1. Rowan David Oakes was born on 14 October 1983 and is an English actor and environmentalist.
41 Facts About David Oakes
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David Oakes is best known for his roles in the series The Pillars of the Earth, The Borgias, The White Queen, Victoria, Vikings: Valhalla, and for his discursive Natural History podcast, Trees A Crowd.
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David Oakes was head boy at Bishop Wordsworth's School, in Salisbury.
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David Oakes graduated with a First in English Literature from the University of Manchester.
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David Oakes graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2007.
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David Oakes began his career at Shakespeare's Globe, before taking roles at the Almeida Theatre and the Old Vic.
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Since appearing at Shakespeare's Globe at the outset of his career, David Oakes has frequently performed in numerous rehearsed readings as part of their "Read Not Dead" initiative, including their landmark 200th reading of Philip Massinger's A New Way To Pay Old Debts; David Oakes played Wellborn alongside a cast including Benjamin Whitrow, Alan Cox, and Nicholas Rowe.
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In 2006, David Oakes performed a 90-minute abridged version of Much Ado About Nothing as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Complete Works" festival along with his final year graduates from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
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David Oakes alternated between playing Claudio and Verges alongside fellow graduate Matt Barber.
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David Oakes was present to accept the Jury Prize at the 2011 Romy Awards in Vienna alongside Donald Sutherland and Natalia Worner.
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David Oakes came to prominence when he played the villainous William Hamleigh in the television miniseries The Pillars of the Earth.
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Whilst shooting the second season, David Oakes performed a cameo in the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End.
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David Oakes was nominated for both WhatsOnStage and Broadway World awards for his performance in Shakespeare in Love in 2015.
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David Oakes played Prince Ernest, brother of Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert, in the 2016 ITV series Victoria.
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In 2017, David Oakes starred in the film adaptation of Albert Sanchez Pinol's novel Cold Skin, directed by Xavier Gens and co-starring Ray Stevenson and Aura Garrido.
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David Oakes starred as Thomas Novachek in the London West End premiere of David Ives's play Venus in Fur at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
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David Oakes played Earl Godwin in Vikings: Valhalla, the spin-off of the show Vikings, for Netflix.
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David Oakes set up a theatre company called Dog Ate Cake with a long-term theatrical collaborator Henry Bell.
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In 2015 David Oakes starred as Banquo in a charity fundraiser for the Shakespeare Schools Festival.
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In 2019, David Oakes played Hamlet at Shakespeare's Rose Theatre, York.
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David Oakes has directed a number of theatre pieces alongside his acting career.
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Also whilst at University in 2005, David Oakes assisted director Natalie Wilson on a production of Smilin' Through that was co-produced by the Truant Company, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and Contact Theatre, Manchester.
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Later that year, David Oakes turned to literary adaptation, taking a production of Stephen King's The Boogeyman to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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David Oakes frequently directs at Shakespeare's Globe extending their "Read Not Dead" series, a study devoted to performing fully staged readings of the entirety of the Early Modern Canon of Drama.
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David Oakes recently directed an extract of Robert Daborne's A Christian Turn'd Turk as part of a special "Read Not Dead" event at Shakespeare's Globe.
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In 2020, David Oakes narrated an episode of Historic Royal Palaces' Outliers podcast.
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David Oakes appeared as Thomas Phelippes, a spy and code breaker in the court of Elizabeth I plotting the downfall of Mary, Queen of Scots.
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David Oakes is the presenter of the natural history podcast Trees A Crowd.
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David Oakes has been in a relationship with actress Natalie Dormer since 2018 whom he met while appearing in Venus in Fur.
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David Oakes plays both the clarinet and bass clarinet, and is a bass singer.
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David Oakes is an avid follower of folk music, and continues to support the Bristol folk group Sheelanagig.
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David Oakes, following his infant niece being diagnosed with a lung condition, has been heavily involved with raising awareness for and fundraising on behalf of the British Lung Foundation.
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In 2013, David Oakes collaborated with his Borgias castmate Holliday Grainger to make the short comedy film Goblin.
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Later in 2014, David Oakes ran the length of the country to raise awareness for infant lung diseases for both the British Lung Foundation and ChILD Lung Foundation UK.
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Since 2014, David Oakes has been a friend of Anno's Africa, an arts-based charity working with Kenyan orphans and slum children, and has supported the UK based Shakespeare Schools Festival, most notably with and surrounding their "Trial of Macbeth" and "Trial of Richard III".
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In 2019, David Oakes helped organise, and alongside Michael Palin, Twiggy and others, appeared in the "Just A Book" poster campaign on the London Underground.
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Since 2019, David Oakes has been an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust.
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On 9 October 2019, David Oakes hosted a discussion at the 70th Cheltenham Literature Festival on the subject of "The Art of Trees".
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On 21 June 2020, David Oakes co-hosted the live-stream event The Big Wild Quiz for The Wildlife Trusts as part of their "30 Days Wild" campaign.
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On 26 November 2020, David Oakes became an ambassador for The Wildlife Trusts.
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In 2024, it was announced that David Oakes was serving as a Trustee for the Badger Trust.