| Toby Whithouse | |
|---|---|
Toby Whithouse at San Diego Comic-Con International 2011. |
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| Occupation | Actor, Writer |
| Years active | 1992-present |
Toby Whithouse /ˈwɪthaʊs/ is an English actor, stand-up comedian and screenwriter. His highest-profile work has been the creation of the BBC Three supernatural television series Being Human. He also created the Channel 4 television drama series No Angels (2004–06), and has written for BBC One's Hotel Babylon and Doctor Who. One of his Doctor Who episodes, titled "School Reunion", featured the return of the robot dog K-9 and 1970s companion Sarah Jane Smith.
After initially attending art college in his home town of Southend, Whithouse decided to drop out of the course and turn to acting as a profession. He was a regular in the early 1990s BBC One drama series The House of Eliott, and also appeared on stage in the West End, co-starring with Gene Wilder in Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon in 1997.
Frustrated at what he perceived as a lack of quality in many of the scripts he was sent to read, Whithouse took to writing in his spare time between acting roles, eventually writing a play Jump Mr. Malinoff, Jump which won the Verity Bargate Award. The play was performed as the opening production of the Soho Theatre in Dean Street, London. Following this he gained his first television work, writing an episode for the ITV drama series Where the Heart Is.
He then became associated with the independent production company World Productions, for whom he worked on the BBC Two drama series Attachments. When Channel 4 approached World with a view to a new drama series commission, the company came up with the idea of a series concerning the lives of four nurses in the North of England, and Whithouse was given the task of fleshing out and formatting the show which became No Angels. The series was a success, running for three series on Channel 4 from 2004 to 2006.
Already being a friend of Doctor Who executive producer Julie Gardner, Whithouse was invited to contribute to the series in 2005, eventually writing the third episode of the second season, "School Reunion", transmitted on 29 April 2006. He went on to write for the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, with his episode — "Greeks Bearing Gifts" — transmitted on November 26, 2006. Whithouse returned to Doctor Who in 2010, contributing the story "The Vampires of Venice" and returned again to write the series 6 episode "The God Complex" which featured David Walliams.
In 2008 the pilot of Being Human, created and written by Whithouse, was shown on BBC Three. At first it was not part of BBC's line-up for new commissioned series, but after positive public feedback including a petition for its return, it returned on BBC Three as a 6-part series in early 2009. The first episode debuted on 25 January 2009.
As an actor, he appeared in the role of Alistair in the film version of Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001. Since then his appearances have been less frequent, although he appeared in a small role in his own episode of Hotel Babylon in February 2006, and made a cameo appearance in the last ever episode of No Angels, transmitted on Channel 4 in April 2006.
Toby Whithouse is also a stand up comedian and has played several gigs under the "Laughing Horse" banner.