Stephen Graham

Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor and producer. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles including Tommy in Snatch (2000) and Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), before his breakout role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006).

On television, Graham reprised his role as Combo in This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011), and This Is England '90 (2015). He also starred as Det. Supt. Dave Kelly in the 2017 drama Little Boy Blue, John Corbett in the fifth series of Line of Duty (2019), Al Capone in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), Eric McNally in the BBC drama Time (2021), and Hayden Stagg in the sixth series of Peaky Blinders (2022).

Graham's film roles include Scrum in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Anthony Provenzano in The Irishman (2019), and Andy Jones in Boiling Point (2021) and its sequel series of the same name (2023). He has received numerous accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, nominations for five British Academy Television Awards and two British Academy Film Awards, and an OBE. In 2020, he co-founded the production company Matriarch Productions alongside his wife, actress Hannah Walters.

Early life
Stephen Joseph Graham was born on 3 August 1973 in Kirkby, Lancashire. He had a Swedish grandmother and Jamaican grandfather, and has discussed his experience being a light-skinned multiracial person as he has brothers who have much darker skin. He was brought up by his mother, a social worker, and his stepfather, a mechanic who later became a paediatric nurse. He maintained a good relationship with his biological father. He attended Overdale Primary School in Kirkby, where he was encouraged to pursue an acting career at the age of eight by local actor Andrew Schofield, who had seen him perform as Jim Hawkins in a school production of Treasure Island. He then continued his education at Ruffwood Comprehensive and was subsequently introduced to Liverpool's Everyman Theatre at the age of 14, later going on to train at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance.

Career
Graham has often portrayed characters from different parts of Britain, Ireland, and America, receiving praise for his accent work. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles including Tommy in Snatch (2000) and Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), before his breakout role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006). He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for This Is England He appeared as the Scrum in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, a role he reprised in the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, starring alongside his wife Hannah Walters.

Graham was nominated for an RTS Award for his work in The Street, and for a British Independent Film Award for his work in This Is England. He appeared in the music videos for "I Remember" by Deadmau5 and Kaskade, "Fluorescent Adolescent" and "When the Sun Goes Down" by Arctic Monkeys, "Unlovable" by Babybird (directed by Johnny Depp), and Gazelle's single "Finger on the Trigger". Graham also appeared in the music video "Soul Vampire" by Macclesfield-based neo-psychedelic band The Virginmarys, the music video for "Turn" by Travis, and Kasabian's video "You're in Love with a Psycho". He appeared as an inmate within the open prison system in the music video for Goldie's "I Adore You" in 2017, and also starred in Sam Fender's music video for "Spit of You".

In 2011, Graham starred in the BBC Christmas show Lapland. When the series was remade as Being Eileen Graham's role was recast with Dean Andrews. He also appeared on a promotional video for a DLC of the video game Call of Duty: Ghosts, titled "CODnapped".

In 2019, Graham featured as DS John Corbett in series 5 of the BBC drama Line of Duty. In November of that year, Graham was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. In January 2020, he appeared in the ITV series White House Farm as Welsh detective "Taff" Jones. Despite his reputation for his ability to adopt different accents, a number of critics criticised his performance and stated that his Welsh accent was inauthentic. Later that year, he co-founded the production company Matriarch Productions alongside Walters.

In 2021, Graham starred alongside Walters in the film Boiling Point, directed by his Band of Brothers co-star Philip Barantini. A one-shot film set in a restaurant kitchen, the film was expanded from a 2019 short film of the same name. In October 2022, it was announced that Graham would reprise his role in a BBC One series airing in 2023 as a sequel to the film, which was also called Boiling Point.

Personal life
Graham began dating actress and producer Hannah Walters after they met while training as actors at Rose Bruford College, and they were married on 6 June 2008. They live in Ibstock, Leicestershire, having previously lived in the Beckenham area of London. They have a son and a daughter together. They have appeared together onscreen multiple times.

Graham is teetotal and has dyslexia, revealing in 2019 that Walters reads scripts for him and helps him decide whether to accept a role. He has struggled with depression and once tried to hang himself in his early 20s, stating that he only survived because "the rope snapped". He is a lifelong supporter of Liverpool FC and has made several appearances on Soccer AM.

Graham was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to drama, which he dedicated to his mother, who died in 2022.