Rufus Sewell first gained attention on screen for his performance as Will Ladislaw in the BBC adaptation of Middlemarch. He received further acclaim in Christopher Hampton’s feature film Carrington, opposite Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, as well as in John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm.
He will next be seen as Lord Melbourne in Masterpiece Theatre’s presentation of Victoria. Sewell’s past film work includes: All Things to All Men, directed by George Isaac; The Sea, directed by Stephen Brown; The Devil’s Hand, directed by Christian Christiansen; I’ll Follow You Down, directed by Richie Mehta; Hotel Noir, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, directed by Timur Bekmambetov; Vinyan, directed by Fabrice du Welz; Downloading Nancy, directed by Johan Renck; The Illusionist, directed by Neil Burger; Wes Craven’s Paris Je T
Rufus Sewell first gained attention on screen for his performance as Will Ladislaw in the BBC adaptation of Middlemarch. He received further acclaim in Christopher Hampton’s feature film Carrington, opposite Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce, as well as in John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm.
He will next be seen as Lord Melbourne in Masterpiece Theatre’s presentation of Victoria. Sewell’s past film work includes: All Things to All Men, directed by George Isaac; The Sea, directed by Stephen Brown; The Devil’s Hand, directed by Christian Christiansen; I’ll Follow You Down, directed by Richie Mehta; Hotel Noir, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, directed by Timur Bekmambetov; Vinyan, directed by Fabrice du Welz; Downloading Nancy, directed by Johan Renck; The Illusionist, directed by Neil Burger; Wes Craven’s Paris Je T’aime; The Holiday, directed by Nancy Meyer; The Legend of Zorro, directed by Martin Campbell; Tristan & Isolde, directed by Kevin Reynolds; A Knight’s Tale, directed by Brian Helgeland; Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas; Dangerous Beauty, directed by Marshall Herskovitz; Illuminata, directed by and co-starring John Turturro; The Very Thought of You, directed by Nick Hamm; Bless the Child, directed by Chuck Russell; Victory, directed by Mark Peploe; Hamlet, directed by Kenneth Branagh; The Woodlanders, directed by Phil Agland; and A Man of No Importance, directed by Suri Krishnamma.
Sewell’s television work includes the role of Petruchio in the critically-acclaimed BBC production of The Taming of the Shrew, for which he was nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTA Television Awards, and lead roles in Restless (Endor Productions), Zen (Left Bank Pictures/BBC), Pillars of the Earth (Starz/Channel 4), Eleventh Hour (produced by Jerry Bruckheimer), John Adams (HBO) and Charles II (directed by Joe Wright for BBC Television).
On stage, Sewell most recently starred in David Leveaux’s critically-acclaimed, sell-out production of Patrick Marber’s Closer at the Donmar Theatre, London. His prior role on stage was similarly lauded, starring opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Lia Williams in Harold Pinter’s Old Times, directed by Ian Rickson in the West End. He made his West End debut in 1993 as Thomas Kratsky, the Czechoslovakian hustler, in Making It Better, which garnered him the London Critics’ Circle’s Best Newcomer Award, and the following year he played Septimus Hodge in the original production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at the National Theatre, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at The Olivier Awards. In 2009, Sewell played Jan in another Stoppard play, Rock ’n’ Roll, which won critical and popular acclaim first in London (at The Royal Court and the Ambassadors Theatre), where he won the Best Actor awards at the Evening Standard, London Critics’ Circle and Olivier Awards, and then on Broadway, where he received a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actor. Other theater credits include: the Broadway revival of Brian Friel’s Translations, opposite Brian Dennehy and Dana Delany; Rat in the Skull, directed by Stephen Daldry at The Royal Court; Macbeth, directed by John Crowley; Luther, directed by Peter Gill at the National Theatre; Darcy in Pride and Prejudice at Royal Exchange Manchester; and As You Like It, The Seagull, and The Government Inspector, all at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
