Danny Wynter, known professionally as Danny Lee Wynter, is an English actor, writer, and activist. He is best known for playing the lead in Stephen Poliakoff's BBC films Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary, alongside Sir Michael Gambon and Dame Maggie Smith. He is also recognised for his stage work. Primarily through an actors perspective, Lee Wynter has written many articles on the topic of diversity, addressing issues of race, class, disability and gender within TV, theatre, art, history, sexuality and mass media. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The Stage Newspaper, The Huffington Post, The Guardian and The Evening Standard and between 2017 and 2018 he was a columnist for Attitude. He is founder of the campaigning group the , a charitable organisation operating from the National Theatre. He is also acknowledged for beginning the Yes or No campaign, a movement in the U.K. arts encouraging leading casting directors and producers to respond to performers post audition.
Biography
Lee Wynter was born in Barking, East London and grew up in a single parent family in Essex. His mother, a train attendant, is of Romany Gypsy and Italian ancestry, and his father, a local businessman, is of Jamaican descent. He has been open about his sexuality since the beginning of his career identifying as gay. In 2000, Lee Wynter studied performing arts at Middlesex University, where he trained in clown under John Wright, founder of Trestle Theatre Company and As Told By An Idiot. In 2003, he gained a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art to train in classical acting. During this period he ushered at The Royal Court theatre, a job which he left to make his professional debut in Stephen Poliakoff's 2007 BBC/HBO films Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary. After receiving acclaim for his performance in the Poliakoff films Lee Wynter was cast by Dominic Dromgoole as the Fool to David Calder's King Lear for Shakespeare's Globe. His other work for the company includes Henry IV Part I and II opposite Roger Allam and new plays The Frontline by Che Walker and Bedlam by Nell Leyshon. He also appeared as the titular character in Milton's Comus in the Wanamaker Playhouse. Early theatre work includes David Storey’s The Changing Room for The Royal Court, Moliere’s The Miser for The Royal Exchange Manchester and Ibsen’s St. John’s Night for Jermyn Street Theatre. In 2013, he was directed by Sir Mark Rylance, as Don John the bastard in Much Ado About Nothing for The Old Vic Theatre Company, opposite Vanessa Redgrave. In January 2014, after responding to a trailer for a new season of TV drama which failed to include a single BAME artist, Lee Wynter brought together a group of friends and colleagues, actresses Ruth Wilson and Stephanie Street, actor and director Daniel Evans, casting director Andy Pryor and actors Malcolm Sinclair and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith to send out the message that the UK arts must reflect everyone regardless of race, gender, class, sexual orientation or disability. What started as a handful of voices soon became the Act for Change project. The organisations first public event was a sold out debate chaired by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, then of the human rights group, Liberty. Held at London's Young Vic Theatre, the pilot debate was attended by various leading industry figures, including the Head of ITV Drama. Unprecedented public support followed and Act For Change was formed as a way of "drawing attention to the lack of equality that exists within the UK live and recorded arts." In 2015 The Act For Change Project became a registered charity. Lee Wynter's more recent stage work includes the lead role of Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie for the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, opposite Belinda Lang. Jean Genet's Deathwatch for The Print Room at The Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill. Tempest in a revival of Alan Bennett's Forty Years On for Chichester Festival Theatre, opposite Richard Wilson. Simon Gray’s Cell Mates for Hampstead Theatre. The Mistress in HOME Theatre's production of Jean Genet’s The Maids and in 2020 Mephistopheles in Headlong Theatre’s Faustus: That Damned Woman. On screen he has appeared in Hot Fuzz, Trial & Retribution, Luther, Holby City, Episodes, Mr Stink, Zinnie Harris's most recent TV adaptation of Agatha Christie'sPartners In Crime and the sketch show Walliams and Friend. In 2019 Lee Wynter completed filming on director Prano Bailey Bond’s first feature Censor.
