Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).

Early life and education

Marsan was born on 9 June 1968 in the Stepney district of London to a working-class family; his father was a lorry driver and his mother was a school dinner lady and teacher's assistant. He was brought up in Bethnal Green and attended Raine's Foundation School. He left school at 16 and initially served an apprenticeship as a printer before beginning his career in theatre. He trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1991, and went on to study under Sam Kogan at the Kogan Academy of Dramatic Arts, now known as The School of the Science of Acting, of which Marsan is now a patron. His first year at drama school was funded by Mr Benny, a bookmaker who ran a menswear shop where Marsan worked; he obtained scholarships for the rest of the course. It took many attempts for Marsan to get a place at drama school.

Career

Marsan's first television appearance was in 1992 as a "yob" in the London Weekend Television series The Piglet Files. One of his more significant early television appearances was in the popular mid-1990s BBC sitcom Game On as an escaped convict who was an old flame of Mandy's. Marsan went on to have roles in Casualty, The Bill, Grass, Kavanagh QC, Grange Hill, Silent Witness, Ultimate Force, Southcliffe, and more. He also voiced the Manticore in the Merlin episode "Love in the Time of Dragons". In 2011, he starred alongside Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan, all three actors relatively unknown at that time, in the British drama film Tyrannosaur. In 2013, he began portraying Terry Donovan, brother to the lead character in 7 series and 82 episodes of Showtime's drama series Ray Donovan. The same year he played Ludwig Guttmann in the television film The Best of Men. In May 2015, Marsan appeared as the practical magician Gilbert Norrell in the BBC period drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Marsan's film roles include the main villain in the 2008 superhero film Hancock alongside Will Smith and as Inspector Lestrade in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. His other films include Sixty Six, Gangs of New York, 21 Grams, The Illusionist, V for Vendetta, Gangster No. 1, Miami Vice, Mission: Impossible III, I Want Candy, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Filth, Tyrannosaur and Heartless. In 2021, Marsan appeared as anti-Fascist activist Soly Malinovsky in the television adaptation of the novel Ridley Road. In 2022, he played the real-life role of John Darwin in ITV's drama series The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe. Marsan appeared as Mitch Winehouse, father of Amy Winehouse, in the biopic Back to Black, which was released in 2024.

Personal life

Marsan married make-up artist Janine Schneider in 2002. They have four children. Marsan is a humanist and was appointed a patron of Humanists UK in 2015. He was critical of the lack of representation of working-class people in the arts in 2015 on BBC Radio 5 Live in which he stated too much drama is written from "the white, privileged, middle class perspective". In 2024 he was interviewed on HARDtalk with an episode entitled "Do the arts neglect working-class people?".

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations