He joined his local youth drama group aged thirteen to impress a girl. The girl didn’t work out. The acting did. Three decades later, Neil Grainger has played a soap heartthrob, run comedy nights alongside Joe Lycett and Jack Whitehall, worked with Sir Alan Ayckbourn, voiced Harry Potter for EA, played a US marine and a zombie in the same week, and is now starring in the second series of a BAFTA-nominated BBC sitcom set in his hometown, currently airing on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. The through-line, he will tell you, is play.
Where It Began
QYou grew up in Middlesbrough and built a career spanning soap opera, drama, comedy and gaming over 25 years. What did that beginning look like?
The beginning was as a thirteen year old trying to impress a girl who liked performing in musicals by, myself, joining the local youth amateur dramatics group. The objective was to get the girl by auditioning to be in plays with her but I very quickly found that I loved pretending to be different characters and being on stage more than I loved her.
At this stage, I had no idea that anyone from a small town like Middlesbrough would be able to become an actor until my GCSE drama teacher, Mr Evans, encouraged me to study drama at college because, as he said, “you never know.” I think the big shift for me was moving to doing a drama degree in London and realising that people like me could actually get into the industry. I don’t think there was ever a natural moment that made me realise I was good enough to be a professional. I did it because I couldn’t do anything else and I’m lucky that it worked.
QYou began your career as teen heartthrob Phil Berry in ITV’s Crossroads and were nominated for Best Actor and Sexiest Male at the British Soap Awards 2002. What was that experience like from the inside?
I look back now and I really was an incredibly shy twenty-one year old when I first joined the cast of Crossroads, so it was a total shock to the system to suddenly be getting lots of attention and nominated for awards. The whole process of auditioning for the show to signing a three-year contract on my first ever TV job was less than a week and I don’t think I’d properly prepared myself for being in the public eye.
My character was a bit of a bad boy, so I think people assumed I’d be the same in real life, but I was the complete opposite. I was fresh out of university, still finding out who I was while navigating soap fame and it wasn’t ideal. Crossroads didn’t have the best press at the time and we struggled to rid ourselves of the stigma of the original show. It was a real baptism of fire, but I learnt so much as an actor and I have nothing but fond memories of that time.
The Shift to Comedy and the Power of Play
QYou made a deliberate journey from television drama into comedy Hebburn alongside Chris Ramsey and Vic Reeves, The Impressions Show. What drove that shift?
Having worked in soap opera for a while, the natural shift was to move into TV drama but in truth, as a consumer of TV, my big love was sitcom. I grew up watching shows such as I’m Alan Partridge, Blackadder and Red Dwarf, which became my TV obsessions. I think the shift was trying my hand at stand-up comedy and, in turn, running comedy nights downstairs in a pub in Putney alongside the likes of Joe Lycett, Brett Goldstein, Jack Whitehall and many more. I knew early on that I was not good enough to be a stand-up like those guys but working alongside so much comedy talent got me a foothold in the comedy world.
Working alongside writer and creator Jason Cook on Hebburn, I could see that whilst he had crafted the show, I could develop my character and his comedy set pieces. Through being playful on and off set, I could see he was rewriting the character to include different improvised elements. I feel like play has been a massive feature of my work ever since.
“I started to notice that unlike drama, so much of comedy was about bravery and being playful, something I’d missed in my other TV work.”
— Neil Grainger
QYou spent two years working with Sir Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. What did that experience give you?
From an artistic stance, working in Scarborough with Sir Alan was a truly incredible time where I just learnt so much. To see first-hand how a theatrical genius like him can guide a cast to understand and play out the nuance of his work was magical to watch.
But it was also a massively important time in my life personally. Whilst in Scarborough doing my first Ayckbourn play, I found out that my mum had cancer. I moved home to Middlesbrough to help my sister nurse my mother, expecting to be there for the foreseeable however, one day I received a package in the post with three scripts and a letter from Sir Alan saying that he knew I needed to be close to my mum in Middlesbrough, but that they would love to have me work with him in Scarborough again and they would help me to make both work.
To be able to still do the job I love and be there for my mum in the final years of her life was more than I could have ever imagined, and I will be forever grateful to Sir Alan for helping me to keep a piece of myself in the worst time of my life. My mother got to see me as the lead in a new Sir Alan Ayckbourn play just months before she died and it brought her, and I, so much joy.
“My mother got to see me as the lead in a new Sir Alan Ayckbourn play just months before she died. It brought her, and I, so much joy.”
— Neil Grainger
Smoggie Queens and the Joy of Coming Home
QSmoggie Queens is a BAFTA-nominated BBC sitcom and you are back for the second series. What makes this show feel significant?
I’ve been very lucky to work on some amazing shows over the years but nothing has given me more joy than Smoggie Queens. Since the first moment we started working on it, it’s been a total gift. As a Middlesbrough-born actor, it’s just incredible to be working on a sitcom set in my home town with the most talented and lovely group of people. It’s one of those jobs where you just look forward to coming into work every day.
I think the big shift from series one to series two is that we all know what it is now and not only are we fully embracing the craziness of our characters, but Phil Dunning, the writer, creator and Dickie in the show, is now writing for us and knowing what we will do with it. The second series is bigger, bolder and even more bonkers than the first, and I’m so proud of it.
QAt the same time as the comedy work you have been appearing in serious drama Say Nothing on FX, A Spy Among Friends, The Capture, FBI International. How do you hold both registers?
I’ve been really lucky in my career not to be typecast, and that has meant I’ve been able to play a big variety of both serious and funny characters. I do, however, think it’s a hard balance to keep up, I always wonder if my work in comedy puts off some casting directors, and vice versa. They are very different art forms with very different demands, but I do think an ability to do both helps inform each other.
I grew up adoring the work of Robin Williams and seeing how seamlessly he moved from comedy to drama, often in the same film, his ability to make you laugh while you cry and cry while you laugh. It’s not easy to balance the two, but he certainly proved that it can be done.
Twenty Years Inside the Game
QYou have provided voice and motion capture for Assassin’s Creed Unity, Fable 3, Battlefield 1, Until Dawn, Final Fantasy XVI, and Harry in the Harry Potter franchise for EA. How did that world begin for you?
I was a huge gamer as a kid and my console of choice was the Commodore Amiga 500. However, I didn’t ever think working in games was a possibility until a friend said she was directing a motion capture shoot and would I be interested in auditioning. I got the part, and one game led to another and another, whether it’s recording in a booth or running around a studio in a lycra suit. Mocap is so much fun that it’s almost not like work.
I think the first thing it taught me was that if you can find something you love doing then it never feels like a job. Moving into motion capture and voicing games has also taught me that most performers like myself need to keep evolving and diversifying, we never know what we can do until we do it.
QMotion capture is a completely different discipline to screen acting. What does it require of you that a conventional role doesn’t?
I’d go as far as to say that motion capture is more like theatre acting, we are telling a story to an audience through our movement, so that needs to be readable from a distance, just like in theatre. The best mocap directors I’ve worked with are those from a theatre background.
It can be the most fun you can have as an actor, and you get to play roles that you would never get to play on stage or screen. I remember when I first started providing the movement of a US marine, a zombie and Harry Potter all in the same week.
QYou were nominated for Best Actor at the Stage Acting Excellence Awards for an Edinburgh Fringe First winning show. What does live performance give you that screen work can’t?
I love working on TV and being on a TV set however, the most exhilarating moments of my career have all been on stage and in front of an audience. Theatre hits differently. The show I did at Edinburgh was called Crush, and in it, I opened the show on my own with a twenty-minute monologue. To be responsible for starting the show and immediately taking the audience on a journey like that is a huge responsibility and demands real skill to be consistent night after night. It’s been a while since I’ve been on stage and I do miss it.
QSmoggie Queens Season 2 is live and landing well. What is coming next?
I’ve a few things coming up that I can’t say much about but I can say that I do really hope that we get to do another series of Smoggie Queens. It seems like the second series has gone down really well, so we are all crossing our fingers that series three is not too far away.
Connect with Neil Grainger
Neil Grainger is a British actor whose career spans soap opera, television drama, BAFTA-nominated sitcom and twenty years of AAA video game performance. He currently stars in Smoggie Queens Series 2, now streaming on BBC iPlayer and BBC Three.
Actor · Middlesbrough · BBC · FX · AAA Gaming
“If you can find something you love doing, it never feels like a job. I did it because I couldn’t do anything else and I’m lucky that it worked.”
— Neil Grainger · Actor · BBC · FX · AAA Gaming