Born in London, Noel 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 later 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 following 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 prior to the allegations coming 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 launched a libel claim against Guardian News & Media (GNM) the same year.
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.”
