Ray Fearon's Biography

Ray Fearon was born in London in 1967 to Jamaican parents who had arrived in England in the 1950s. His father laid telephone cables for the Post Office.

The Guardian has an excellent article about Ray Fearon's brother Lawrence Fearon, who was involved in the Bridge Park complex, which "kick-started the careers of locals such as Royal Shakespeare Company actor Ray Fearon, Lawrence's brother, BBC presenter Rianna Scipio and fitness guru Mr Motivator (Derek Evans)."

Ray Fearon studied at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, which made him a fellow in 2005.

Ray Fearon has numerous credits in theatre - many of them with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where his notable appearances included two for Michael Attenborough: Romeo and Othello.

Ray Fearon's Romeo in Romeo and Juliet was described by Robert Gore-Langton in the Daily Express as 'gutsy, full-blooded, impulsive Romeo'.

In 1999 Ray Fearon became the first black person to play Othello at the RSC theatre in Stratford since a US actor played the part in 1959.

The RSC website, in discussing Shakespeare and race pointed out:

"Attenborough set the action in Edwardian times with Fearon as a black general in the middle of a stuffy, racist British colonial military camp. Fearon's performance won him many plaudits: 'Fearon plays Othello with real power. His dignity before the Venetian senators, and his palpable love for Desdemona, are beautifully caught, and so too are the progressive stages by which he is maddened' (Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph, 23/04/99)."

In 2002, Ray Fearon received good reviews for his performance in Pericles in Shakespeare's play of the same name.

For example, the BBC said: "Fearon has a mountain to climb and he does it with touching believability."

Ray Fearon is probably best known to the general public for his role in Coronation Street as Nathan Harding.

In Strictly Come Dancing, Ray Fearon danced with Camilla Dallerup, but in spite of dancing well they were voted off in programme 6.

In April 2007, The Sun reported that Ray Fearon and Elle MacPherson had broken up even though the couple claimed that they had not been going out!

In 2013, he played MacDuff opposite Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth.