Steve Toussaint

Steve Toussaint
Toussaint at the 2022 German Comic Con Dortmund
Born	Stephen Toussaint (1965-03-22) 22 March 1965 (age 59) Birmingham, England
Education	University of Sussex (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1994–present
Website	stevetoussaint.com

Stephen Toussaint (born 22 March 1965) is a British actor and writer. He first gained prominence through his role in the ITV crime drama The Knock (1994–2000). Currently, he plays Lord Corlys Velaryon in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon.

His films include Shooting Dogs (2005) and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). On television, he appeared in the second series of Line of Duty (2014), the ninth series of Lewis (2015), the Australian series Pine Gap (2018), and Small Axe: Red, White and Blue (2020).

Early life

Toussaint was born in Birmingham to Barbadian parents and grew up on an estate in the New Cross^[1] area of South London,^[2] where his father worked for the London Underground and his mother worked as a nurse. His first taste of acting came in a school nativity play as a Roman centurion in a suit of Armour made from cardboard.^[1] He studied politics at the University of Sussex.^[1] During his time there, he was scouted for a role in a play and joined the drama society.^[1] After graduating, he briefly worked in merchant banking and hospital administration before deciding to try acting again. He took evening drama classes.^[3]

Toussaint changed his surname to Toussaint because his birth name conflicted with a pre-existing member of his actors' union. He chose the name from Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian revolutionary leader (as at the time he had been reading about him in The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James).^[4]

Career

Toussaint's first professional role in acting, was as the Genie in the Lamp in Aladdin at the Churchill Theatre in 1990 in a cast that included John Inman, Paul Shane, Susan Maughan, Eli Woods and David Janson.^[1] His other extensive theatre career included performances in A Doll's House at the Young Vic, Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Twelfth Night at the Nottingham Playhouse, and more.^[5]

Toussaint's big break on television was starring as Barrie Christie in all 37 episodes of the ITV crime drama The Knock from 1994 to 2000.^[1] He appeared in Waking the Dead in 2002,^[1] My Dad's the Prime Minister in 2004,^[5] and Mutant Chronicles in 2008.^[5]

In 2010, Toussaint starred in the Mike Newell-directed film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley.^[1] Toussaint appeared as CS Ray Mallick in the second season of the BBC2 police drama series Line of Duty in 2014.^[1] In 2015 he starred in Lewis,^[5] In 2018 he starred in 6 episodes of Pine Gap.^[5]

In 2022, Toussaint began starring as Corlys Velaryon, the head of House Velaryon, in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon, a Game of Thrones spin-off.^[1] He then appeared in the BBC One series Rain Dogs as the Duke.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	I.D.	Shadwell Fan
	Judge Dredd	Hunter Squad Leader
	You'll Soon Get the Hang of It: The Technique of One to One Training	Camera Operator	Documentary short
2000	Circus	Black
2001	Dog Eat Dog	Darcy
2002	The Perfect Moment	News Anchor	Short Film
2003	The Order	New York Detective
2005	Shooting Dogs	Roland
2007	Flight of Fury	Col. Ratcher
	Roadblock	Sgt Garret Young	Short Film
2008	Mutant Chronicles	Capt John McGuire
	Broken Lines	Physio
2010	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Seso
2012	A Doll's House	Dr. Rank	Recording
2014	Asylum	Powell
	Darkness		Short Film
2015	Point Break	FBI Dept. Director #1
2016	A Viable Candidate	Sylvan Bradshaw	Short Film Also credited as writer [6]
2018	Forgive Me, Father	Father Matthew	Short Film
2019	Masters of Love	Dad
2023	Gassed Up	Roy	Amazon Prime film[7]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes	Steve Dixie	Episode: The Three Gables
1994–2000	The Knock	Barrie Christie	37 episodes
1994–2005	The Bill	Clive Isley / Mike Hurley / Nick Austin	11 episodes
1995	Backup	Ralf Johnson	Episode: "Toleration Zone"
1996	Crucial Tales	Robert	Episode: "Spiders and Flies"
1998	Macbeth	Lennox	Television Film
	Dangerfield	P.C. Lyle	Episode: "Harvest Time"
1999	Maisie Raine	Barry Wills	Episode: "The Witness"
	Jack of Hearts	Joe	5 episodes
	Doomwatch: Winter Angel	Luke	Television Film
	Casualty	Martin Devern	Episode: "Peace on Earth"
1999–2009	Holby City	Charles Harrison / Sean Horton / Martin Devern	4 episodes
2002	Waking the Dead	Charlie Bellows	2 episodes
2002–2010	Doctors	D.I. Mike Trent / Tom Dumasai / D.I. Mike Trent	16 episodes
2003	Murder in Mind	DC Chris Hewson	Episode: "Suicide"
	Murphy's Law	Sammy	Episode: "Kiss and Tell"
	Rosemary & Thyme	D.I. Scott	Episode: "Sweet Angelica"
2004	Family Affairs	Caleb Andrew	3 episodes
	England Expects	Pete	Television Film
	My Dad's the Prime Minister	Transport Secretary	7 episodes
2005	Broken News	Adam Lockwood - PVS	6 episodes
2007	Them	Uriah Selleck	Television Film
2007–2008	CSI: Miami	Judge Hugo Kemp	3 episodes
2007–2014	Silent Witness	Richard Parkwood / Pastor Funmi Lambo	4 episodes
2009	New Tricks	Grant Lindon	Episode: "The Last Laugh"
2010	Skins	Father Babajide	Episode: "Thomas"
	Spooks	Felix Osuba	Season 9 Episode 2
2014	Line of Duty	CS Ray Mallick	3 episodes
	Scott & Bailey	DSI Will Pemberton	4 episodes
2015	Banana	Pete Monroe	1 episode
	DCI Banks	Michael Osgood	2 episodes
	A.D. The Bible Continues	Julius	1 episode
	Tut	King Tushratta	3 episodes
	Lewis	CS Joseph Moody / Ch. Supt. Moody / Ch. Supt. Joe Moody	6 episodes
2016	Midsomer Murders	Victor Campbell	Episode: "The Incident at Cooper Hill"
	Grantchester	Dicky Evans	1 episode
	Berlin Station	Benjamin Taylor	3 episodes
2017	Fortitude	Lamont Bailey	2 episodes
	Upstart Crow	Otello	Episode: "The Green-Eyed Monster"
2018	Death in Paradise	Steadman King	Episode: "The Healer"
	Killed by My Debt	Bentley Duncan
	Our Girl	Roger Mendez	2 episodes
	Pine Gap	Ethan James	6 episodes
2019	Deep Water	Adam	3 episodes
2020	Doctor Who	Feekat	Episode: "Ascension of the Cybermen"
	In the Long Run	Charles Lander / Charles Quigley	3 episodes
	Small Axe	Kenneth Logan	Episode: "Red, White and Blue"
2021	It's a Sin	Alan Baxter	2 episodes
	Before We Die	Kane	3 episodes
2022–present	House of the Dragon	Corlys Velaryon	Main Role
2023	Rain Dogs	The Duke
2025	Eyes of Wakanda	TBA (voice)	In production

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	Jurassic World Evolution	George Lambert	voice
	World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth		voice
2021	Jurassic World Evolution 2	George Lambert	voice
2022	Battlefield 2042	Charlie Crawford	Season 2

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The No Boys Cricket Club	Michael	Theatre Royal Stratford East
2000–2001	The Servant to Two Masters	Florindo	Royal Shakespeare Company tour
2002	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Ned	Theatre Royal Stratford East
2003	Urban Afro-Saxons	Dennis	Talawa Theatre Company, Theatre Royal Stratford East
2004	Fix Up	Kwesi	Cottesloe at the National Theatre, London
2008	Hapgood	The American	Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Birmingham West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
2010	Ruined	Commander Osembenga	Almeida Theatre, London
	Twelfth Night	Orsino	Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham
2011	The Merchant of Venice	Salerio	Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
	Macbeth	Banquo
2011–2012	The Riots	Stafford Scott	Tricycle Theatre / Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London
2012–2014	A Doll's House	Dr. Rank	Young Vic / Duke of York's Theatre, London BAM Harvey Theater, New York
2016	Father Comes Home from the Wars	Hero	Royal Court Theatre, London

References

1. Cheesman, Neil (23 January 2014). "Interview with Steve Toussaint star of Line of Duty and A Doll's House". London Theatre. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
2. "Steve Toussaint – interview Father Comes Home From the Wars, Royal Court Theatre". Afridiziak Theatre News. 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
3. Heritage, Stuart (19 August 2022). "'Nothing is too big to fail': Steve Toussaint on starring in the Game of Thrones prequel". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
4. Toussaint, Steve [@StevieToussaint] (9 December 2021). "@TheTonyTeflon Toussaint was the name I chose, as my own legal name would have clashed with an existing member of our actors' union. I was reading "The Black Jacobins" by CLR James at the time. You're right, a real hero" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022 – via Twitter.
5. "Steve Toussaint, Royal Court Theatre". royalcourttheatre.com/. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
6. A Viable Candidate Interview, retrieved 2 September 2022
7. "Steve Toussaint on Instagram: "So. There's a film. It's called "Gassed Up". It's gonna be exclusively on @primevideouk. It's got these lovely people in it. And a bit of me! @steviegambles @taz_skylar @officiallymagic @tobiasjowett @mohammed_mansaray @maemuller @jelenagavrilovicofficial @yungfilly @harrypinero @arrdeegram @msbanks @tomi.may @rxwdat @davidmonteith"". Instagram. Retrieved 2 September 2022.

External links

• Steve Toussaint at IMDb
• Steve Toussaint Official Website
• Steve Toussaint at Twitter
• Steve Toussaint at Instagram