Ben Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor who trained at RADA. Whishaw is best known for his breakthrough role as Hamlet, and plays the lead character in Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Whishaw grew up in Bedfordshire, and was a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. During his time with the group, he first rose to prominence during collaborations with their offshoot theatre company, Big Spirit. He was involved in many productions - perhaps most notably, If This Is A Man (also performed as The Drowned & The Saved). This was a piece devised by the company based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of a Nazi World War II prisoner of war camp. This harrowing and moving book was adapted into a physical theatre piece by the group and taken to the 1995 Edinburgh Festival where it garnered 5-star reviews and great critical acclaim. Whishaw played the character of Levi in this and subsequent productions of the show.
As the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 young-cast production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, he received highly favourable reviews. The role was shared with Al Weaver in an unusual arrangement that saw Whishaw playing all nights except for Mondays and matinées. Nunn is reported to have made this arrangement due to the youth of the two actors playing the lead, to relieve some of the pressure on each. It was Whishaw, however, who featured most prominently in the marketing materials and in the majority of reviews.
Whishaw's film and TV credits include Layer Cake and Chris Morris's 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley, in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named 'Most Promising Newcomer' at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards (for My Brother Tom) and, in 2005, nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Brian Jones biopic Stoned.
In the spring of 2005, Whishaw received lots of press for his turn as a drug dealer in Philip Ridley's post-apocalyptic fringe play Mercury Fur. Fur was notable especially for the fact that at every performance, at least six audience members walked out of the brash and violent play[citation needed].
In Perfume, Whishaw plays Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly. The film was released in Germany in September 2006 and in the U.S. in December 2006.
Recently, he has been working intermittenly on Pawel Pawlikowski's The Restraint of Beasts, and will next work on a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.
