Early life

Harewood was born and grew up in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England, where he attended St. Benedict's Junior School and Washwood Heath Comprehensive School. He was a member of the National Youth Theatre. In his youth, he worked in a wine bar, Albert's in Dale End, in Birmingham City Centre. His parents are originally from Barbados. He has a sister Sandra and two brothers, Rodger and Paul.

Career

At 18, Harewood gained a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began acting in 1990 and has appeared in The Hawk, Great Moments in Aviation, Harnessing Peacocks, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Macbeth on the Estate, Blood Diamond, The Merchant of Venice and Strings. He is known for his television appearances on Ballykissangel, The Vice and Fat Friends. He played Don Coleman in Hustle (Series 7 The Fall of Railton FC (2011)).

In 2008, he played Major Simon Brooks in The Palace; he also appeared (that December) on Celebrity Mastermind, with specialist subject Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - and he appeared in the BBC film adaptation of the Philip Pullman novels The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North, both of which are titles from the Sally Lockhart Mysteries.

In 2009, Harewood appeared in the BBC single drama Mrs Mandela, playing Nelson Mandela. He played Brother Tuck in the third series of Robin Hood. He appeared in the Doctor Who story The End of Time. He played Martin Luther King in the premiere of The Mountaintop, written by American playwright Katori Hall, directed by James Dacre, which opened at Theatre503 in London on 9 June 2009.

Harewood next appeared in two episodes of Chris Ryan's Strike Back as Colonel Tshuma. From June to September 2010, he played Theseus in the premiere of Moira Buffini's play Welcome to Thebes at the National Theatre in London. He played Martin Viner in an episode of New Tricks. He narrates Welcome to Lagos, a BBC documentary about Lagos. In October 2010, he commenced filming for a new British independent film, The Hot Potato. The film will also star Ray Winstone, Colm Meaney and Jack Huston. He played Frankenstein's monster in the TV live event Frankenstein's Wedding.

From 2011, Harewood starred as David Estes, the Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, in the Showtime series Homeland. After appearing in 15 episodes, his character was killed off in a bomb explosion at the end of Season 2. Also in 2011, he voiced Captain Quinton Cole in the video game Battlefield 3.

In the 2012 New Year Honours, Harewood was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to drama.

In May 2012, he presented a Party Election Broadcast for the British Labour Party.

In July 2013, it was revealed on the PlayStation Blog, by the game director, that he would play as the role of Sinclair in the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Killzone: Shadow Fall. Sinclair is the director of the Vektan Security Agency, under whom our protagonist, a Shadow Marshall, works.

In October 2013, Harewood voiced an interactive video campaign for the British Lung Foundation aiming to ban smoking in cars with children on board in the United Kingdom.

In June 2014, he appeared in Tulip Fever.

In October 2015, he appeared as a core cast member on the CBS television series Supergirl as Hank Henshaw. His character was later revealed to be J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter in the episode Human for a Day.

Personal life

Harewood married long term partner Kirsty Handy in Saint James, Barbados in February 2013. The couple have two daughters. The family lives in Streatham, London. Harewood is a staunch Birmingham City F.C. fan.

In 2007, David visited Harewood House in Yorkshire and spoke with Viscount Lascelles who is a cousin of the Queen. David's surname "Harewood" comes from the time when his ancestors were captured in Africa, transported to the Caribbean as slaves, and owned by the Lascelles family (the Earls of Harewood). Lord Lascelles explained that his wish was for the Harewood name to stand for positive things in the future, as nothing could be done about what happened 250 years ago.

In 2007, Harewood donated his bone marrow and as a result saved the life of a patient.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	The Hawk	Sergeant Streete
1995	Mad Dogs and Englishmen	Jessop
1998	I Wonder Who's Kissing You Now	Moses
1999	Between Dreams	Orderly	Short film
2004	Strings	Erito	Voice; English dub
2004	The Merchant of Venice	Prince of Morocco
2005	Separate Lies	Inspector Marshall
2006	Blood Diamond	Captain Poison
2010	Second Chance	Rob Jenkins	Short film
2011	The Hot Potato	Harrison
2011	Victim	Mr. Ansah
2012	The Man Inside	Eugene Murdoch
2013	Third Person	Jake
2015	Free in Deed	Abe Wilkins
2015	Spooks: The Greater Good	Warrender
2016	Grimsby	Black Gareth
2016	Tulip Fever	Prater	Completed

Television

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Casualty	Paul Grant	Episode 5.9: "A Will to Die"
1990-97	The Bill	Williams, Malcolm Jackson, Ed Parrish, Robbie Coker	Four episodes
1991	For the Greater Good	David West	TV film
1991	Minder	Vinny's minder	Episode 8.10: "Too Many Crooks"
1991	Murder Most Horrid	Jonathan	Episode 1.5: "Murder at Tea Time"
1991	Pirate Prince	Jean-Baptiste	TV film
1991-93	Spatz	Derek Puley	Three episodes
1993	Anna Lee: Headcase	Stevie Johnson	TV film
1993	Press Gang	Doctor	Episode 5.2: "Friendly Fire"
1993	Medics	Nick	Episode 3.6
1993	Harnessing Peacocks	Terry	TV film
1994	Great Moments in Aviation	Steward	TV film
1994	Bermuda Grace	Trevor Watkins	TV film
1994	Capital Lives		Episode 1.5: "Fall"
1995	Hearts and Minds	Trevor
1995	Game On	Paul Johnson	Episode 1.5: "Big Wednesday"
1995	Agony Again	Daniel	Seven episodes
1997	Macbeth on the Estate	Macduff	TV film
1997	Kavanagh QC	David Adams	Episode 3.1: "Mute of Malice"
1997	Comedy Premieres: Cold Feet	Police Sergeant
1998	Ballykissangel	Henry	Episode 4.9: "As Stars Look Down"
1999-2001	Always and Everyone	Dr. Mike Gregson	Main cast
1999-2003	The Vice	Sgt./D.I. Joe Robinson	Main cast
2001	An Unsuitable Job for a Woman	DI Peterson	Episode 1.4: "Playing God"
2001	The Fear	Storyteller
2001-02	Babyfather	Augustus 'Gus' Pottinger	Main cast
2004	Silent Witness	Angus Stuart	Episodes 8.3 and 8.4: "Death by Water"
2004-05	Fat Friends	Max Robertson	11 episodes
2006	New Street Law	DI Branston	Two episodes
2006	The Ruby in the Smoke	Matthew Bedwell, Reverend Nicholas Bedwell	TV film
2007	New Tricks	Martin Viner	Episode 4.3: "Ducking and Diving"
2007	The Shadow in the North	Nicholas Bedwell	TV film
2008	The Palace	Major Simon Brooks	Main cast; eight episodes
2008	The Last Enemy	Patrick Nye	TV mini-series; five episodes
2008	Criminal Justice	Freddie Graham	TV mini-series; three episodes
2009	Gunrush	Robbie	TV film
2009	Robin Hood	Tuck	12 episodes
2009	The Fixer	Richard Millar	Episode 2.4
2009-10	Doctor Who	Joshua Naismith	The End of Time
2010	Mrs Mandela	Nelson Mandela	TV film
2010	Strike Back	Colonel Tshuma	Episodes 1.3 and 1.4
2011	Hustle	Don Coleman	Episode 7.5: "The Fall of Railton FC"
2011	Frankenstein's Wedding	The Creature	Live-televised stage performance
2011	The Body Farm	Wilkes	Episode 1.3
2011-12	Homeland	David Estes	15 episodes
2012	Treasure Island	Billy Bones	TV mini-series
2012	Horizon - Global Weirding	Narrator	TV documentary series
2013	The Wrong Mans	Surgeon	TV series
2013	By Any Means	Napier	TV series
2014	Selfie	Sam Saperstein	8 episodes
2015-present	Supergirl	J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter/Hank Henshaw	Main Cast 19 episodes
2016	Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands	Scorann	TV series
2016	The Night Manager	Joel Steadman	TV series

Video games

• Battlefield 3 (2011) - Captain Quinton Cole
• Killzone: Shadow Fall (2013) - Sinclair, Vektan Security Agency director
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Sgt Omar

Radio

Harewood played Patroclus in the 1998 BBC radio trilogy Troy. He also played Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey radio adaptation (2005). On 4 May 2012, he hosted a special BBC Radio 2 Friday Night is Music Night celebrating the life of Ray Charles, broadcast live from Cheltenham Jazz Festival. The show featured the Guy Barker orchestra, with leader Cynthia Fleming and guest artists Madeline Bell, Gregory Porter, and James Tormé.

Harewood played the Marquis de Carabas in the BBC Radio 4 Radio Play of Neverwhere (2013).

[ Source: Wikipedia ]