Ariyon Bakare

Ariyon Bakare is an English actor, writer and director whose career spans more than three decades, beginning in the early 1990s with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Born on 2 June 1971 in London, England, he is the son of a Nigerian father and grew up across East London before leaving home at fifteen and spending a year homeless while completing his education. At seventeen he moved to New York to train as a dancer at prestigious conservatories including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, but after two years he switched his focus to acting and returned to London to study at the Drama Centre London. Bakare’s breakthrough on television arrived in 1998 when he portrayed Mehuru in the BBC miniseries A Respectable Trade, becoming the first Black actor to lead a BBC period drama; critics praised his performance as powerful and understated, highlighting the dignity and quiet fury he brought to the role. From 2001 to 2005 he was a regular on the long‑running soap Doctors as Dr Ben Kwarme, earning a Royal Television Society Midlands nomination for Best Actor. He later expanded into writing and directing, co‑writing and starring in the Channel 4 drama Stealing Lives and directing episodes of Doctors. His screen work includes appearances in Spooks, Casualty, Law & Order UK, Doctor Who (as the creature Leandro), and a Rebel pilot in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Since 2019 he has been seen as Lord Boreal in the acclaimed adaptation His Dark Materials, and in 2025 he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Mr Loverman. Beyond acting, Bakare founded the racial‑justice initiative iC4RE, serves as a long‑time ambassador for WaterAid, and delivered a keynote on global water access at St James’s Palace in 2025.