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 Theatre, 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 brother 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 was 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 saw 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 had a successful four month run at the Gielgud Theatre in London from February 15th to June 15th, 2013 and has been transmitted worldwide via National Theatre Live with more than 110,000 viewers in the UK and USA alone.

Nat joined the The Royal Shakespeare Company's double bill adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies in 2014. After more than 27 years of absence from the RSC Nat starred as Henry VIII. After the initial production in Stratford upon Avon, both plays ran for a limited season in London at The Aldwych Theatre from May 1, 2014 to October 4, 2014 and on Broadway (Winter Garden Theatre, New York) from March 20, 2015 to July 5, 2015.

Nat also played Dicky in Sadie Jones' TV adaptation of The Outcast which had been broadcast in the UK via BBC One in July 2015. The adaptation is set in 1950s Britain and shows a powerful portrait of small-town hypocrisy and young love.

In 2015 he joined the cast of ABC's retooled TV series Of Kings and Prophets as a regular. He played King Achish, the King of Philistia. The series had been scheduled for a broadcast in 2016 in the USA starting from March 8, 2016 but was unfortunately cancelled after just two episodes had been shown. This pulling off the schedule by ABC was due to poor ratings in the already troubled time-slot Tuesday night.

In 2016 Nat impersonated Richard Tattersall in a documentary which reflects on the 250 year history of Tattersalls, the oldest bloodstock auctioneers in the world and the largest in Europe.

2016/2017 saw Nat's return to London's West End with the transfer of James Graham’s critically acclaimed political drama This House. In 2017 Nat teamed up with his brother Olly for a film which is written by Aschlin Ditta, Swimming With Men and stars Rob Brydon. Another new project was Ophelia, including Naomi Watts, George MacKay and Clive Owen. It is a new story of Hamlet, told from Ophelia's perspective. In late 2017 Nat started his latest film project "Swords and Sceptres" (working title) / The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi, a period epic war-drama about the true story of Rani Laxmibai, the historic Queen of Jhansi who fiercely led her army against the British East India Company in the infamous mutiny of 1857.

2018 saw breaking new ground for Nat as well as being back to the boards. He was part of An Ideal Husband at the Vaudeville Theatre in early summer 2018. He's also playing in "Annabel Lee" which has been written by Angel Parker, his eldest daughter, and is to be directed by Xenia Taylor. It's a vision of an Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name and is due to come out in 2019. Plus there's a BBC TV-production in the pipeline - this time in a new role for Nat behind the scenes as an executive producer.

He has been guest-starring in Grantchester in 2019. And there was another audio-book series: Bunburry written by Helena Marchmont which can be enjoyed via the streaming portals deezer or spottify. He was also seen alongside Morgan Freeman in ITV's A Confession. A new amazon prime project was shot in 2019 called La Templanza, or The Vineyard, which was filmed in Spain and will be distributed in more than 200 countries via the steaming platform in 2021.

In 2020 Nat is busy with the latest Ridley Scott film project called "The Last Duel" which is being filmed in France and stars Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver as well as Jodie Comer. Due to the COVID 19 crisis the filming for this movie has been halted as well as the scheduled theatrical release. The release date is planned for autumn 2021, some sources currently state October 15th. He's also got a new audiobook series which is distributed via steaming media outlets like audible - The Mydworth Mysteries. His "first" as being a producer sees its coming to life in 2020 as well; "The Beast Must Die" a book adaptation is being made for BritBox.

Stay tuned for more fascinating stuff...

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