Paterson Joseph

Paterson Joseph was a British actor who, while never very well known across the pond, became one of the UK's most acclaimed and respected theater and TV actors. Born in London, England, Joseph made quite a name for himself in British theater before he turned 30: in 1990, he took home second prize in the prestigious Ian Charleston Award for his performances in "Love's Labour's Lost" (1990), "King Lear" (1990), and "The Last Days of Don Juan" (1990), all at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Joseph made his TV debut in 1992 with a cameo in the police drama "Between the Lines" (BBC1, 1992-94), and his film debut the following year with a small part in the Daniel Day-Lewis IRA prison drama "In the Name of the Father" (1993). He next co-starred on Neil Gaiman's dark fantasy series "Neverwhere" (BBC Two, 1996), and played Mark Grace on two seasons of Britain's longest running medical drama, "Casualty" (BBC One, 1986-). In 2000, Joseph returned to the big screen, taking a small role in Danny Boyle's thriller "The Beach" (2000), Leonardo DiCaprio's first big post-"Titanic" (1997) project. His next series regular gig was in the romantic drama "William and Mary" (ITV, 2003-05), around the same time he took on the role of Alan Johnson in "Peep Show" (Channel 4, 2003-2015), the cult favorite sitcom by comics David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Joseph would play the character on and off for the next 12 years. Moving from one British TV institution to another, Joseph appeared on a two episode arc in the sci-fi institution "Doctor Who" (BBC, 1963-1989/2005-) in 2005; that same year he co-starred with Charlize Theron in the big screen adaptation of the underground comic "Aeon Flux" (2005). The next year, Joseph reunited with David Mitchell and Robert Webb for their acclaimed sketch comedy series "That Mitchell and Webb Look" (BBC, 2006-2010). Joseph next co-starred on the sci-fi sitcom "Hyperdrive" (BBC Two, 2006-2007) and the drama serial "Jekyll" (BBC One, 2007), based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic gothic novel. After playing DCI Wes Leyton on the two final seasons of "Law & Order: UK" (ITV, 2009-2014), Joseph finally got a chance to appear on American television, playing "Holy" Wayne Gilchrest during the first two seasons of "The Leftovers" (HBO, 2014-17). He continued that success by co-starring on the time travel drama "Timeless" (NBC, 2016-). Joseph returned to his roots by taking a major role in "Rellik" (BBC One, 2017-), a procedural thriller that proved to be so popular in the UK that the series was aired on Cinemax in America, starting in April of 2018.