Blake Ritson

Blake Ritson (born 14 June 1980) is an English actor and director. --- Ritson attended the Dolphin School in Reading, Berkshire until 1993, before going to St Paul's School in West London on an academic scholarship. He then attended Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied English and Medieval Italian, graduating in 2000. While a student he acted on both stage and screen, playing Paul Etheridge in White Chameleon, Fleance in Macbeth, and Augustus in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (1996) at the National Theatre in productions directed by Richard Eyre and Trevor Nunn. Ritson is best known in recent years for portraying King Edward III in the World Without End (2012), the Duke Of Kent in Upstairs Downstairs (2010-2012), Mr Elton in the BBC 2009 adaptation of Emma and Edmund Bertram in the 2007 ITV adaptation of Mansfield Park, Giles Vicary in the BBC series Red Cap and for playing sidekick Robert Presley in A Touch of Frost. He also played the part of Justin in The League of Gentlemen, Idek in God on Trial, and the comic lead in For Elsie, an Oscar winning short film, which he also co-produced. He has just been playing the main antagonist in David Goyer’s upcoming Da Vinci’s Demons, coming out in April 2013. --- Ritson is the brother of Dylan Ritson, with whom he directs and writes. Dylan also attended Cambridge, where he wrote and directed plays for Footlights and the Edinburgh Festival which received numerous awards and excellent reviews in the national press. Ritson's fiancée is the stage and screen actress Hattie Morahan, who was also the costume designer and script supervisor on one of the films he and his brother directed.