Nathaniel Parker was born in London, England on May 18, 1962. He is the youngest child of the late Sir Peter Parker, a former chairman of British Rail and late Jill, Lady Parker, a former GP and a passionate gardener. Nat's elder brother, Alan, runs his own PR business in the City, his sister Lucy is a partner in a media company and older brother Oliver is a film director, with "Othello", "The Importance of Being Ernest", "St. Trinian's" and "Fade To Black" among his credits. Nat is married to actress Anna Patrick, who recently starred in the BBC series "Maisie Raine" with Pauline Quirk and the BBC HBO co-production "Rome". They have two daughters, Angelica, who was born in 1996, and Raphaella, born in 1998.

Nat graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as the star pupil of the year. He went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986. His theatre career includes a season at Theatre Clwyd, Mold playing Captain Brazen in "The Recruiting Officer" and Lusby in "Claw". He played Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Young Vic and the title role in Macbeth with the National Youth Theatre. With the RSC Nat played Oliver in "The Kiss" at the RSC Festival, Florizel in "The Winter's Tale", Wellbred in "Every Man in His Humour", Don Pedro in "The Rover", Hotspur in "Richard II", Kudryash in "The Storm" and Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

After leaving the RSC in 1987, Nat went on to appear in the film "War Requiem" playing the part as the poet Wilfred Owen. His television career began in 1988 when he played Flying Officer 'Flash' Gordon in the LWT mini-series "Piece of Cake", followed by the roles of Desmond Thane in "Never Come Back" in 1989 and Ivan Lyon in "Heroes II: The Return" in 1990. He then appeared as Laertes in the film "Hamlet", with Mel Gibson in the title role and as Alcibiades in "The War That Never Ends" in 1991. In 1992 he appeared as Miles in the TV mini series "Look At It This Way" and as Clive Healy in the film "The Bodyguard" with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.

His next film in 1993 was "Wide Sargasso Sea" in which he played Edward Rochester. In that year he also appeared on television in the "Rik Mayall Presents..." series as Nigel in "Dancing Queen". Nat made two films in 1994: "A Village Affair" and "Squanto: A Warrior's Tale". He also appeared on TV as Thomas Cranmer in "Dangerous Games". In 1995 he appeared as Cassio in "Othello" with Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh and in 1997 he was David in the made-for-TV film "David", Martin Tanley in the film "Beverly Hills Ninja" and Rob Hall in "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest". In 1998 Nat appeared on our television screens as Gabriel Oak in Thomas Hardy's "Far From The Madding Crowd", Rawdon Crawley in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and Dr. Dan Gallagher in "McCallum: Beyond Good and Evil".

When Nat was offered the role of Rawdon Crawley in "Vanity Fair" he wasn't certain whether to accept the part of a randy dandy soldier - but his wife Anna soon put him straight, pointing out that the character was actually just like Nat - he starts as a rake, makes money from gambling, falls in love and becomes obsessed with their baby!

After having taken four months off work to help his wife Anna look after and spend time with their two daughters, Nat returned to work and made a film with Julie Waiters in Prague ("Lover's Prayer" aka "All Forgotten"). In May 1999 Nat appeared on television once more in a psychological thriller "Trust", which also starred Caroline Goodall. He then returned to the theatre in September 1999 with the Oxford Stage Company in "50 Revolutions" at the Whitehall Theatre, London. The cast also included Nicholas Clay, Amanda Root and Claire Rushbrook.

Nathaniel was on stage again during the summer of 2000 in "Speed-the-Plow" at the Duke of York Theater, London. He had a TV movie for ITV, "Pretending to be Judith", which aired in 2001. He is also the lead in a new series of mysteries for the BBC, "Inspector Lynley Mysteries", based on the novels by Elizabeth George, in which he plays Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, Scotland Yard's finest and the 8th Earl of Asherton. Season one of this series aired in the UK in 2002 and made sixteen episodes so far. Season five is currently in production and will be broadcast in 2006.

Early in 2003, Nathaniel was working on a film in L.A. for Disney called "Haunted Mansion". This movie opened in mid November 2003 in the U.S. and stars Eddie Murphy. Most recently, Nathaniel played Charles II in BBC Two's one-hour drama "The Private Life of Samuel Pepys", which was directed by his older bother Oliver.

In 2005 Nat filmed the critically acclaimed "Bleak House" project with the BBC. It is based on Charles Dickens' novel. This mini-series stars Charles Dance and Gillian Anderson and is told in 16 episodes, each running for about half an hour. He played a smaller role in Oliver's new long-awaited project "Fade To Black".

As well as his extensive television, theatre and film projects, from 1992-96 Nat performed in many BBC Radio dramas with roles stretching from the notorious Lord Lucan to Taffy, a Welsh Border collie! He made a very welcome return to radio in September 2004 to play Jean-Louis Chavel in Graham Green's "The Tenth Man", broadcast to mark the centenary of his birth.

 

Nat also has an extensive list of audio books to his credit, ranging from the classics of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and John Wyndham to the more modern writings of Frances Fyfield, Rennie Airth and the exceptionally brilliant children's author, Eoin Colfer and his "Artemis Fowl" series. Nat added yet another new author to his catalogue in 2005, with his abridged version of "The Sixth Lamentation". In 2006 Nat started doing the narration for the Young Bond series starting with "Silverfin: A James Bond Adventure" adding the episodes "Blood Fever" and "Double Or Die".

 

Nat was offered to play Albert Speer in BBC's semi-docu "Nuremberg: Nazis On Trial" in 2006. In addition 2007 held challenging new movie roles in store. Among them exciting projects like "Stardust" (starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro) and "Flawless" (with Demi Moore and Sir Michael Caine) and "Fade To Black" (with Danny Huston). Nat also added several cameos roles to his list including a short appearance in "St. Trinian's" and "I Really Hate My Job", both films were helmed by Nat's bother Oliver. He was also a guest on the BBC series "Hotel Babylon". 2008 started with the audio-book version of Dick King-Smith's "The Water Horse" and the theatrical release for "Flawless" in the USA. The Inspector Lynley Mysteries' final two specials were on UK TV in July 2008, leaving the usual four-part rhythm behind marking the end of this hugely successful TV-series.

 

There was also a come-back to the stage. Nat starred in the lead role of Simon Gray's play "Quartermaine's Terms". This production was on a national tour in the UK from May to July 2008. Besides recording several audio-books he was also starring in a Future Film production called "Malice in Wonderland". The movie shows Nat as a gay gangster.

The fascinating art-house film "The Perfect Host" directed by Nick Tomnay in which Nat can be seen as an American cop was part of his 2009 schedule. This project had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2010. "The Courageous Heart Of Irena Sendler" had been broadcast in the USA via CBS nationwide. This drama is based on the courageous true story of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Irena Sendler, who is credited with saving the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II.

Nat's next BBC project was the five-part drama "Land Girls" which is set in World War Two. It is a warm and uplifting story that follows the lives and loves of four land girls, while it explores how a whole generation of women adapted to new-found independence, free from the shackles or comforts of home life as they helped the war effort. He was also a guest star in BBC's 2009 Christmas special of "My Family: 2039 A Christmas Oddity".

Challenging cinema projects like "The Domino Effect" by Dutch Oscar nominee director Paula van der Oest (Zus & Zo) and two short films were also in the pipeline - "Tell Me" directed by Kate Lewis starring Fiona Shaw and Eileen Atkins and "Sergeant Slaughter" directed by Greg Williams starring Tom Hardy. "The Domino Effect" is an international drama about people in different parts of the world who share connections, and how tough economic times affect them individually and in their relationships with each other. The film has been shot in the U.S., India, Europe, China and South Africa and had to wait for a long time to finally be seen in cinemas in 2012. 2010 also saw him as a guest star in ITV's hugely popular cop TV series "Lewis: The Dead of Winter".

Nat was also one of the five presenters of Channel 4's first series of the newly installed "TV Book Club" in 2010. He was also in a cameo role in "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

In 2011 Nat has been starring in ITV's crime/justice drama hit Injustice, which was directed by Colm McCarthy. Injustice was written by Anthony Horowitz and screened to excellent reviews and ratings. He was also a new regular cast member of BBC's internationally successful TV series Merlin (4th series) playing Agravaine, the uncle of Arthur, in 13 episodes.

In 2012 Nat recorded various audios like Mark Haddon's The Red House, or the latest BBC Radio production From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming and Alfie Atkins, a Swedish series of children's books now being made into an international children's TV cartoon series and originally written by Gunilla Bergstrom. Alfie Atkins is currently scheduled to be televised by the end of 2012 or in early 2013.

Aside his intensive charity work he took part in an interesting youtube release called The Proxy. He's also returned for a short reunion with Dickens by appearing on The Charles Dickens Show which was produced for BBC Education. A completely different project was BBC One's sitcom Me & Mrs Jones which was broadcast in October/November 2012 and is planned to come out on DVD in the UK by mid-November.

He'll also be back on international TV screens as Canadian Chief Inspector Armand Gamache in the made-into-film debut novel by Louise Penny, called Still Life. The novel won awards, including the "New Blood" Dagger award in the United Kingdom, the Arthur Ellis Award in Canada for best first crime novel, the Dilys Award, the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best First Novel in the United States. The project is produced by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) and is scheduled to be shown in Canada in 2013. The made-for-TV movie has already been sold to the UK and the USA. Nat also added his creative talent to the upcoming short film "Don't Miss The Cup", a crowd funded project by newcomer Tracey Adam.

2013 will see Nat's return to the stage for the Westend production of The Audience, starring Dame Helen Mirren, written by Peter Morgan (The Queen) and directed by Stephen Daldry. The play will be shown at the Gielgud Theatre in London from February 15th to June 15th, 2013.

Stay tuned for more fascinating stuff...

You can find full listings of Nat's work in the Download section of this site!