Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. In 2004, he played the title role in an Old Vic production of Hamlet, earning an Olivier Award nomination. On television, Whishaw has appeared in Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice, The Hour and London Spy. His film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), I\'m Not There (2007), Bright Star (2009), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Lobster (2015), Suffragette (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015). He played Q in the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). He voiced Paddington Bear in Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017). In 2018, Whishaw portrayed Norman Scott in the BBC One miniseries A Very English Scandal, opposite Hugh Grant as disgraced parliamentarian Jeremy Thorpe.\n', '

Whishaw was born in Clifton, Bedfordshire, and was brought up there and in Langford, the son of Linda (née Hope), who works in cosmetics, and Jose Whishaw, who works in information technology. His father is of French, German and Russian descent; his mother is of English background. He has a fraternal twin, James. ‘Whishaw’ is not the family\'s original surname; the family was originally named Stellmacher, a German occupational name for a cartwright.\n', '

He first rose to prominence as a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre, Big Spirit, at Hitchin\'s Queen Mother Theatre. He attended Henlow Middle School and then Samuel Whitbread Community College in Clifton. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003.\n', '

Return to Ben Whishaw Autograph Profile