Danny Sapani

Danny Sapani (born 15 November 1970) is a British actor who works in British, American and Indian films.^[1] He is best known for appearing in Little Britain, Misfits, Doctor Who, Penny Dreadful, The Crown, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Black Panther.

Danny Sapani
Born	15 November 1970 (1970-11-15) (age 54) London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present

Early life

Sapani was born in London, England, one of six children of immigrant Ghanaian parents. He was raised in Hackney, and first pursued his interest in acting at the Weekend Arts College in Kentish Town.^[2] He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[3]

Career

Sapani appeared in Danny Boyle's film Trance. His stage credits include August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Radio Golf, Errol John's Caribbean classic Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and The National Theatre production of Euripides' Medea. He has also acted in the 2013 Indian action film, Singam II as drug lord Michael Kong.^[4]

In 2021, Sapani played alongside Adrian Lester in the streamed version of Lolita Chakrabarti's Hymn from the Almeida theatre in London. Their performances were described as "captivating, delicately picking out the nuances of two men who are simultaneously complete and broken".^[5]

Sapani's TV roles include appearances on Misfits, Ultimate Force and Blackout, while his television guest appearances include Judge John Deed and the Doctor Who episode "A Good Man Goes to War." as Colonel Manton. For the first two seasons, Sapani played the role of Sembene in Showtime's Penny Dreadful.^[6]

On 19 August 2019, Deadline reported that Sapani would be joining the cast of the BBC America and AMC series Killing Eve.^[7]

Sapani will also be starring in the American espionage thriller, The Amateur, set for debut in 2025.^[8]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Tip of My Tongue	Dave's mate	Short film
	Hotel	AJ
2002	Pissboy	Carl	Short film
	Anansi	Adolph
2003	Song for a Raggy Boy	Preston
2008	The Oxford Murders	Scott
2009	Perfect	Ike	Short film
	Bucco Blanco	Zak	Short film
2010	The Last Jazz Musician	Van Hellier	Short film
2011	Mercenaries	Ambassador
2012	Hard Boiled Sweets	Leroy
	Tezz	David	Indian film
	Parking Wars	Imam	Short film
2013	Trance	Nate
	Singam II	Danny Sapani / Michael Kong	Indian Tamil film
2016	The Siege of Jadotville	Moise Tshombe
2017	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	Medical Frigate Captain
2018	Black Panther	M'Kathu
	Tharakaasura	Kalinga	Indian film; Nominated – Filmibeat Award for Best Villain – Kannada
2021	Ear for Eye	TBA
2022	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	M'Kathu
2023	Sumotherhood	Leo DeMarco
2024	The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare	Kambili Kalu

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	The Bill	Leon Davies	Episode: "Getting Through"
1993	Between the Lines	Steve Coogan	Episode: "Crack Up"
1997	Casualty	Walker Bennett	Episode: "Treasure"
	Richard II	Bagot	Television movie
1998	Trial & Retribution	Nicky Burton	2 episodes
2000	Fish	Peter Cookson	6 episodes
2001	Holby City	Craig Sefton	Episode: "Family Ties"
	Judge John Deed	Johnny Latymer	Episode: "Appropriate Response"
2002–03	Ultimate Force	Cpl. Ricky Mann	12 episodes
2003	Serious and Organized	D.I. Dennis Clifton	6 episodes
	In Deep	Davies	2 episodes
2005	Holby City	Kumi Griffin	Episode: "Tuesday's Child"
	Little Britain	Derek	Episode: "#3.2"
2006	Blue Murder	Gavin Busby	Episode: "In Deep"
2007	The Bill	Oscar Daniels	7 episodes
2008	Place of Execution	Keith Slocombe	3 episodes
2009–11	Misfits	Tony Morecombe	3 episodes
2010	Garrow's Law	Gustavus Vassa	Episode: "#2.1"
2011	Doctor Who	Colonel Manton	Episode: "A Good Man Goes to War"
	Casualty	Paul Caffrey	Episode: "Mea Culpa"
	The Jury	DI Scott	Episode: "#2.2"
	Shirley	Bobo	Television movie
	Documental	Buzzy	Television movie
2012	Blackout	Detective Griffin	2 episodes
	The Fear	Wes	4 episodes
2014–15	Penny Dreadful	Sembene	18 episodes
2015	The Bastard Executioner	Berber the Moor	10 episodes
2017	Chewing Gum	Marlon	Episode: "Road Trip"
	Broken	Daniel Martin	2 episodes
2017–19	Harlots	William North	22 episodes
2017	The Crown	Dr. Kwame Nkrumah	Episode: "Dear Mrs. Kennedy"
2018	Black Earth Rising	Simon Nyamoya	8 episodes
2019	MotherFatherSon	Jahan Zakari	6 episodes
	Traitors	Richard	2 episodes
2020	Killing Eve	Jamie	7 episodes
2022–24	Halo	Captain Jacob Keyes	10 episodes
2023	The Diplomat	Colin Sutherland	6 episodes

References

1. Danny Sapani Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Dannysapani.com. Retrieved on 6 July 2013.
2. Spridonova, Kristina (5 April 2012). "Interview with Danny Sapani". Flavour Magazine.
3. "Where Are They Now?" (PDF). Central School of Speech and Drama. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 November 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
4. "'Singam 2' latest teaser". The Times of India. 5 June 2013. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
5. "★★★★ Review: Hymn at London's Almeida Theatre – 'captivating and nuanced'". The Stage. 19 February 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
6. Obenson, Tambay A. (29 April 2014). "Danny Sapani Plays 'Sembene' – A "Mysterious" Man From The "Dark Continent" In Showtime's 'Penny Dreadful'". Indiewire. Archived from the original on 19 July 2014. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
7. Petski, Denise (19 August 2019). "'Killing Eve': Harriet Walter & Danny Sapani Join Cast As Production Begins on Season 3". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
8. The Amateur (2025) | Action, Thriller. Retrieved 16 November 2024 – via m.imdb.com.

External links

• Danny Sapani at IMDb
• Danny Sapani on Instagram