Ralph Michael Ineson (born 15 December 1969) is an English actor and narrator. Known for his deep and rough Yorkshire-accented voice, he is perhaps best known as Chris Finch in the BBC sitcom The Office (2001). Since then, Ineson's most notable roles include William in The Witch (2015), Dagmer Cleftjaw in Game of Thrones (2012), Amycus Carrow in the final three Harry Potter films, Nikolai Tarakanov in the HBO historical drama miniseries Chernobyl (2019), the title character in The Green Knight (2021), Cid in the video game Final Fantasy XVI (2023), and the villain Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025).

Early life

Ralph Michael Ineson was born in York on 15 December 1969, and educated at Woodleigh School and Pocklington School. He studied theatre at Furness College, Lancaster University. After his first year, he moved into a flat in the city and worked as a security man at The Dukes, Lancaster, helping at the theatre's open-air productions of Shakespeare in Williamson Park. In the early 1990s, after university, he worked as a teacher and cricket coach at York Sixth Form College.

Career

Television

He played the recurring character Chris Finch in the BBC comedy The Office. He starred as Donald Bamford in the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, as Zack in the soap opera Coronation Street, and played ex-soldier Sam Walker in the first series of Spooks. He played Luke Mullen in the BBC drama Playing the Field. He had a minor part in episode four of the first series of BBC drama This Life. He starred in Suburban Shootout, which aired on Paramount Comedy and Five. He played Frank Monk in series 7 of Waking the Dead in the episode "Wounds". He played Dagmer Cleftjaw in the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones. He also appeared in an Imperial Leather advert as a fireman. Ineson had a minor role in the fifth and sixth series of BBC drama Waterloo Road in 2009 playing the role of John Fry. He had a small role in an episode of Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd, as Paul, a buttock-kissing masseur, in the series four episode "Something Happened". In the 2012 ITV Titanic mini-series he played Steward Hart. In 2016, he appeared in the third season of the BBC Two series Peaky Blinders, playing the part of Connor Nutley. He has also appeared in the HBO series Chernobyl, and in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for Netflix. In December 2023, Ineson filed a lawsuit against Disney due to injuries that he said caused permanent shoulder damage while filming the Disney+ series Willow.

Film

Ineson's Hollywood film credits include First Knight, From Hell, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and a brief role in The Damned United. He played Amycus Carrow, a Death Eater, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2. He also appeared in the 2008 film Cass, as Sergeant Mullins. In 2014, he appeared in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy. Also in 2014, he had a small role in the spy film Kingsman: The Secret Service, playing a policeman who interviews Eggsy. He played William alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Kate Dickie in Robert Eggers's critically acclaimed debut film The Witch, which saw Eggers win Best Director at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Ineson appeared in a minor role as a First Order officer in the 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. His role was originally bigger, but most of his performance ended up on the cutting room floor. The cut material is available in a deleted scene on the 2018 Blu-ray release of the film. Recent roles include The Green Knight (as the title character), Ready Player One, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Northman, Catherine Called Birdy, To Catch a Killer (as the titular serial killer) and The Creator. Ineson will portray the Marvel Comics supervillain Galactus in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Voice work

Ineson has used his distinctive Yorkshire accent in a variety of voice-over work. He has narrated TV programmes Licence to Drill, Salvage Hunters on the Discovery Channel, the 2010 Sky TV series Inside Gatwick, and the BBC1 series Claimed and Shamed. In 2013, he voiced the Channel 4 series Skint which followed the lives of British families from underprivileged backgrounds. In 2015, he narrated Countryside 999 on BBC One. In 2009, he narrated the BBC One documentary Series Gears and Tears which follows the characters of British BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars. On video games, he voiced Charles Vane in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Lorath Nahr in Diablo IV, and Cidolfus Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI. He is also the voice on the introduction of the Leeds United football podcast The Square Ball.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Video games

Awards and nominations