Shaun Dooley

For the American politician, see Shawn Dooley.

Shaun Dooley is an English actor, narrator and voice-over artist.

Shaun Dooley
Alma mater	Arden School of Theatre
Years active	1997–present
Spouse	Polly Dooley ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	4

Early life and career

Dooley attended Barnsley Youth Theatre in 1989^[1] before going on to study at the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester between 1992 and 1995.

Dooley's first acting role was as Shaun in Groove on a Stanley Knife in 1997. He later played Ritchie Fitzgerald in Coronation Street from 1997 until 1998. He appeared occasionally in EastEnders as Tom Stuart between 2001 and 2004. He appeared in Series 1 of The Street. He had a role in P.O.W..

Dooley played Peter Harper in BBC drama series The Street.^[2] He also featured in the 2007 television docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess. Dooley portrayed Kieran in the British horror film Salvage.^[3] He portrayed police inspector Dick Alderman in all three parts of the Red Riding trilogy and in 2017 appeared as Reverend Michaelmas Winter in the Sky 1 drama Jamestown. Among his many voiceover roles, Dooley narrates the Discovery Channel series Gold Rush for its UK broadcast.

In 2019, Shaun and his wife Polly produced an album, Got It Covered, for Children in Need. The album featured Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Luke Evans, Suranne Jones, Adrian Lester, Himesh Patel, David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker and Shaun himself singing unique cover versions of songs personal to them. The album was released on 1 November 2019. The album and accompanying documentary was co-produced by their company 20four7films, BBC Studios and SilvaScreen Records.^[4]

Dooley received an Honorary Master's Degree from Leeds Arts University in July 2025.^[5]

Personal life

Dooley has been married to his wife Polly since 1998 and the couple have four children. Shaun is the older brother of Kimberly Dooley, and Stephanie Ann Dooley, who is known professionally as Stephanie Dooley-Day and is an actress.

He is a lifelong supporter of Barnsley F.C.

Dooley and his wife Polly are also trustees for the Barnsley Youth Theatre.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1998	Dalziel and Pascoe	Robert Pascoe	Episode: "The Wood Beyond"
2002	Silent Witness	Paul Preston	Episode: "The Fall Out"
	EastEnders	Reverend Tom Stuart
2004	Foyle's War	Gordon Drake	Episode: "Enemy Fire"
2005	Murphy's Law	DC Ollington	Episode: "Various Episodes (series 3)”
	New Tricks	Rick Mayo	Episode: "Family Business”
2006	The Street	Peter Harper
2008	Midsomer Murders	Mark Purdy	Episode: "Left for Dead"
	Silent Witness	DI Adam Tranfield	Episode: "Terror"
	Apparitions	Liam	BBC miniseries
	Stovepipe	Lead role	HighTide's production at the West 12 Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush
2009	Right Place, Wrong Time	Alan	BBC Radio 4 drama
2010	Law & Order: UK	Jack Gilmore	Episode: "Love and Loss"
	Married Single Other	Eddie	ITV
	The Road to Coronation Street	Derek Bennett	BBC Four drama
	Inspector George Gently	Darren Paige	Episode: "Gently Evil"
	Five Days	Sgt Don Parker	Series two
2011	Exile	Mike Eldridge	BBC drama, alongside John Simm
	Great Expectations	Joe Gargery	BBC drama
	Hustle	Cool Hand Cooper	Episode: "The Delivery"
2012	Benidorm	Pete Garvey	Series 5, Episode 3
	Our War	Narrator	Series 2; BBC documentary series on the war in Afghanistan as seen by the British Army soldiers
	Space Dive	Narrator	A BBC documentary on the record-breaking skydive by Felix Baumgartner
2012–2013	Misfits	Greg
2013	The White Queen	Sir Robert Brackenbury	BBC historical drama
2014	Web of Lies	Narrator	Series 1, Discovery Communications. Documentary – Crime. Tragic true stories of deception, manipulation & murder triggered by online interaction. The series was originally called "Evil Online"
	Wolfblood	Kincaid
	The Game	DC Jim Fenchurch	BBC	[6]
2015	Richard III: The Princes in the Tower	Narrator	Channel 4
	Broadchurch	Rickie Gillespie	Series 2, 4 episodes	[7]
	The Farthest Shore	Ged	Judith Adams's adaptation of Ursula Le Guin's novel for Radio 4	[8]
	Cuffs	DC Carl Hawkins	BBC
2015–present	SAS: Who Dares Wins	Narrator	Channel 4 series
	The Detectives	Narrator	BBC series following Greater Manchester Police over the course of multiple investigations of serious crime
	The Force: Manchester	Voiceover	Sky 1 series which follows officers of Greater Manchester Police
	American Justice	Narrator	BBC Two series which follows prosecutors and cop in Jacksonville, Florida
2017	Gunpowder	Sir William Wade
2018–present	Surgeons: At the Edge of Life	Narrator	BBC Two series	[9]
2018	Doctor Who	Epzo	Episode: "The Ghost Monument"
	Four Days That Shook Britain	Narrator	ITV documentary which covers the four terrorist attacks of 2017, in England.
	Doctor Who Access All Areas	Himself	Guest; 1 episode	[10]
	Everest Rescue	Narrator
2019	Railroad Australia	Narrator	Quest documentary which covers the highs and lows of drivers and engineers of Australian freight and tourist trains
	The Witcher	King Foltest	Episode: "Betrayer Moon"
	Official Secrets	John (Internal Security)
	Gentleman Jack	Jeremiah Rawson
	When Missing Turns To Murder	Narrator	Netflix true crime documentary series
2020	The Stranger	Tripp
2021	It's a Sin	Clive Tozer
2021	Innocent	DCI Mike Braithwaite	Main role	[11]
2021	Grantchester	Johnny Richards	DI Geordie Keating's fellow ex-prisoner-of-war
2021	Gold Rush	Voiceover
2021	The Great Christmas Bake Off	Himself		[12]
2023–present	Changing Ends	Graham Carr	12 episodes[13]
2023	Black Mirror	Len Fisher	Episode: "Demon 79"
2023	Our Guy in Columbia	Narrator	Two-part documentary	[14]
2023	The Long Shadow	Chris Gregg	Television series	[15]
2024	Mr Bates vs The Post Office	Michael Rudkin	ITV1 4-part docudrama	[16]
	Criminal Record	Detective Sergeant Kim Cardwell	Television series	[17]
	Vera	Matthew	ITV 1 Drama Series

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	The Mark of Cain	Corporal Gant
2008	Eden Lake	Jon	Celador Films
2011	The Awakening	Malcolm McNair
2012	Offender	Nash
2012	The Woman in Black	Mr Fisher, village innkeeper	Hammer Films
2014	Blood Moon	Calhoun
2014	The Karman Line	Dave	Short film
2019	The Corrupted	Eamonn
2023	Saltburn	Jeff Quick
2024	The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim	Freca (voice)	[18]

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2022	Elden Ring	Yura, Shabriri, Fire Giant, Kaiden Sellswords	[19]
2022	Xenoblade Chronicles 3	Gray	[19]
2024	Still Wakes the Deep	Roy