Lachlan Nieboer

Lachlan Nieboer (born 11 September 1981) is an English film and television actor. He is best known for playing blind Lieutenant Edward Courtenay in the ITV hit television series Downton Abbey^[1] and Gray in Torchwood.

Early life and education

Lachlan grew up in East Sussex, and is the fifth eldest of six brothers. His mother was an opera singer with a mezzo-soprano voice, and his father a lawyer. At 13, he went to St. Paul's School in Barnes, West London. At the age of 16, he was offered a contract to play cricket with Northamptonshire Cricket Club, but turned it down. He was signed to top-modelling agency Storm Model Management at the same age, but decided against pursuing it as a career. He took a gap year after school, and went to live in Rome, and got a Diploma in spoken Latin from the Gregorian University, learning Italian on the side. He then travelled to the South Sea islands, before going on to study Classics at New College, Oxford.

After Oxford, he went to New York to train as an actor and director at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under Robert Ellermann. After drama school, he co-founded, trained and directed Perennial Theatre Company, but left in order to focus on his individual career.

Career

Lachlan's first job out of drama school was the role of Captain Jack Harkness' brother Gray in the BBC hit television series Torchwood. He then went on to play the role of Lord Brandon Perry in the film biopic Vivaldi the Red Priest, starring Steven Cree, Clemency Burton-Hill, James Jagger, Charity Wakefield, Matthew McNulty and Christian McKay.

In 2011, Lachlan played the tragic, suicidal character of Lieutenant Edward Courtenay in the second series of Downton Abbey, working alongside Jessica Brown-Findlay and Rob James-Collier. He then starred as Captain Davenport in the Norwegian feature film Cross of Honour (originally Into the White), also starring Rupert Grint and David Kross, a Second World War drama based on a true story about British and German pilots who, having shot each other down, are forced to share a cabin in the mountains. One reviewer noted his performance was 'as elegant as a young Hugh Grant'.^[2]

In 2012, he played the sinister character of Dominic in Mike Figgis's suspense thriller Suspension of Disbelief starring Sebastian Koch and Lotte Verbeek. He featured briefly as the character of Ted in Fredrik Bond's Charlie Countryman, starring Shia LaBeouf and Mads Mikkelson. He then went on to play the small part of the arrogant banker Alain Allanic in the English-language French police television series Jo, opposite Jean Reno. In 2014, in the upcoming indie thriller The Unfolding, he plays the lead role of a young researcher in psychical events who is drawn into a terrifying confrontation with an evil spirit.

Most recently, he stars in the upcoming BFI funded Brand New-U, a complex psychological thriller exploring the nature of identity.^[3] Working with Bafta Award winning director Simon Pummell, he plays the lead role of Slater, alongside Nora-Jane Noone. It is set for release in 2015.^[4]

Alongside his film and television work, Lachlan has worked in various fringe theatres,^[5] and at the National Theatre in the award-winning production of Terence Rattigan's After the Dance, directed by Thea Sharrock and starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

In 2013-14, he also starred in the latest Heineken and Mercedes advertising campaigns.

Personal life

He lives in London. He is an accomplished pianist, and viola player. He can speak Italian, French and Russian.

Charity

Lachlan is a supporter of Blind Veterans UK, formerly known as St Dunstan's. It was while he was researching the role of Lieutenant Courtenay that Lachlan encountered the work of Blind Veterans UK, and he has been a keen Ambassador for the charity ever since. In May 2012, he ran the London Marathon to raise money for the charity.^[6] He also supports the Stride Foundation.

Filmography

Film

Television

References