Joseph "Joe" Maxwell Dempsie (born 22 June 1987 in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

) is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, best known for playing the role of Chris Miles

Chris Miles

Christopher "Chris" Miles is a fictional character in the television series Skins portrayed by Joe Dempsie.-Characterization:Chris's character was initially portrayed as being very into pills and as being something of a hedonist, but at the same time had other layers to his personality. According...

 in the E4 television show Skins

Skins (TV series)

Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...

. Dempsie's earlier acting credits include the medical dramas Doctors, Peak Practice

Peak Practice

Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...

and Sweet Medicine

Sweet Medicine

Sweet Medicine is an ITV drama series from 2003 about a family doctor's surgery in the Peak District of northern England. Intended as a replacement for the hit medical drama Peak Practice, it was not a success. Only one ten-episode series was made, despite moderate audience figures...

, as well as the films One for the Road and Heartlands

Heartlands (film)

Heartlands is a 2002 film directed by Damien O'Donnell and written by Paul Fraser. It is a comedy-drama-road movie, running at 90 minutes, produced in the United Kingdom. It was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival.-Plot:...

. He also appeared in Born and Bred

Born and Bred

Born and Bred is a light-hearted British drama series that aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2005. Created by Chris Chibnall and Nigel McCrery, Born and Breds cast was led by James Bolam and Michael French, who play a father and son who run a cottage hospital in Ormston, a fictional Lancashire village...

and a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 documentary-drama about Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

, Tony Martin

Tony Martin (farmer)

Anthony Edward "Tony" Martin is a farmer from Norfolk, England, who in 1999 killed one burglar and wounded another who had both entered his home...

.
He is currently playing the role of Gendry in the HBO series Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones (TV series)

Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...

and the villainous John/Pollus in the BBC TV series The Fades

The Fades (TV series)

The Fades is a British supernatural drama television series broadcast on BBC Three and BBC HD. The first of six episodes aired on 21 September 2011....

.

Career

Dempsie received his acting training from the Central Junior Television Workshop

Central Junior Television Workshop

The Central Junior Television Workshop is a British organization that offers free training for young people in performance skills for television, film, radio and theatre...

, Nottingham. He was also educated at The West Bridgford School

West Bridgford School

The West Bridgford School & Specialist Technology Academy is a co-educational Comprehensive school in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England,-About the school:* It used to be a grammar school.* The school operates a two week timetable system....

 in West Bridgford

West Bridgford

West Bridgford is a town in the Rushcliffe borough of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies immediately south of the city of Nottingham, delimited by the River Trent; this proximity means that it forms a continuous urban area with Nottingham, effectively makes West Bridgford a suburb of the city, and...

, Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

.

He is now the voice of the Clearasil

Clearasil

Clearasil is the top-selling brand of skin care and acne medication, whose products contain chiefly benzoyl peroxide, sulfur & resorcinol, triclosan, or salicylic acid as active ingredients...

 advertisements in the UK.

Dempsie is a keen Nottingham Forest football fan and attends many home and away matches, he appeared on the UK Saturday morning football show Soccer AM

Soccer AM

Soccer AM is a British Saturday-morning football-based comedy/talk show, predominantly based around the Premier League...

 wearing a Nottingham Forest football shirt. He appeared alongside Skins

Skins (TV series)

Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...

co-star Nicholas Hoult

Nicholas Hoult

Nicholas Caradoc Hoult is an English actor, best known for playing Marcus Brewer in the 2002 film About a Boy, Tony Stonem in the E4, BAFTA-winning television series Skins, and Beast in the X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class.-Early life:Hoult was born in Wokingham, Berkshire, the third of four...

.

In episode 6 of the fourth series of Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, "The Doctor's Daughter

The Doctor's Daughter

"The Doctor's Daughter" is the sixth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 10 May 2008.- Synopsis :...

", that aired on 10 May 2008, Dempsie played the character Cline, a soldier who watches his comrades die. In addition to this appearance, he conducted a small interview with Doctor Who Magazine

Doctor Who Magazine

Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

 which appears on the final page of issue 396 (June 2008).

On 18 April 2008, Dempsie appeared on Friday Night Project with Geri Halliwell

Geri Halliwell

Geraldine Estelle "Geri" Halliwell is an English pop singer-songwriter, author and actress. After coming to international prominence in the late 1990s as Ginger Spice, a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, Halliwell launched her solo career in 1998 and released her album Schizophonic...

.
On 20 July 2008 he appeared at T4 on the beach in Weston Super Mare alongside fellow Skins cast members.

He appeared as Duncan McKenzie

Duncan McKenzie

Duncan McKenzie is an English former footballer who played as a striker in the Football League for Nottingham Forest, Mansfield Town, Leeds United, Everton, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers in the 1970s, in Belgium for Anderlecht, in the North American Soccer League for the Tulsa Roughnecks and the...

 in 2009's 'The Damned United

The Damned United

The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United...

' alongside Michael Sheen

Michael Sheen

Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...

, Jim Broadbent

Jim Broadbent

James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...

, Stephen Graham

Stephen Graham (actor)

Stephen Graham is an English actor from Kirkby, Liverpool. He is best known for his roles as Tommy in the movie Snatch, Combo in This Is England and its four-part television sequel This Is England '86, Danny Ferguson in Occupation, Billy Bremner in The Damned United, notorious bank robber Baby...

 and Timothy Spall

Timothy Spall

Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...

.

In November 2008, he appeared in The Moment of Truth, episode 10 of the BBC show Merlin

Merlin (TV series)

Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 September 2008. The show is based on the Arthurian legends of the wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur but differs from...

. He plays Will, who is an old friend of Merlin's, from the village in which they grew up together.

In 2010 he voiced Steven, a gay teenager from Nottinghamshire in the Radio 4 play Once Upon a Time. It was also announced that he would play the character of Gendry in HBO's Spring 2011 series Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones (TV series)

Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...

, a character expected to recur. The series is based upon George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire

A Song of Ice and Fire is a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the series in 1991 and the first volume was published in 1996. Originally planned as a trilogy, the series now consists of five published volumes; a further two...

 novels. He also starred in the Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 mini series This Is England '86

This Is England '86

This Is England '86 is a 2010 British drama series written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne. A spin-off from the 2006 film This Is England, and set three years later, it focuses on the mod revival scene rather than the skinhead subculture...

.

He has also appeared in Harry and Paul on BBC 2, appearing as a northerner who was presented as a gift from the character Harry was playing to his daughter.

Recently he has appeared in the BBC Three

BBC Three

BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

 series The Fades

The Fades

The Fades are a British indie rock band from London comprising Dave Lightfoot on guitar and vocals, James Lightfoot on bass, Jonathan "Jonny" Barnard on guitar and Alastair "Flash" Thorpe on drums.-History:...

 (episodes 3 to 6), as Young Polus/John.

Skins

Dempsie garnered critical and popular acclaim for his portrayal of Chris Miles

Chris Miles

Christopher "Chris" Miles is a fictional character in the television series Skins portrayed by Joe Dempsie.-Characterization:Chris's character was initially portrayed as being very into pills and as being something of a hedonist, but at the same time had other layers to his personality. According...

, the drug-addicted wastrel and party animal in the unorthodox and controversial teen-centric drama Skins

Skins (TV series)

Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...

. His portrayal has been described as well-researched, realistic, believable, and, in a strange way, likable. He is the character with whom the audience not merely sympathises with but also feels empathy, sharing his joys, grief, pain and strength. Due to the popularity of the series he is known to have a legion of devoted fans. Dempsie however gained significant notoriety for appearing stark-naked in the first season episode "Chris".

Dempsie left Skins in 2008 at the end of the second series, when his character passed away.

Television

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes
2000	Peak Practice Peak Practice Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...	Leon	ITV ITV ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...	Series 10, episode 10, "Playing God"
2001	Doctors	Lee Lindsay	BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...	Series 3, episode 1, "Sins of the Brother"
2003	Sweet Medicine Sweet Medicine Sweet Medicine is an ITV drama series from 2003 about a family doctor's surgery in the Peak District of northern England. Intended as a replacement for the hit medical drama Peak Practice, it was not a success. Only one ten-episode series was made, despite moderate audience figures...	Ben Campbell	ITV	Series 1, episode 2
2004	Doctors	Danny	BBC	Series 6, episode 132, "Rabbit in the Headlights"
2005	Born and Bred Born and Bred Born and Bred is a light-hearted British drama series that aired on BBC One from 2002 to 2005. Created by Chris Chibnall and Nigel McCrery, Born and Breds cast was led by James Bolam and Michael French, who play a father and son who run a cottage hospital in Ormston, a fictional Lancashire village...	Humphrey 'Bogie' Locke	BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...	Series 4, episode 3, "Community Spirits"
2007–2008	Skins Skins (TV series) Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...	Chris Miles Chris Miles Christopher "Chris" Miles is a fictional character in the television series Skins portrayed by Joe Dempsie.-Characterization:Chris's character was initially portrayed as being very into pills and as being something of a hedonist, but at the same time had other layers to his personality. According...	E4	Series 1 and 2
2008	Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...	Cline	BBC One	Series 4, episode 6, "The Doctor's Daughter The Doctor's Daughter "The Doctor's Daughter" is the sixth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 10 May 2008.- Synopsis :... "
	Merlin Merlin (TV series) Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 September 2008. The show is based on the Arthurian legends of the wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur but differs from...	William	BBC One	Series 1, episode 10, "The Moment of Truth"
2010	This Is England '86 This Is England '86 This Is England '86 is a 2010 British drama series written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne. A spin-off from the 2006 film This Is England, and set three years later, it focuses on the mod revival scene rather than the skinhead subculture...	Higgy	Channel 4 Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...	Episodes 1 and 3
2011	Game of Thrones Game of Thrones (TV series) Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, the first of which is called A Game of Thrones, the television series debuted in...	Gendry	HBO	Episodes 4 and 10
2011	The Fades (TV series) The Fades (TV series) The Fades is a British supernatural drama television series broadcast on BBC Three and BBC HD. The first of six episodes aired on 21 September 2011....	John/Young Polus	BBC Three BBC Three BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...	Episodes 3, 4, 5 and 6
2011	"Moving On (TV series) Moving On (TV series) Moving On is a British television series consisting of standalone contemporary dramas first shown on daytime BBC One. Although originally broadcast in an early-afternoon slot, less than a month after the initial airing the first series was repeated to an evening audience... "	Kieran Murphy	BBC One BBC One BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...	Episode 5

Film

Year	Film	Role
2002	Heartlands Heartlands (film) Heartlands is a 2002 film directed by Damien O'Donnell and written by Paul Fraser. It is a comedy-drama-road movie, running at 90 minutes, produced in the United Kingdom. It was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival.-Plot:...	Craig
2003	One for the Road	The 'TWOC'ers'
2009	Spirited	Dean
	The Damned United The Damned United The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United...	Duncan McKenzie Duncan McKenzie Duncan McKenzie is an English former footballer who played as a striker in the Football League for Nottingham Forest, Mansfield Town, Leeds United, Everton, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers in the 1970s, in Belgium for Anderlecht, in the North American Soccer League for the Tulsa Roughnecks and the...
2011	Blitz Blitz -Armed conflict:*The Blitz, the German aerial attacks on Britain in WWII. The name Blitz was subsequently applied to many individual bombing campaigns or attacks.*Blitzkrieg, the "lightning war", a strategy of World War 2 Germany-People:...	Theo Nelson

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Station
2010	Once Upon A Time	Steven	BBC Radio 4

Voiceover work

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| 2008 || Clearasil

Clearasil

Clearasil is the top-selling brand of skin care and acne medication, whose products contain chiefly benzoyl peroxide, sulfur & resorcinol, triclosan, or salicylic acid as active ingredients...

 'Lipstick' advert
|
|-
| 2011
| Sky One

Sky One

Sky1 is the flagship BSkyB entertainment channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.The channel first launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, and is the fourth-oldest TV channel in the United Kingdom, behind BBC One , ITV and BBC Two...

 ||
|-}

Self-appearances

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9;
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|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008
| Lily Allen and Friends

Lily Allen and Friends

Lily Allen and Friends is a British TV talk show presented by Lily Allen. The programme is produced by Princess Productions for BBC Three. It was first shown on 12 February 2008. The audience consists entirely of Lily's online friends, who sign up via the programme's website...

|| BBC Three

BBC Three

BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

 || Series 1, episode 5
|-
| The Friday Night Project

The Friday Night Project

The Sunday Night Project was a British comedy-variety show by Princess Productions that first aired on Channel 4 in February 2005 under the title The Friday Night Project...

|| Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 || Series 6, episode 5
|}

External links