Danny Lee Wynter

Danny Lee Wynter
Born (1982-05-25) 25 May 1982
Barking, London, UK
Occupation Actor
Years active 2006–present

Danny Wynter (born 25 May 1982), known professionally as Danny Lee Wynter, is an English actor, writer, and campaigner. He is best known for playing the lead role of Joe in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC films Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary, alongside Sir Michael Gambon and Dame Maggie Smith. He is also recognised for his stage work.

Primarily through an actors perspective, Lee Wynter has written many articles on the topic of diversity, addressing issues of race, class, disability and gender within TV, theatre, art, history, sexuality and mass media. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Stage Newspaper, The Huffington Post, The Guardian and The Evening Standard.

He is founder of the campaigning group the Act For Change Project, a charitable organisation which operates from the National Theatre in London.

Biography

Lee Wynter was born in Barking, East London and grew up in a single parent family in Essex. His mother, a train attendant, is of Romany Gypsy and Italian ancestry, and his father, a local businessman, is of Jamaican descent. He is openly gay.[1]

In 2000, Lee Wynter studied performing arts at Middlesex University, where he trained in clown under John Wright, founder of Trestle Theatre Company and As Told By An Idiot. In 2003, he won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to train in classical acting. During this period he ushered for five years at The Royal Court theatre. He left the security of this job to make his professional debut in[2] Stephen Poliakoff's 2007 BBC/HBO films Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary.

After receiving acclaim for his performance, Lee Wynter made his stage debut as the Fool to David Calder's King Lear in Dominic Dromgoole's 2008 production for Shakespeare's Globe. His other performances for the company include[3] Henry IV Part I and II opposite Roger Allam and Jamie Parker, filmed for Shakespeare's Globe on Screen, and as a company player Lee Wynter has created roles in new plays, The Frontline by Che Walker, and Bedlam by Nell Leyshon, the first play by a living female writer to be staged at Shakespeare's Globe.

As an actor Lee Wynter has given numerous performances in both leading and supporting roles for theatre companies including The Royal Court, The Royal Exchange Manchester, and Jermyn Street Theatre.

In 2013, he was directed by Mark Rylance, as Don John the bastard in Much Ado About Nothing for The Old Vic Theatre Company, opposite Vanessa Redgrave as Beatrice and James Earl Jones as Benedick. In 2014, frustrated by the lack of opportunities for actors of colour in the UK, and inspired by Redgrave's humanitarian activism, Lee Wynter responded to an all white trailer for ITV Drama by calling various leading industry figures, including the Head of ITV Drama who commissioned the trailer, to a sold out conference at London's Young Vic Theatre chaired by Shami Chakrabarti of the human rights group, Liberty. Along with his colleagues and gaining unprecedented public support, Act For Change was formed as a way of "drawing attention to the lack of equality that exists within the UK live and recorded arts."

In 2015, Lee Wynter played the lead role of Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie for the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, opposite Belinda Lang. And in 2016 he appeared in a production of Jean Genet's Deathwatch at The Print Room at The Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill.

Lee Wynter is also known for his screen performances in Hot Fuzz, Trial & Retribution, Luther, Holby City, Episodes, Mr Stink, and Zinnie Harris's most recent TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's Partners In Crime.

Stage and film performances

References

  1. ↑ http://attitude.co.uk/interview-actor-danny-lee-wynter-talks-deathwatch-revival-and-lack-of-media-diversity/
  2. ↑ "Danny Lee Wynter plays Joe Dix". BBC. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  3. ↑ "Fool's gold: Danny Lee Wynter on Lear's Fool". The Stage. Retrieved 2008-12-20.

External links

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