Edward Rowe (actor)

Edward Rowe is a Cornish actor, known for the lead role as a struggling fisherman in the BAFTA-winning film Bait and for the Kernow King character.

Early life

Rowe is from Roche in Cornwall^[1] where he started his standup routine and YouTube video series.^[2] He attended Poltair School from the age of 11 to 16.

Career

Early career and Kernow King

His Kernow King character features a strong Cornish identity and speaks in a strong Cornish accent. In mid 2010 he produced a series of short comedy videos on Cornish themes, often in the spoof documentary format. Examples include the Camborne Maid's song remake of musician Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl".^[3] This led to a 2014 standup tour, Splann!.^[4]

Rowe wrote an opinion piece for The Guardian in 2012 criticising the proposed pasty tax.^[5] In 2015, he starred in Kernow King's sex tape, an educational film produced by Cornwall Council's Health Promotion Service. This was nominated for the UK Sexual Health Awards.^[6] Rowe was made a bard of Gorsedh Kernow in 2015 "for his work as an ambassador for the Cornish identity".^[7]

In 2017, he starred in the Hall for Cornwall's Christmas show, Sleeping Beauty.^[8]

In 2018, he wrote and starred in the play Hireth, about a Cornish miner,^[9] and starred in Trevithick!, a biographical comedy about Richard Trevithick directed by Kneehigh Theatre's Simon Harvey.

Bait

Rowe found breakthrough success for his lead role in Bait, a film by Mark Jenkin.^[10] He was longlisted for Best Actor and Most Promising Newcomer at the 2019 British Independent Film Awards.^[10][11]

Post-Bait career

He has appeared in a number of television shows which include The Witcher as King Henselt of Kaedwen,^[12] House of the Dragon as Ser Howland Sharp,^[13] and Beyond Paradise as Matthew Colbert.^[14] He also voiced the character Godfrey/Hoarah Loux in 2022 video game Elden Ring and starred as The Boatman in Jenkin's 2022 film Enys Men.^[15][16]

In 2022, Rowe called Channel 4's Finding the Cornish Dream series "abhorrent" and "deeply disrespectful" at a time when "[m]ost of us are scraping along making sure we make our mortgage payments."^[13]