Peter Capaldi

He portrayed the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction series Doctor Who and Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, for which he received four British Academy Television Award nominations, winning Best Male Comedy Performance in 2010. When he reprised the role of Tucker in the feature film In the Loop, Capaldi was honoured with several film critic award nominations for Best Supporting Actor.

Peter Capaldi
Capaldi at the 2019 GalaxyCon Richmond
Born	Peter Dougan Capaldi (1958-04-14) 14 April 1958 (age 66) Glasgow, Scotland
Citizenship	United Kingdom Italy
Education	Glasgow School of Art (BA)
Occupations	Actor director writer musician producer
Years active	1974 1976 1982–present
Known for	Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who
Works	Filmography
Spouse	Elaine Collins ​ (m. 1991)​
Children	1
Relatives	Lewis Capaldi (first cousin twice removed)
Signature

Capaldi won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film for his 1993 short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. He went on to write and direct the drama film Strictly Sinatra and directed two series of the sitcom Getting On. Capaldi also played Mr Curry in the family film Paddington and its sequel Paddington 2.

He appeared as Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers. He won a BAFTA Scotland award for Outstanding Contribution to Film & Television. Capaldi wrote a rock album titled St. Christopher. Capaldi is married to actress Elaine Collins and the pair have a child together.

Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Gerald and Nancy (née Soutar) Capaldi. His paternal grandfather was Italian, while the rest of his ancestry is Scottish and Irish. His parents ran an ice cream business in the Springburn district, where they were neighbours and acquaintances of the family of Armando Iannucci, creator of The Thick of It, although the two men did not know each other as children. He was educated at St Teresa's Primary School in Possilpark, St Matthew's Primary School in Bishopbriggs, and St Ninian's High School, Kirkintilloch, before attending the Glasgow School of Art. He was a fan of Doctor Who as a child.

Capaldi displayed an early talent for performance by putting on a puppet show in primary school. While at high school, he was a member of the Antonine Players, who performed at the Fort Theatre in Bishopbriggs. As an art student, he was the lead singer and guitarist in a punk rock band called The Dreamboys, whose drummer was future comedian Craig Ferguson. The pair also performed a cabaret act together as Bing & Dean Hitler and wrote an alternative pantomime of Sleeping Beauty. Capaldi went on to perform musical comedy cabaret in the guises of "bank clerk about town" Gavin Meekie and as one half of husband-and-wife TV evangelists Tom & Sammy Jo.

Acting

Capaldi has appeared in various films and television shows since his first acting role as Joe Edwards in Living Apart Together. Capaldi has narrated various audiobooks, such as Watership Down and Nineteen Eighty-Four. His first starring role on television was as Luke Wakefield, a strange man who imagines he has witnessed a crime, in the BBC drama series Mr Wakefield's Crusade. He played a TV producer in two episodes of the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, and George Harrison in John and Yoko: A Love Story. In Neil Gaiman's gothic fantasy Neverwhere, he portrayed the angel Islington.

In 1992, Capaldi auditioned for, but did not get, the role of Benjamin Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He starred as Rory in the 1996 television version of Ian Banks's The Crow Road.

 

In 1999, Capaldi appeared in the Channel 4 series Psychos, he played a mathematician with bipolar disorder. Capaldi made an appearance as a university professor in the sitcom Peep Show. He voiced Chief Petty Officer Grieves in the BBC Radio Ministry of Defence comedy Our Brave Boys. Capaldi appeared in an episode of Midsomer Murders.

In 2007, Capaldi appeared as Sid's dad Mark Jenkins in the E4 teen comedy drama series Skins. He appeared in episodes of Waking the Dead and ITV1's Fallen Angel. He also appeared in the British comedy film Magicians.

In 2008, Capaldi starred as King Charles I in the Channel 4 series The Devil's Whore, aired in 2008.

In 2011, Capaldi appeared in The Field of Blood as Dr Pete, for which he received a BAFTA Scotland nomination in the TV actor category; he was beaten by his co-star Jayd Johnson. He had a small role as a therapist in Big Fat Gypsy Gangster, written by and starring his Getting On co-star Ricky Grover. In 2012, Capaldi played Randall Brown, the new Head of News, on the BBC Two drama The Hour, receiving a BAFTA nomination for the role.

In 2013, he portrayed Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian in The Fifth Estate. He starred in Inside the Mind of Leonardo, a documentary about Leonardo da Vinci. He appeared as a WHO doctor in World War Z. In 2014, he starred in an adaptation of The Three Musketeers as Cardinal Richelieu on BBC One. Though he was killed off screen due to commitments with Doctor Who.

In 2015, he appeared as Paddington Bear's neighbour Mr Curry in the family comedy film Paddington. He reprised the role in the 2017 sequel Paddington 2. In 2018, he voiced Rabbit in the Disney film Christopher Robin. In 2022, he voiced Seamus McGregor in the Netflix series Big Mouth.

Stage

Capaldi's first acting role was in 1974, in the play An Inspector Calls. In November 2011, he began playing Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, which then transferred to the Gielgud Theatre in London in April 2012. He appeared as John Lennon in John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert at the Young Vic.

In 2021, Capaldi acted against Sheila Atim in a revival of Constellations.

Malcolm Tucker

Prior to taking over the lead role in Doctor Who, Capaldi was best known for playing spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the Armando Iannucci-written BBC sitcom The Thick of It, which he played from 2005 to 2012. Tucker is said to be largely, if loosely, based upon Tony Blair's right-hand man Alastair Campbell, although Capaldi has said that he based his performance more on Hollywood power players, such as the often abrasive Harvey Weinstein. A film spin-off from The Thick of It called In the Loop (in which Capaldi returned to the role of Tucker), was released in 2009.

The role of Tucker won Capaldi several awards. In 2006, 2008 and 2010 he was nominated for the BAFTA and RTS Best Comedy Actor Awards. He won the 2010 BAFTA Television Award for Male Performance in a Comedy Role. He also won the 2010 and 2012 British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.

Doctor Who

 

Capaldi was revealed in 2013 as the Twelfth Doctor in the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, succeeding Matt Smith in the role. Capaldi first appeared as the Doctor in a cameo in the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor", before appearing in the 2013 Christmas special, "The Time of the Doctor". A lifelong fan of the series, Capaldi had previously played Lobus Caecilius in the 2008 episode "The Fires of Pompeii" with the Tenth Doctor and his companion Donna Noble, as well as playing civil servant John Frobisher in the 2009 spin-off Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Before taking the role, Capaldi stated that he had to seriously consider the increased level of visibility that would come with the part. He revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he had been invited to audition for the role of the Eighth Doctor in 1995 prior to the production of the 1996 TV film, stating: "I didn't go. I loved the show so much, and I didn't think I would get it, and I didn't want to just be part of a big cull of actors."

In 2014, Capaldi voiced the Doctor on the CBBC website's game The Doctor and the Dalek and in 2015 voiced him in Lego Dimensions. In 2016, Capaldi reprised his role as the Twelfth Doctor in the Doctor Who spin-off programme Class, written by young-adult author Patrick Ness.

On 30 January 2017, in an interview on BBC Radio 2, Capaldi confirmed that the tenth series would be his last. His final episode was the 2017 Christmas special, "Twice Upon a Time", in which he was succeeded by Jodie Whittaker.

Director and writer

In 1992, Capaldi wrote and starred in the road movie Soft Top Hard Shoulder, which won the audience award at the London Film Festival. The next year he directer the short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, which starred Richard E. Grant. The film was nominated for various awards. He also wrote and directed Strictly Sinatra in 2001.

In 2009, Capaldi wrote and presented A Portrait of Scotland, a documentary detailing 500 years' history of Scottish portrait painting. He directed several episodes of the BBC Four sitcom Getting On.

In 2012, Capaldi and Tony Roche co-wrote, directed and performed in The Cricklewood Greats, a mockumentary about a fictitious film studio, which tracks real developments and trends throughout the history of British cinema.

In 2013, Capaldi wrote and directed the comedy film Born to be King. The film stared Kate Hudson and Ewan McGregor.

Capaldi married Elaine Collins in Strathblane near his home city of Glasgow in 1991. Collins is an actress and television producer; they met in 1983 in a touring production for the Paines Plough Theatre Company. Together they have a daughter, and two grandchildren born in 2021 and 2023. Capald and Collins live together in Muswell Hill, London.

He grew up Catholic but is now an atheist.

On 12 September 2016, Capaldi, with Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jesse Eisenberg, Douglas Booth, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Kit Harington and Stanley Tucci, was featured in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness about the global refugee crisis. "What They Took With Them" has the actors reading a poem, written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.

His first cousin twice removed is singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi. The two worked together on one of the video versions for "Someone You Loved" made in partnership with the charity organisation Live Life Give Life in order to raise awareness for the issue of organ donation.

Capaldi is a patron of Worldwide Cancer Research, and the Scottish children's charity, the Aberlour Child Care Trust.

In October 2022, he voiced his support for Scottish independence. He told The Daily Telegraph: "It used not to be something I was particularly drawn to. I've lived in London for most of my life, and always loved Cardiff and Manchester and Belfast. But after the relentlessness of the past 12 years, everything we have been put through, it might just be time to go home and be a part of that."

Capaldi holds dual citizenship; due to Brexit he acquired Italian citizenship by descent through his paternal grandfather who hailed from Picinisco.

Capaldi was part of a band known as the Dreamboys. While working on The Suicide Squad (2021), Capaldi wrote a rock album titled, St. Christopher.

Studio albums

Singles

Capaldi has been nominated for various awards including three British Academy Television Award nominations and one win for Malcolm Tucker in In the Thick of It. He won an Academy Award for his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. He was given an award for "Outstanding Contribution to Film & Television" at the Scottish BAFTAs.