Steven Hartley is an English actor known internationally for his television, film and theatre roles. He has appeared in over 50 principal and leading roles on television and film since 1985, including EastEnders, The Bill, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Rumble, Strictly Confidential, Badboys, Trial & Retribution, Sharman, Holby City, Casualty, Doctors, Pie in the Sky, The Cut, Agatha Christie's Marple, Merlin, Married... with Children, The Borgias, Vera alongside Brenda Blethyn, Ripper Street, and the BAFTA nominated BBC series Happy Valley. Most recently he has appeared in Silent Witness, Brassic for Sky TV and Shadow and Bone for Netflix. He has worked opposite notable actors on film Including Marlon Brando, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Benicio del Toro, Lauren Bacall, Kristin Scott Thomas, Woody Harrelson and Jon Voight. His films include AlliesRuby Strangelove, Robocroc, Jetstream, The Walker, A Dog of Flanders, ', Split Second, Young Toscanini. Hartley's extensive theatre work includes reprising his role as Bill Sikes in the West End MusicalOliver! in 2009-2010 for producer Cameron Mackintosh, the third time Hartley has played the role since being cast by director Sam Mendes in 1996 and recently played a leading role in Fit and Proper People for the Royal Shakespeare company. Hartley has also appeared in and provided voice work for several video games, most recently appearing in Sony Studios' Blood and Truth on PSVR as Tony Sharp. Other notable works include his role as Luis Belosa in Squadron 42 alongside an all-star cast, including Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Strong and Mark Hamill, voices for ', and Zynbel in the BAFTA award-winning game . He also has roles in Sword Coast Legends and Dark Souls III. He has worked in performance capture and motion capture for some of these games. Hartley is also a well known voice-over artist, having voiced TV documentaries and commercials and has been the station voice of Talksport for 20 years. In 2005, he was nominated for Sexiest Male at the British Soap awards. He was also nominated for a Broadway World West End Award for best takeover for Bill Sikes in Oliver! in 2011. In 2019, Hartley shared his memories of The Bill'' and his career in general in an interview for .
Early life
Hartley was a successful amateur boxer for York and Yorkshire in the late 1970s and early 1980s in a team which included future British and European champion and world title contender Henry Wharton He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1981-84. After a number of theatre performances and many commercials, he was interviewed for the role of James Bond in 1985, but was turned down because of his young age. For a 6-month period in 1990, he turned to labouring on a building site when acting jobs were sparse, but a surge of TV and film roles would soon follow.
Hartley is one of the most recognisable voices in the UK. He has been "The Voice" of TalkSPORT radio station for 20 years. He is involved in every one of the adverts for the station, also the introductions for each show. His identity was somewhat a mystery until an interview with James Whale, and he is now alluded to in some of the station's jingles. He has voiced and starred in several video games, including Eredin in , Larethar Gulgrin in Sword Coast Legends, Sir Vilhelm in Dark Souls III: Ashes Of Ariandel, and Zynbel in . He has recently completed video games Squadron 42 along side an all star cast and the acclaimed Sony VR game Blood and Truth as gangster Anthony Sharpe. He has narrated many audiobooks, including most recently The Music Shop A Novel by Rachel Joyce.
Personal life
He is also a committed marathon and half-marathon runner with the TV Times Leukaemia research team. He has a brother Peter and a younger sister Michele. Steven currently lives in London with his wife actress Abby Francis and daughter Tess.
