Born: 27th September 1977
Episodes Broadcast: 2008-2014

Growing up during the Eighties, Dan Starkey was a fan of Doctor Who and followed the show until its cancellation in 1989. He went on to earn a Master of Philosophy degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Having been interested in acting since his youth, Starkey was asked to appear in a short horror film called Fix soon after the turn of the century. The experience inspired him to apply to the Bristol Old Vic, from which he graduated in 2006. Starkey soon found steady work in radio, but he was also delighted when his sixty-two-inch stature helped him secure a role in Doctor Who. In 2008's The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky, Starkey played Commander Skorr, one of the Sontarans who battled David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. And because the Sontarans were a clone race, Starkey quickly found himself invited back for a cameo appearance as Commander Jask in Tennant's last story, The End Of Time, which was broadcast on New Year's Day 2010.

Starkey's vocal skills soon made him a natural addition to Big Finish Productions' stable of actors. Beginning with Robophobia in 2011, he played numerous roles for the company's range of Doctor Who audio dramas, including a variety of Sontarans. The same year, he was Plark in The Man Who Never Was, the final story for the Doctor Who spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. But 2011 was most notable for Starkey's return to Doctor Who itself, where he now played an ally -- of sorts -- to Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor: Commander Strax. The Sontaran debuted in A Good Man Goes To War and, although he seemed to perish in its closing minutes, death fortunately did not take to Strax. The character was brought back for the 2012 mini-episode The Great Detective, which served as a prequel to that year's Christmas special, The Snowmen. Starkey was now paired with Neve McIntosh as the Silurian Madame Vastra and Catrin Stewart as her wife Jenny, who protected Victorian London as the so-called Paternoster Gang. They returned for three more outings, the last being Deep Breath in 2014, in which Peter Capaldi had his first adventure as the Twelfth Doctor. In the meantime, Starkey also played a number of unnamed Sontarans invading the planet Christmas in Smith's 2013 swansong, The Time Of The Doctor.

Starkey showed his real face as Ian, one of Santa's wisecracking elves in 2014's Last Christmas

Although his involvement with Doctor Who largely saw him appear under heavy make-up, Starkey finally had a chance to show his real face for a brief appearance in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, a spoof which helped celebrate the programme's fiftieth anniversary in 2013. More substantially, he was cast as Ian, one of Santa's wisecracking elves, in the 2014 holiday special, Last Christmas. For Big Finish, Starkey began reprising Strax with 2015's The Haunting, part of the Jago & Litefoot range, and he co-wrote that year's Seventh Doctor audio play, Terror Of The Sontarans.

Away from Doctor Who, Starkey's television credits during the 2010s included Casualty, Catherine Tate's Nan and Class Dismissed. He twice had roles in projects from former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, first as a regular on Wizards Vs Aliens and later in an episode of Years And Years. Starkey was also amongst the cast of the 2018 animated film Sherlock Gnomes. In 2015, he was a member of the victorious Trinity Hall team on Christmas University Challenge.

Starkey could again be heard in his familiar role for Strax Saves The Day, a podcast released to help ease anxiety and boredom during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The next year, he returned to Doctor Who for the season-spanning Flux, playing several different Sontarans opposite Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. Other credits during the Twenties included episodes of EastEnders and How To Date A Magical Creature.