Nicholas Woodeson

Nicholas Woodeson is an English film, television and theatre actor. Since July 2014, he has been a member of Equity's national executive.

Early life and education

He was born in Sudan, the son of Frank Woodeson, a bank manager from Wiltshire, and Sylvia Woodeson (née Larkins), who was the daughter of a steeplejack from Glasgow and sister of William Larkins, the engraver and commercial artist. He lived as a child in Khartoum and then in Haifa, when his father was transferred by his bank to Israel.

He was sent to prep school in Sussex and then Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where he started performing as an attempt to escape from real life. He subsequently discovered that the British theatre establishment was just a larger version of the boarding schools that he'd been trying to escape from. He found himself in 1968 majoring in English at the University of Sussex, and doing student drama productions with Michael Attenborough, Jim Carter and Andy de la Tour, among others. He took part in the 1970 National Student Drama Festival. He was intending to do an MA, but instead went off to do a season in rep at Crewe Theatre, and then won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.