What do we know about Noel Clarke?

Noel Clarke, who rose to fame in the early 2000s, has lost his libel case against Guardian News and Media (GNM), and a High Court judge ruled that he was not a credible witness.

On Friday a High Court judge dismissed his libel case against GNM, finding that its reporting of allegations of misconduct, including bullying and sexually inappropriate behaviour, was both true and in the public interest.

Mrs Justice Steyn backed articles the newspaper had published which included claims he had inappropriately touched, bullied, or harassed several women.

Born in London, Clarke was raised by his mother, a nurse.

He studied media and took classes at London’s Actors Centre before making his debut in the 1999 Channel 4 TV series Metrosexuality.

In 2003 he won the Most Promising Performer award at the Olivier Awards for his performance in Where Do We Live, at the Royal Court Theatre, and then significantly widened his fan base by playing Billie Piper’s boyfriend, Mickey Smith, in Doctor Who.

He also gained fame as Wyman Norris in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, before writing and starring in the acclaimed film trilogy Kidulthood, Adulthood and Brotherhood, directing two of them.

He co-founded his own production company, Unstoppable Entertainment, in 2007, which has produced films including Jessica Hynes’s directorial debut, The Fight, and 10×10, directed by Suzi Ewing and starring Luke Evans and Kelly Reilly.

He then won the Bafta rising star award in 2009, crediting the award for his long career.

In 2015 Clarke’s former friend Adam Deacon was given a restraining order after hundreds of abusive posts aimed at Clarke on Instagram and Twitter, after a row over the title of Deacon’s hit 2011 film Anuvahood.

In 2018, Unstoppable Entertainment joined forces with All3Media and launched Unstoppable Film and Television to expand their remit to include television, which led to the launch of Sky One drama Bulletproof, in which he starred before the allegations came to light.

Bafta then awarded him the outstanding British contribution to cinema prize in April 2021, but this and Clarke’s membership of the academy were suspended after the allegations against him were published by the Guardian.

Clarke dropped legal action against the academy in 2022, but pursued a libel claim against GNM.

On Friday, Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed Clarke’s claim, saying that although she accepted some of his evidence, overall she found that he “was not a credible or reliable witness”.

Additionally, he was found to have singled out a woman for “belittling and bullying treatment”, probably because he had the “power to do so, and he found it amusing”.

The judge further said the impression she got from witnesses was that Clarke felt entitled to proposition young women for sex, and had no “understanding of how pressuring such conduct could be, or how uncomfortable it could make young women, in subordinate roles to him, feel while performing their jobs”.

However, the judge said that even when Clarke’s actions were calculated and deliberate, he tended to be oblivious to their impact, “regarding his own behaviour as merely being ‘naughty’, ‘cheeky’, ‘teasing’ or within his rights as a director or producer”.

“In addition, he does not see himself as reflected in the articles because there is a kinder, more generous side to him.”

During the High Court trial earlier this year, Clarke appeared visibly emotional as he claimed the publisher had “smashed my life”.

He said: “They have smashed my life for four years with this rubbish, this nonsense. Four years.”

He continued: “I did not do this, I would not do this. I have got children. This is not true.”

He later said that while he was “a flawed guy”, he added: “The reason I stand here four years later is I am not what they have branded me.”