John Macmillan (actor)

John Macmillan (also credited as MacMillan) is a British actor. He began his career in theatre, earning an Ian Charleson Award nomination for his work in Hamlet and Macbeth. He was nominated for a Satellite Award for his performance in the BBC Two adaptation of King Lear (2018).

John Macmillan
Education	Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (BA)
Years active	2007–present

His television work includes the BBC One drama Silk (2011–2014), the Netflix sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017), and the Channel 4 sitcoms Back (2017–2021) and Hang Ups (2018).

Early life

Macmillan attended the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Swaziland (now Eswatini).^[1] He has also lived in Johannesburg, Malawi, Zambia, and Oxford.^[2] Macmillan trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.^[3] In 2011, Macmillan opened a garden at Chatsworth Baptist Church School in West Norwood.^[4]

Career

Macmillan began his career in theatre, going on the 2007 international tour of Cymbeline as Guideris.^[5] The following year, he appeared in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Almeida Theatre and Piranha Heights at Soho Theatre. He received an Ian Charleson Award nominations for his performances in the 2009 productions of Hamlet and Macbeth. That year, Macmillan made his screen debut with small roles in the horror film Heartless and the fifth series of the BBC One crime drama Hustle as Harry Fielding. In 2011, Macmillan starred in the short Friend Request Pending and appeared in the Joe Wright's 2010 action thriller film Hanna. That same year, he began starring as clerk Joe Bright in the BBC One drama Silk.^[3]

In 2015, Macmillan played staff nurse Joe Costello in the Sky One medical drama Critical (CR:IT:IC:AL), appeared in The Homecoming at Trafalgar Studios, and began playing Ronald, Tracey's long-term boyfriend in Michaela Coel's Netflix sitcom Chewing Gum. Macmillan played Victor in both the 2016 and 2017 productions of Yerma alongside Billie Piper.^[6] The cast and crew won an Obie Award in the Special Citations category. He starred in the one-man play Killer at Shoreditch Town Hall.^[7] He starred as Troye King Jones in Simon Amstell's mockumentary film Carnage and began playing Julian in the Channel 4 sitcom Back. For his performance in the 2018 BBC Two television film adaptation of King Lear, Macmillan was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor. Also in 2018, Macmillan starred as Abs Walter in the Channel 4 sitcom Hang Ups and began appearing in the Black British sketch comedy Famalam.^[8]

Macmillan played Laenor Velaryon, Princess Rhaenyra's first husband, in the first season of the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones prequel and adaptation of George R. R. Martin's companion book Fire and Blood.^[9]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Heartless	She
2011	Hanna	Lewis
	The Hype Man	Miles	Short film; also directed, wrote, produced
	Friend Request Pending	Jason	Short film, part of Stars in Shorts
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Analyst
	A Scholarship	Leon	Short film
2013	World War Z	Officer
2014	Paddy	The Sage	Short film
	Maleficent	Captain
	Fury	Corporal
2017	Carnage	Troye King Jones	Mockumentary
2020	Heaven Can Wait		Short film, part of Boys on Film 20
2021	The Dig	Dr Rothman
	Ron's Gone Wrong	Shayne the Biker	Voice role
2022	The People We Hate at the Wedding	Ollie	Amazon Prime film
2024	Seize Them!	King Guthrum

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Hustle	Harry Fielding	2 episodes (series 5)
2010	Sherlock	Community Police Officer	Episode: "The Blind Banker"
2011–2014	Silk	John Bright	Main role
2012	Panto!	Finlay	Christmas special
2014	New Tricks	Archie	Episode: "Bermondsey Boy"
2015	Critical	Justin Costello	9 episodes
	Hoff the Record	Marcus Fuster	Episode: "The Movie"
2015–2017	Chewing Gum	Ronald	5 episodes
2016	The Windsors	Richard	1 episode
	Barbarians Rising	Mago	Episode: "Resistance"
	Ordinary Lies	Adam	Episode: "Holly"
2017	Midsomer Murders	Solomon Franks	Episode: "Death by Persuasion"
2017–2021	Back	Julian	8 episodes
2018–2020	Famalam	Various	Sketch comedy (13 episodes)
2018	Kiss Me First	Saul Green	Episode: "You Can Never Go Home"
	King Lear	Edmund	Television film
	Hang Ups	Adebowale "Abs" Walter	Main role
2019	The Accident	Gareth Jarvis	1 episode
	Dial M for Middlesbrough	Chad	Television film
2020	The Trouble with Maggie Cole	Jez	2 episodes
2021	The Nevers	Byner	Episode: "True"
2022	House of the Dragon	Laenor Velaryon	2 episodes
	Ghosts	Scott	Episode: "Speak as ye choose"[10]
2023	Extraordinary	Dr Wedderburn	Episode: "Pet Project"
	The Cleaner	Strazzamo	Episode: "The Clown"
	The Great	John Quirkton	Episode: "Choose Your Weapon"
	The Burning Girls	Mike Sudduth	Main role

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Horizon Zero Dawn	Varl
2018	Overkill's The Walking Dead	Aiden
2019	Blood & Truth
2020	Troy: A Total War Saga
	Amnesia: Rebirth	James Henry "Hank" Mitchell
	Spellforce 3: Fallen God	Zazka
2022	Horizon Forbidden West	Varl

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016–2018	Tommies	Juma Gubanda / Leland Moody	5 episodes
2020	The Sandman	African Morpheus	20 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Playwright	Notes
2007	Cymbeline	Guiderius	Wiliam Shakespeare	International tour
2008	The Last Days of Judas Iscariot	Bailiff / Simon the Zealot	Stephen Adly Guirguis	Almeida Theatre, London
	Piranha Heights	Medic	Phillip Ridley	Soho Theatre, London
2009	Hamlet	Rosencrantz	William Shakespeare	Donmar Warehouse, London / Broadhurst Theatre, New York
	Macbeth	Malcolm	William Shakespeare	Royal Exchange, Manchester
2012	Children's Children	Castro	Matthew Dunster	Almeida Theatre, London
2015	The Homecoming	Joey	Harold Pinter	Trafalgar Studios, London
2016, 2017,	Yerma	Victor	Simon Stone, after Lorca	Young Vic, London
2017	Killer	Various	Phillip Ridley	One man play; Shoreditch Town Hall, London
2018	Yerma	Victor	Simon Stone	Park Avenue Armoury, New York
2018	Pinter Two: The Lover/ The Collection	Richard / James	Harold Pinter	Harold Pinter Theatre, West End, London
2023	Phaedra	Eric	Simon Stone, after Euripides, Seneca and Racine	Royal National Theatre, London

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2009	Ian Charleson Awards		Macbeth and Hamlet	Nominated
2018	Obie Awards	Special Citations	Yerma	Won	[a][11]
	Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film	King Lear	Nominated	[12]

Notes

1. Shared with the Yerma cast and crew.

References

1. Matambanadzo, Chris (2022-10-12). "House of the Dragon 'Ser Laenor Velaryon' Actor John Macmillan's Link To South Africa Revealed". iHarare News. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
2. "John Macmillan". Sue Terry Voices. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
3. "Silk - John Bright". BBC One. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
4. Portilho-Shrimpton, Thais (13 June 2011). "Batman actor opens new garden at West Norwood pre-school". The Argus. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
5. "John MacMillan". BBA Shakespeare. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
6. "Yerma". Young Vic. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
7. New, Belphoebe (2017). "'I like to take journeys away from myself' – An Interview with John MacMillan". Culture Calling. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
8. Knight, Lewis (5 September 2022). "Who is Ser Laenor Velaryon and who plays him in House of the Dragon?". Radio Times. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
9. Debnath, Neela (24 September 2022). "Why was Laenor replaced in House of the Dragon? Who plays Laenor?". Daily Express. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
10. ""Ghosts" Speak as ye choose". IMDb. 23 September 2022.
11. "2018 Obies Winners and Performances". Obie Awards. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
12. "Satellite Awards 2018". International Press Academy. Retrieved 27 October 2021.

External links

• John Macmillan at IMDb
• John Macmillan at Curtis Brown