Neil Maskell

Neil Maskell (born 1976)^[1] is an English actor, writer and director who is known for his appearances in British crime and horror films. His credits include Nil by Mouth (1997), The Football Factory (2004), Rise of the Footsoldier (2007), Doghouse (2009), Bonded by Blood (2010), Kill List (2011), Wild Bill (2011), St George's Day and Piggy (both 2012), The Great Train Robbery (2013), Raised by Wolves (2015), The Mummy (2017), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), Peaky Blinders (2019), Bull (2021), Litvinenko (2022), and Hijack (2023).

Neil Maskell
Maskell in 2022
Born	1976 (age 48–49) London, England
Alma mater	North West Kent College
Occupations	Actor writer director
Years active	1991–present

Early life

Maskell was born in London. As a youth, he played football for Long Lane JFC as a full back. He first trained in acting at the Anna Scher Theatre in Islington, London, where he attended classes from the age of 11,^[2] and studied at the Miskin Theatre, Dartford at North West Kent College from 1992. He later worked as a director at the Miskin Theatre.^[3]

Career

Film

Maskell's film career began in 1997 with an appearance as Schmuddie in Gary Oldman's directorial debut Nil by Mouth which was Nominated for a Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) for best film at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.^[4] In 2004, he appeared as Rod, best friend and sidekick of Tommy, (played by Danny Dyer), in the British hooligan film The Football Factory, which also starred Tamer Hassan, Frank Harper, and Roland Manookian.^[5]

In 2007, he was in the British gangster movie Rise of the Footsoldier, also starring Craig Fairbrass and Terry Stone.^[6] In 2009, he appeared as Banksy in the comedy zombie film Doghouse, alongside Stephen Graham and Danny Dyer.^[7]

His leading role in the 2011 thriller Kill List (2011),^[8] attracted positive reviews from critics earning many nominations for the Best Actor, including at the British Independent Film Awards.^[9] In 2011, he also starred in Wild Bill, in a cast which included Charlie Creed-Miles, Will Poulter, Leo Gregory, Liz White, Iwan Rheon, Olivia Williams, Jaime Winstone, Andy Serkis, and Sean Pertwee. The film received positive reviews.^[10]

In 2021, Maskell played the titular and lead character in British gangster revenge film Bull, with Tamzin Outhwaite.^[11]

Television

Maskell's first television appearance was in 1991 in the ITV police drama The Bill.^[6] Between 1992 and 2002, he made a further five appearances on the show, portraying a different character each time. He has had one-off roles in a number of other popular British serial dramas such as Casualty, London's Burning, Soldier Soldier.^[6] His most regular television roles have been in the 2005 comedy series Mike Bassett: Manager, in the comedy sketch show The Wrong Door, and in the 2013–2014 thriller drama action series Utopia. Since 2015, he has been a series regular in sci-fi thriller Humans. In 2019 Maskell played prime minister Winston Churchill in the series finale of Peaky Blinders.^[6]

Between 2018 and 2020 he played the recurring character Winkle in the BBC One sitcom King Gary, friend and employee of the titular character played by Tom Davis. Maskell has previously worked with Davis in Murder in Successville (where he played Frankie Boyle in one episode),^[12]The Warm-Up Guy^[13] and The Morgana Show.^[14]

In 2022, Maskell played Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt in the ITV drama, Litvinenko, detailing the final days and subsequent murder investigation into the death of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko.^[6]

In 2023, Maskell played a terrorist in the Apple TV+ aircraft thriller series Hijack, alongside Idris Elba and Eve Myles.^[15]

Personal life

Maskell is a supporter of Arsenal.^[16]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1997	Nil by Mouth	Schmuddie
	Crocodile Snap	Ray	Short film
1998	Titanic Town	Soldier
2000	Sorted	Record Shop Geezer
2001	Redemption Road	Leading Mugger
2002	AKA	Marcus
2003	The Sequel	Lenny	Short film
2004	The Football Factory	Rod
	It's All Gone Pete Tong	Jack Stoddart
	Fat Slags	Policeman
2006	Basic Instinct 2	Detective Ferguson
2007	The Englishman	John
	Rise of the Footsoldier	Darren Nicholls
	Atonement	Soldier in Bray Bar
	True Colours	Neil	Short film
2009	Paintball	Frank
	Tony	Mike Hemmings
	Doghouse	Banksy
2010	The Shouting Men	Terry
	Tricky: Murder Weapon	(unknown)	Short film
	Bonded by Blood	Craig Rolfe
	Shitkicker	–	Short film. Writer & director
2011	Kill List	Jay
	Jack Falls	Sid
	Jack Falls: Sid's Story		Animated short film
	Ghosted	Nathan
	Turnout	Scott
	Wild Bill	Dickie
	Will	Lenny
	How to Stop Being a Loser	Hands Henry
2012	Piggy	John
	Pusher	Marlon
	St George's Day	Jimmy McCudden
	The Rise	Steven Roper	Titled Wasteland in North America
	The ABCs of Death	Lord Scanlon	Segment 'U Is for Unearthed'
	It Follows Me Around	Dad	Short films
	Driftwood	Father
2013	Turncoat	Jimmy Parton
	All Things to All Men	Luke Nelson
2014	Evil Never Dies	Sean McCann	Originally titled The Haunting of Harry Payne
	Open Windows	Chord
	Hyena	Martin
	Instruments of Darkness	Kern	Short films
2015	Strange Weather	Dave
	Bone in the Throat	Lewis
	High-Rise	PC White
2016	Level Up	Dmitri
2017	Judgement	Tom	Short film. Also producer
	The Mummy	Dr. Whemple
	King Arthur: Legend of the Sword	Back Lack
2018	In Darkness	DI Oscar Mills
	Happy New Year, Colin Burstead	Colin
	Blood, Sweat and Terrors	Jimmy Parton	Segment 'Turncoat'
	Little Monster	Harry	Short films
	Dodgy Dave	Dave
	The Departure	David
2019	The Bookshop	Man
2020	Red, White and Blue	Inspector Willis	The 3rd of 5 films from the Small Axe anthology series
2021	Bull	Bull
2022	Klokkenluider	–	Writer & director
TBA	Straight Circle	Noll	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	The Bill	Billy Potter	Series 7; episode 58: "Joey"
1992		Gary	Series 8; episode 97: "Fireworks"
	Perfect Scoundrels	Dean	Series 3; episode 5: "Let No Man Put Asunder"
1994	EastEnders	Youth	1 episode
1995	The Bill	Damien Burns	Series 11; episode 82: "Over the Top"
	It Could Be You	Youth	Television film
1996	Soldier Soldier	Para 1	Series 6; episode 7: "Money for Nothing"
	London's Burning	Gary	Series 9; episode 8
	The Thin Blue Line	Gosforth FC Player	Series 2; episode 5: "Come on You Blues"
1997	Casualty	Luke Lowther	Series 11; episode 21: "United... By Blood"
	The Bill	Warren Heskey	Series 13; episode 93: "Neighbours"
	Chalk	Arse Face	Series 1; episode 5: "The Inspection"
	Wycliffe	Tully	Series 4; episode 8: "Old Crimes, New Times"
1998	Wavelength	Phil	Series 2; episode 1: "Mixed Messages"
	Bramwell	Manky Matkin	Series 4; episode 1: "Our Brave Boys"
	Ultraviolet	Neil	Episode 2: "In Nomine Patris"
1999	The Bill	Frank Wilson	Series 15; episode 48: "Screwdriver"
	The Murder of Stephen Lawrence	Gary Dobson	Television film
	Murder Most Horrid	Martin Greaves	Series 4; episode 3: "Whoopi Stone"
2000	Silent Witness	Gary Lomax	Series 5; episode 1: "The World Cruise: Part 1"
	Nature Boy	Jimmy	Mini-series; episode 4
	Killers	(unknown)	Television short film
	Never Never	Conrad	Episodes 1 & 2
2002	The Jury	Chris Maher	Series 1; episodes 1–6
	The Bill	Gary Roach	Series 18; episode 24: "Needle in a Haystack"
	Bodily Harm	Danny Peters	Mini-series; episode 1
2003	Strange	Youth	Episode 5: "Dubik"
2004	Shameless	Corporal	Series 2; episode: "Christmas at Chatsworth"
2005	The Inspector Lynley Mysteries	Martin Moran	Series 4; episode 4: "Word of God"
	Mike Bassett: Manager	Wirral Web Presenter	Episodes 1–6
2007	Casualty	Tom Faulkner	Series 21; episode 43: "It Never Rains..."
2008	He Kills Coppers	Shawn	3-part television film
	The Wrong Door	(unknown)	Episodes 2–5
2009	Casualty	Lenny	Series 23; episodes 47 & 48: "No Fjords in Finland: Parts 1 & 2"
2010	The Morgana Show	Norman	Episodes 1–5
2011	Comedy Lab	Andrew	Series 12; episode 5: "The Warm-Up Guy"
2012	Silent Witness	Stuart Thompson	Series 15; episodes 7 & 8: "Domestic: Parts 1 & 2"
	Them from That Thing	Various characters	Mini-series; episodes 1 & 2
	Comedy Blaps	(voice)	Series 2; episode 9: "The Adventures of Robin of Essex in The New Set of Feathers"
2013	Dates	Nick	Episode 2: "Jenny & Nick"
	Run	Kieran	Mini-series; episode 1: "Carol"
	Privado	Michael Jackson	Mini-series; episodes 1–3: "Theft", "More Theft" & "No More Theft"
	By Any Means	Joe Tyrus	Mini-series; episode 2
	The Great Train Robbery	Buster Edwards	Mini-series; episodes 1 & 2: "A Robber's Tale" & "A Copper's Tale"
2013–2014	Utopia	Arby / Piètre	Series 1 & 2; 11 episodes
	The Mimic	Neil	Series 1 & 2; 11 episodes
2015–2016	Raised by Wolves	Michael	Series 1; episodes 4 & 6, & series 2; episode 4
	Humans	DS/DI Pete Drummond	Series 1 & 2; 14 episodes
2016	Drunk History: UK	King Henry VIII	Series 2; episode 9: "Battle of Hastings / Catherine Parr"
	Murder in Successville	Frankie Boyle	Series 2; episode 2: "Miranda"
2017	Unspeakable	Des	Television film
	Eric, Ernie and Me	Ernie Wise	Television film
2018	Strike	Donald Laing / Ray Williams	Series 3; episode 2: "Career of Evil: Part 2"
	No Offence	Dennis Caddy	Series 3; episodes 1–6
2018–2020	King Gary	Winkle	Series 1 & 2; 8 episodes
2019	Cleaning Up	Warren	Episodes 1–6
2019–2021	Peaky Blinders	Winston Churchill	Series 5; episodes 4 & 6, & series 6; episode 2
2020	Sex Education	Police Officer 'Neil'	Series 2; episode 3
	Baghdad Central	Douglas Evans	Episodes 3–6
2021	Intergalactic	Sergeant Wendell	Episodes 1–3
2022	Stuck [17]	Dr. Pete Cosmos	4 episodes
	Litvinenko	DI Brent Hyatt	Episodes 1–4
2023	Hijack [15]	Stuart Atterton	Main role. Series 1; episodes 1–7[15]
2024	The Bay	Steve Dawson	Series 5; episodes 1–6
TBA	The Hack	TBA	Mini-series. Post-production

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2011	Dublin Film Critics' Circle Awards	Best Actor	Kill List	Nominated	[18]
	British Independent Film Awards	BIFA for Best Actor		Nominated	[18][9]
2012	Fright Meter Awards	Best Actor		Nominated	[18]
2013	Fangoria Chainsaw Awards			Nominated	[18]
	Southampton International Film Festival	Best Supporting Actor in a Short Film	Driftwood	Nominated	[18]
2014	BloodGuts UK Horror Awards	Best Supporting Actor/Actress	Open Windows	Nominated	[18]
2022	National Film Awards UK	Best Actor	Bull	Nominated	[19]