Introducing rising star actor – Peter Singh
Born and bred in Bradford to a British/Indian family, Peter originally set out to study Business Admin at university and follow his brothers into the family business. However, his childhood dream of being a filmmaker led him to study Film and Media and so he spent a few years behind the camera writing and directing before making a move into the spotlight.
His first professional job was with Tamasha theatre company at the Gate Theatre.
Ultimately learning on the job, one theatre job led to more, his initial breakthrough coming in the form of the critically acclaimed play Snookered at the Bush Theatre about the lives of four working-class Asian men in Bradford. This was followed by stints with the revered Royal Shakespeare Company, English Touring Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, to name a few of the theatrical companies Peter has now worked for.
The last few years have found Peter now conquering both the television and film sides of the industry. On the television front, Peter featured as semi-regular Mathew Singh on the iconic ITV soap opera Coronation Street and has starred in no less than six BAFTA nominated TV dramas in the past year alone! In regards to film, credits include The Alan Partridge Movie, crime comedy Blue Iguana (starring Oscar Winner Sam Rockwell), romantic comedy Hampstead (acting opposite one of his favourite actresses Diane Keaton), Johnny English Strikes Again and Disney’s Christopher Robin alongside Ewan McGregor and Hayley Atwell.
Peter next stars in feature film MARI, selected for the London Film Festival and premiering at the BFI Southbank on October 18th. An authentic, character-driven family drama, ‘MARI’ is an honest and relevant film about women and the choices they make in an age where they’re told they can and should ‘have it all’. The film also stars Phoebe Nicholls (The Elephant Man). The plot revolves around an estranged family that are forced to live together over a weekend as they all prepare for the impending death of beloved mother and grandmother Mari. Peter plays the supporting lead character of Rohan, a thoughtful and sensitive art teacher married to Mari’s granddaughter Lauren. After a series of miscarriages in the process of trying for a second child, he finds a renewed sense of purpose by becoming his sister-in-law’s confidant on her unplanned pregnancy, ultimately finding himself unfairly caught between both her and his wife. Behind the scenes, the film is also part of the movement to address gender inequality in the film industry, with a 50/50 male and female split amongst the crew, which is a rarity.
As well as the above, Peter also has The Flood and The Personal History of David Copperfield in the pipeline. The Flood is a powerful film based around the refugee crisis in which he plays the supporting lead role of Fiaz opposite Lena Heady and Ian Glenn, whilst in Armando Lannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, Peter portrays the part of Mr Tungay (iconically portrayed by Sir Richard Attenborough in the 1970’s version). A project close to Peter‘s heart, it is one of the first films on this scale that takes a very popular historic British novel and casts it with a mix of ethnicities that reflects modern Britain.
