for his role in Withnail and I, and for portraying the Eighth Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie as well as other media that features his incarnation of the character.

Filmography

• 2026Good Behaviour — Richard
• 2026Triesverse: Cataclysm — The Doctor
• Bookish — Mr. Kind
• 2025Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War — The Doctor (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 2025The Marbles — Lord Byron (voice)
• 2024Churchill’s Forgotten War — Narrator (voice)
• 2024Doctor Who at the Proms — The Doctor (8) (archive footage)
• 2023Mia and the Dragon Princess — Walsh
• 2023The Day of the Sun Dog — Jaggers
• 2023The Undertaker — Arthur
• Anne — Malcolm Thornton MP
• 2022Swallow Your Dreams — James
• Annika — Jake Strathearn
• McDonald & Dodds — Archie Addington
• 2019The Doctors: The Paul McGann Years
• 2018Picasso's Last Stand — Narrator
• 2017B&B — Josh
• 2017Brakes — Peter
• 2017Egypt's Great Pyramid: The New Evidence — Narrator (voice)
• 2017Nero's Sunken City — Narrator (English Voice)
• 2017Perplexed Music — Man
• Wildest Europe — Narrator
• China: Between Clouds and Dreams — Commissioning Editor
• 2016Unfinished: The Making of Massive Attack — Narrator (Voice)
• Wildest Islands of Indonesia — Narrator
• 2015Absence — Man
• 2015China - Treasures of the Jade Empire — Narrator
• 2015Churchill: When Britain Said No — Narrator (voice)
• 2015Churchill: Winning the War, Losing the Peace — narrator
• 2015Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song — The Doctor (8) (picture) (uncredited)
• 2015Finding Babylon's Hanging Garden — Narrator (voice)
• 2015Shark: Beneath the Surface — self, narrator
• 2015Super Powered Owls — Narrator
• Wild Sri Lanka — Paul McGann
• 2014A Little Place Off the Edgware Road — James Craven
• 2014Apples, Pears and Paint: How to Make a Still Life Painting — Narrator
• 2014Codebreaker Alan Turing Persecution Of A Genius
• 2014Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race — Narrator (Voice)
• 2014France: The Wild Side — Narrator
• Secrets of the Castle — Narrator (Voice)
• 2014The Minister of Chance: Prologue — Durian
• The Musketeers — St Pierre, Saint Pierre
• Wildest Indochina — Narrator (voice)
• Wildest Middle East — Narrator
• 2013Art Is... — Lulu's Dad
• 2013Brady and Hindley: Possession — Narrator (voice)
• 2013Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor — The Doctor (8) (archive footage)
• 2013Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor — The Doctor
• A Mother's Son — David
• Ripper Street — Stanley Bone
• 2012SOS: The Titanic Inquiry — Sir Rufus Isaacs
• The Bletchley Circle — John Richards
• 2012Tiger Island — Narrator
• Wildest Islands — Narrator
• 2011Digging The Great Escape — narrator
• 2011Doctor Who: Tales Lost in Time
• 2011Gadaffi and the IRA — Narrator
• 2011The 9/11 Surfer — Narrator
• 2010Godard & Others — Torrence
• Luther — Mark North
• 2010The Day John Lennon Died — Narrator
• Collision — Richard Reeves
• 2009Lesbian Vampire Killers — Vicar
• Moving On — Phil, Director
• 2008Doctor Who: The Next Doctor — The Doctor (8) (archive footage)
• 2008Fables of Forgotten Things — Clarence
• 2008My Dad Was a Communist — Narrator
• The True Story — Narrator
• 2007Always Crashing in the Same Car — Bill Mackinnon
• 2007Chernobyl Reclaimed: An Animal Takeover — Narrator
• 2007Davros Connections — (archival audio)
• True Dare Kiss — Nash McKinnon
• 2007World of Compulsive Hoarders
• 2006If I Had You — Philip Andrews
• Tripping Over — Jeremy
• 2005Daphne Ashbrook in the UK
• 2005Death of an Idealist — Narrator
• 2005Ghosts on the Underground — Narrator
• 2005Gypo — Paul
• Kidnapped
• Psycho — Narrator
• 2005The Orangutan King — Narrator
• Twisted Tales — Phone (voice)
• Agatha Christie's Marple — Dickie Erskine
• Bible Mysteries — Himself-Narrator
• Lie with Me — Gerry Henson
• New Tricks — D.C.I. James Larson
• Sea of Souls — Christopher Chambers
• Zero Hour — Narrator (Voice)
• 2003Doctor Who: Shada — The Doctor (voice)
• 2003Hornblower: Duty — Lieutenant Bush
• 2003Hornblower: Loyalty — Lieutenant Bush
• 2003Listening — Man
• 2003Otherworld — King Matholwch (voice)
• Blood Strangers — DC David Ingram
• 2002Queen of the Damned — David Talbot
• 2002The Biographer — Andrew Morton
• 2001Hornblower: Mutiny — Lieutenant Bush
• 2001Hornblower: Retribution — Lt. Bush
• 2001Hotel! — Ben Carter
• 2001My Kingdom — Dean
• Real Crime
• Sweet Revenge — Patrick Vine
• Waking the Dead — ACC Tony Nicholson
• Fish — Jonathan Vishnevski
• Nature Boy — Steve Witton
• Forgotten — Ben Turner
• Holby City — John Gaskell
• Hornblower — William Bush
• Our Mutual Friend — Eugene Wrayburn
• 1998The Dance of Shiva — Captain Greville
• 1997Downtime — Rob
• 1997FairyTale: A True Story — Arthur Wright
• 1996Catherine the Great — Potemkin
• 1996Doctor Who — The Doctor
• Testament: The Bible in Animation — David (voice)
• 1996The Merchant of Venice — Bassanio
• 1996The One That Got Away — Chris Ryan
• 1995The Hanging Gale — Liam Phelan
• The Hanging Gale — Liam Phelan
• 1993The Three Musketeers — Girard / Jussac
• 1992Afraid of the Dark — Tony
• 1992Alien³ — Golic
• Nice Town — Joe Thompson
• 1990Drowning in the Shallow End — Colin
• 1990Paper Mask — Matthew Harris
• 1990The Monk — Father Lorenzo Rojas
• Agatha Christie's Poirot — Dr. Peter Lord
• 1989Dealers — Daniel Pascoe
• 1989Streets of Yesterday — Joseph
• 1989The Rainbow — Anton Skrebensky
• 1989Tree of Hands — Barry
• 1988The Importance of Being Earnest — John Worthing
• 1987Cariani and the Courtesans — Giovanni Cariani
• 1987Empire of the Sun — Lieutenant Price
• 1987Withnail & I — ...& I
• ScreenPlay — Giovanni Cariani
• Sunday Premiere — Percy Toplis
• The Monocled Mutineer — Percy Toplis
• Screen Two — Colin
• 1984Give Us a Break: Hustle Bustle Toil and Muscle — Mo Morris
• 1983Gaskin — Graham Gaskin
• Give us a Break — Mo Morris
• Natural World — Narrator
• 1982Whistling Wally — Norman
• Fish
• Play for Today — Norman

Appearances as themselves (25)

• 2023Talking Doctor Who — Self / The Doctor (8) (archive footage)
• 2022Doctor Who Am I — Self
• Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World — Self - Narrator
• 2020The Big Night In — Self
• 2019Swans: Mystery of the Missing — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 2019The Cavern Club: The Beat Goes On — Self
• Victorian Sensations — Self - Presenter
• 2018Oi For England's Green and Pleasant Land — Himself
• Shark — Himself - Narrator
• 2015The Other Prince William — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 2014Doctor Who: The Ultimate Time Lord with Peter Davison — Self
• 2014The Great Wall of China: The Hidden Story — Himself
• Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited — Self
• 2013JFK's Secret Killer: The Evidence — Himself - Narrator (voice)
• 2013The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot — Self
• 2012Britain's Greatest Codebreaker — Himself - Narrator (voice)
• Wildest Latin America — Self - Narrator (voice)
• 2008The Ties That Bind Us — Self - Narrator
• The Foreign Legion: Tougher Than the Rest — Himself - Narrator (voice)
• 2003Wreckage and Rage: Making 'Alien³' — Self
• 2001Like a Hurricane: The Alex Higgins Story — Self- Narrator
• 1999Withnail and Us — Self
• 1996Bidding Adieu: A Video Diary — Self
• 1996Star Trek Story — Self - Commentary (voice)
• Horizon — Himself