78 Facts About David Tennant

David Tennant is best known for portraying the tenth and fourteenth incarnations of the Doctor in the science fiction series Doctor Who.

David Tennant is a voice actor, featuring in the animated series DuckTales as the voice of Scrooge McDuck.

David Tennant's father was a minister who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

David Tennant grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen in Ralston, where his father was the local minister.

At the age of three, David Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who, but they encouraged him to aim for more conventional work.

David Tennant later said that he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career.

David Tennant watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years and once spoke to Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow.

David Tennant's talent was noticed by actress Edith MacArthur, who told his parents that she believed he would become a successful theatre actor after she saw him perform when he was 10 years old.

David Tennant attended Saturday classes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before passing an official audition at the age of 16, becoming one of their youngest students and studying there between the ages of 17 and 20.

David Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school.

David Tennant made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transgender barmaid called Davina.

David Tennant has subsequently appeared with Weir in many productions: as a guest in her spoof television series Posh Nosh, in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile, and as panellists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4.

David Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

David Tennant subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he played the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet.

David Tennant starred in the 2003 London production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.

David Tennant contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series.

David Tennant's roles include a reprisal of his Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, as well as Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Edgar in King Lear, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet.

In 1995, David Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.

David Tennant was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his performance in Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero.

David Tennant appeared in Bright Young Things, a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right, Blackpool, Casanova, and The Quatermass Experiment.

David Tennant replaced him as of the second series, making his first, brief appearance as the Tenth Doctor in the episode "The Parting of the Ways" at the end of the regeneration scene.

David Tennant's first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005.

David Tennant appeared in three full thirteen-episode series of Doctor Who, broadcast in 2006,2007 and 2008, plus Christmas specials.

David Tennant featured as the Doctor in an animated version of Doctor Who for Totally Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, which aired on CBBC.

David Tennant starred as the Doctor in another animated six-part Doctor Who series, Dreamland.

David Tennant guest starred as the Doctor in a two-part story in Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, broadcast in October 2009.

In October 2008, David Tennant announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series.

David Tennant played the Doctor in four special episodes in 2009, before his final episode aired on 1 January 2010, where he was replaced by the Eleventh Doctor, portrayed by Matt Smith.

In October 2015, Big Finish Productions announced that David Tennant would appear in the role of the Tenth Doctor alongside Catherine Tate as his former companion Donna Noble in three new stories from Big Finish.

In November 2017, three new audio dramas were released by Big Finish Productions, with David Tennant starring as the Tenth Doctor, alongside Billie Piper as Rose Tyler.

David Tennant returned to the role on 13 July 2018, as part of the live Muppets show The Muppets Take the O2 in London.

David Tennant appeared in the ITV drama Secret Smile in December 2005.

David Tennant appeared onstage as Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

David Tennant revived this performance for the anniversary of the Royal Court Theatre in a rehearsed reading.

David Tennant played Richard Hoggart in a dramatisation of the 1960 Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial, The Chatterley Affair.

In early 2007, David Tennant starred in Recovery, a 90-minute BBC One drama written by Tony Marchant.

In November 2008, David Tennant played Sir Arthur Eddington in the BBC and HBO biographical film Einstein and Eddington.

On 13 March 2009, David Tennant presented Red Nose Day 2009 with Davina McCall.

David Tennant joined Franz Ferdinand onstage to play the guitar on their song "No You Girls" on a special Comic Relief edition of Top of the Pops.

In summer 2009, David Tennant filmed St Trinian's II: The Legend of Fritton's Gold.

On 7 March 2010, David Tennant appeared as George in a one-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Of Mice and Men in the Classic Serial strand.

David Tennant has described theatre work as his "default way of being".

David Tennant joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, to play Hamlet with Patrick Stewart and Berowne in Love's Labours Lost in 2008.

Hamlet transferred to the Novello Theatre in London's West End in December 2008, but David Tennant suffered a prolapsed disc during previews and was unable to perform from 8 December 2008 until 2 January 2009, during which time the role was played by his understudy Edward Bennett.

David Tennant returned to his role in the production on 3 January 2009, and appeared until the run ended on 10 January.

In October 2011, David Tennant started shooting the semi-improvised comedy film, Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger in Coventry.

In 2012, David Tennant presented the comedy quiz show Comedy World Cup.

In January 2012, David Tennant was appointed to the Royal Shakespeare Company board, to be on the selection committee interviewing and choosing the new artistic director.

David Tennant repeated his performance as Richard II at the Barbican Theatre in 2016 before transferring to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

David Tennant starred in the ITV detective series Broadchurch as DI Alec Hardy between 2013 and 2017.

David Tennant reprised the role for the 2014 American remake.

David Tennant appeared in The Escape Artist, a three-part series which aired on BBC One in October and November 2013.

David Tennant starred opposite Rosamund Pike and Billy Connolly in What We Did on Our Holiday, a semi-improvised comedy film; shooting took place from 17 June to 30 July 2013 in Scotland.

On 9 February 2015, David Tennant appeared on the Radio 4 panel show Just a Minute, becoming the show's most successful debut contestant.

David Tennant portrayed the villainous Kilgrave in Jessica Jones, a television series from Marvel and Netflix.

In February 2016, Tennant began filming Mad to Be Normal, a biopic of the Scottish psychiatrist R D Laing.

David Tennant became the voice of Scrooge McDuck for Disney XD's DuckTales reboot, replacing the character's longtime voice actor Alan Young, who died in May 2016.

David Tennant played villain Cale Erendreich in the thriller film Bad Samaritan, written by Brandon Boyce and directed by Dean Devlin.

David Tennant plays Crowley in the series Good Omens, the first season of which was released on Amazon Prime Video on 31 May 2019 and on BBC Two on 15 January 2020.

David Tennant starred as a doctor suspected of murdering his family in Deadwater Fell, a Scottish true crime miniseries, which premiered in January 2020 on Channel 4.

David Tennant received his first credit as an executive producer for the series.

In September 2022, David Tennant starred as Reverend Harry Watling in BBC1's Inside Man, which was written by Steven Moffat.

In December 2022, David Tennant starred as Alexander Litvinenko in the ITV1 dramatisation Litvinenko.

David Tennant's character, voiced by Tennant, had a cameo in an episode in season 2 of Young Jedi Adventures in 2024.

David Tennant played the lead part in Max Webster's production of Macbeth, which ran at the Donmar Warehouse in 2023 as well as the Harold Pinter Theatre in 2024.

In February 2024, David Tennant hosted the 77th British Academy Film Awards.

In 2025 David Tennant is due to star as the Guardian journalist Nick Davies, alongside Toby Jones, in The Hack, a forthcoming ITV drama detailing the News International phone hacking scandal.

David Tennant was named "Coolest Man on TV" of 2007 in a Radio Times survey.

David Tennant won the National Television Awards award for Most Popular Actor in 2006,2007,2008, and 2010.

David Tennant was ranked the 24th most influential person in the British media on 9 July 2007, according to MediaGuardian.

David Tennant appeared in the paper's annual media rankings in 2006.

David Tennant declared his support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the 2010 elections, lending his voice to a Labour election broadcast.

David Tennant remained neutral on the issue of Scottish independence in the run-up to the 2014 referendum, stating that it was not his business as he no longer lived in Scotland.

David Tennant is a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly those who identify as non-binary, frequently appearing in interviews wearing pride pins.

David Tennant received the LGBT+ Celebrity Ally award at the 2024 British LGBT Awards for his ongoing support for the LGBTQ+ Community.

David Tennant has rarely discussed his private life in interviews, citing his belief that "relationships are hard enough with the people you're having them with, let alone talking about them in public".

David Tennant, whose father was a Church of Scotland minister, believes religion "must have" shaped his character, and revealed that he is an occasional churchgoer.

David Tennant is married to English actress Georgia David Tennant making him the son-in-law of actress Sandra Dickinson and Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison.