David Tennant
David John Tennant is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the lead character in Doctor Who, headlining the show as the Tenth Doctor from 2005–2010, and returning as the Fourteenth Doctor in 2023. His other notable screen roles include portraying Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, DI Alec Hardy in Broadchurch, Crowley in Good Omens, and various fictionalised versions of himself in Staged.
Tennant has worked extensively on stage, including a portrayal of the title character in a 2008 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet that was later adapted for television. He is also a voice actor, featured in the animated series DuckTales as the voice of Scrooge McDuck. In 2015, he was the recipient of the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Award.
Early life and education
Tennant was born David John McDonald in Bathgate on 18 April 1971, the son of Helen and Alexander "Sandy" McDonald. His father was a minister who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He grew up with his brother Blair and sister Karen in Ralston, where his father was the local minister. Two of his maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were Ulster Protestants from Derry who were among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant in 1912; William was also a member of the Orange Order. Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes' daughter Nellie while playing for Derry City FC. McLeod was descended from tenant farmers from the Isle of Mull. Tennant was born with an extra toe on his right foot; he has also suffered from anxiety since childhood.At the age of three, 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. He later said that he was "absurdly single-minded" in pursuing an acting career. He watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years and once spoke to Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker at a book-signing event in Glasgow. He was educated at Ralston Primary School and Paisley Grammar School; he acted in various school productions. His 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.
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. In 1991, Tennant obtained here a BA degree in Dramatic Studies.
After discovering that there was another David McDonald already represented by the actor's union Equity, he created his stage name by adopting the surname of Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant, whom he had seen in Smash Hits. He later legally changed his surname to comply with rules set by the American Screen Actors Guild.
Career
Early work
Tennant made his professional acting debut while still in secondary school. When he was 16, he acted in an anti-smoking film made by the Glasgow Health Board which was shown on television and was also screened in schools. The following year, he played a role in an episode of Dramarama. Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui co-starring Ashley Jensen, one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop 7:84 Theatre Company. He also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transgender barmaid called Davina. In the 1990s, he appeared in several plays at the Dundee Repertory Theatre.Tennant was awarded his first major TV role as Campbell Bain in the BBC Scotland drama series Takin' Over the Asylum, after impressing director David Blair during filming of another drama – Strathblair. As Tennant recalled from the audition, "they needed someone who could believably act 19 and bonkers". During filming of Takin' Over the Asylum he met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir. When he moved to London shortly afterwards, he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child. He 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. One of his earliest big-screen roles was in Jude.
Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in As You Like It ; having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone. He subsequently specialised in comic roles, playing Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors and Captain Jack Absolute in The Rivals, although he also played the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. He also starred in the 2003 London production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.
Tennant contributed to several audio dramatisations of Shakespeare for the Arkangel Shakespeare series. His 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, Tennant appeared at the Royal National Theatre, London, playing the role of Nicholas Beckett in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw.
In television, he appeared in the first episode of Reeves and Mortimer's revamped Randall and Hopkirk in 2000, playing an eccentric artist. During the Christmas season of 2002, he starred in a series of television advertisements for Boots the Chemists.
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. The UK première was staged at the Donmar Warehouse, in previews on 4 April, opening 10 April and closing on 4 May 2002. This production transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre from 26 June to 10 August 2002.
Tennant appeared in Bright Young Things, a dramatisation of He Knew He Was Right, Blackpool, Casanova, and The Quatermass Experiment. Later that same year, he appeared as Barty Crouch Jr. in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
''Doctor Who''
A fan of Doctor Who since childhood, Tennant had had a small role in the BBC's animated Doctor Who webcast Scream of the Shalka and appeared in several audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series which had been produced by Big Finish Productions.Doctor Who returned to British screens in March 2005, with Christopher Eccleston playing the role of the Ninth Doctor in the first series. 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. Tennant's first full-length outing as the Doctor was a 60-minute special, "The Christmas Invasion", was broadcast on Christmas Day 2005. He appeared in three full thirteen-episode series of Doctor Who, broadcast in 2006, 2007 and 2008, plus Christmas specials.
Tennant made his directorial debut on the Doctor Who Confidential episode that accompanies Steven Moffat's episode "Blink", entitled "Do You Remember The First Time?", which aired on 9 June 2007. In 2007, Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared with Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor in a Doctor Who special for Children in Need, written by Steven Moffat and entitled "Time Crash".
Tennant featured as the Doctor in an animated version of Doctor Who for Totally Doctor Who, The Infinite Quest, which aired on CBBC. He also starred as the Doctor in another animated six-part Doctor Who series, Dreamland. 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, Tennant announced that he would be stepping down from the role after three full series. He played the Doctor in the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor, followed by three 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.
Tennant and Billie Piper returned to Doctor Who for the 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor", broadcast on 23 November 2013, with then-stars Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman and guest star John Hurt. The same month, he also appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five Doctors Reboot directed by Peter Davison.
In October 2015, Big Finish Productions announced that 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. The three stories were released in May 2016. In November 2017, three new audio dramas were released by Big Finish Productions, with Tennant once again starring as the Tenth Doctor, alongside Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Tennant also returned to the role on 13 July 2018, as part of the live Muppets show The Muppets Take the O2 in London.
In May 2022, in relation to the show's 60th anniversary, it was announced that Tennant would once again return to the show, alongside Tate, who would reprise her role as Donna Noble. Previously thought to be returning as the Tenth Doctor, in October 2022, the ending of the special episode "The Power of the Doctor" revealed that Tennant would return as the Fourteenth Doctor, a role previously expected to be played by Ncuti Gatwa, who would follow on as the Fifteenth Doctor. The three 60th anniversary special episodes aired between November and December 2023.