Born: 29th December 1963
Episodes Broadcast: 2008, 2010, 2015, 2023

Julian Bleach was born in Bournemouth, Dorset and began acting from a young age. In addition to becoming a proficient violinist, he started his formal drama training at Bournemouth and Poole College, before moving on to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Although Bleach principally focussed on stage roles following his graduation in the early Eighties, amongst a handful of movie appearances was Mike Leigh's critically-lauded 1999 Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy-Turvy. Towards the end of the century, he developed the acclaimed stage musical Shockheaded Peter, an adaptation of the German fairy tale Struwwelpeter. It won an Olivier Award in 2002, and had an off-Broadway run in 2005 -- the same year that Bleach could be seen in the big-budget fantasy film The Brothers Grimm, starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. In 2006, he spent a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Having already appeared in a handful of telefilms and broadcast plays, Bleach finally made his debut in episodic television in 2008, when he was cast as the sinister Ghostmaker in From Out Of The Rain for the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. Having impressed the production team, he soon graduated to the parent show and inherited an iconic Doctor Who role. In the 2008 season finale The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, Bleach became the latest actor to portray Davros, the creator of the Daleks, when he matched wits with David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. He reprised the part for a live appearance during that year's Doctor Who Prom. Bleach then joined the cast of another spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, playing the title villain for its 2010 season premiere, The Nightmare Man. In the meantime, Bleach added more television credits to his resume with regular roles in MI High and The Borgias, as well as guest spots in episodes of Psychoville and Ripper Street. Movie credits included the historical drama Anonymous with Rhys Ifans and the Hugh Jackman-starring adaptation of Les Misérables.

Then, in 2015, Bleach made a surprise return to Doctor Who, as his Davros sparred with Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor in the season premiere The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar. The same year, he had a small part in the super-hero blockbuster Avengers: Age Of Ultron. During the remainder of the 2010s, Bleach could be seen in movies like MindGamers and Remainders. He also enjoyed a recurring role in Emerald City, and starred as Dracula in Heirs Of The Night. Bleach again returned unexpectedly to Doctor Who in 2023, appearing alongside Tennant -- who was now portraying the Fourteenth Doctor -- in the charity mini-episode Children In Need Special (2023). Although he was still cast as Davros, this time he controversially appeared without the extensive prosthetics with which the character was traditionally associated.