Miles Anderson(I)

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Miles grew up in a military family: his father, Jock, was a general and his mother, Daphne, a homemaker and latterly an author (The Toerags, 1989). Deciding to quit school in the middle of a Shakespeare class, Miles arrived home and announced he was going to England to become an actor. After graduating with the prestigious Ronson Award from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he soon found himself working at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Despite his schoolboy wrangling with the Bard, he later spent ten years with the RSC.

For over fifty years, Miles has been acting on stage and screen. In the UK, he is perhaps best known for his television appearances as Colonel Aidan Dempsey in ITV's Ultimate Force, Roger O'Neill in the original House of Cards, Terry Fox in BBC's Holby City and Colonel Dan Fortune in Soldier, Soldier. His stage appearances in the West End and for the RSC garnered successes including The Witch of Edmonton, The Twin Rivals, the title role in Macbeth, Conor McPherson's The Weir, and the West End musical Oliver! directed by Sam Mendes. He was awarded three London Critics Awards In the 1981 season at Stratford and an Olivier Nomination for Sigismund in Life's A Dream, and he has the distinction of being the first adult male to play Peter Pan in Trevor Nunn's production at The Barbican in 1983. In the US, Miles's recent television roles include Hunters, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Criminal Minds, Baskets, Battle Creek, and films including Damien Chazelle's LaLaLand, and the independent thrillers The Wind and Radioflash. Curiously Shakespeare is never far away, with Miles's recent role of Lennox in Joel Coen's 'The Tragedy Of Macbeth' with Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington (with whom he had also worked over thirty years previously in Cry Freedom). Miles has also starred in three Shakespeare seasons at the Old Globe San Diego under the directorship of RSC veteran Adrian Noble and for his performance as King George in The Madness of George III in 2010, he was awarded the Craig Noel San Diego Critics' Circle Award for Best Actor in a Lead. His 2011 performance as Salieri in Amadeus garnered critical superlatives and his Prospero in The Tempest again secured him the nomination for Best Actor by the San Diego Critics' Circle. In 2013 he again won the San Diego Critics Circle Award for his Outstanding Performance of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Equally happy in television comedy as classical dramas, Miles has also enjoyed roles such as the magician Merlin in Escape the Night.

Miles lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Bella Merlin, with whom he wrote Colonels, Cads and Charmers: Memories, about his early life in (then) Rhodesia and the journey from Africa to actor. He has two sons: Joe, an actor and Max, an executive chef, and a rescue dog, Dempsey.