Early life

Newman was born in Glasgow. His father is Sandy Newman, a member of Scottish band Marmalade. He has a brother named John James Newman who appeared on The Voice UK in 2012. Prior to joining the National Youth Theatre in London at age 17, he considered becoming a professional footballer. He trained at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Career

Newman starred as Paul Atreides in the Sci Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune and reprised the role in its 2003 sequel Children of Dune. He has had guest appearances on U.S. television series Angel, Star Trek: Enterprise and Tru Calling. He also guested on the British spy drama Spooks and played the Rebus-inspired Jim Buchan in BBC 4's Reichenbach Falls. He took the title role of Victor Frankenstein in the 2004 Frankenstein US TV miniseries, opposite Donald Sutherland and William Hurt.

On film in the UK, Newman played the lead role in Penny Woolcock's 2003 The Principles of Lust, nominated for a British Independent Film Award and selected for competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Other British films include Long Time Dead for Working Title, G:MT produced by Taylor Hackford, and Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things.

In 2004, he landed the role of Barnabas Collins in a pilot for a revival series of Dark Shadows on the WB Network. The pilot was not picked up that year, but In 2008 Newman guest-starred in the Dark Shadows audio dramas Clothes of Sand and The Ghost Watcher for Big Finish Productions.

Other films in the US included Four Corners of Suburbia, Constellation, and the Lions Gate release The Gene Generation. An attempt at an old style Hollywood musical, Moonlight Serenade starred Alec opposite Amy Adams.

Returning to the UK in 2006, Newman appeared in his only stage musical: Angus Jackson's staging of Desperately Seeking Susan set to the music of Blondie.

Newman starred in the short-lived BBC One series Hope Springs in 2008. He also played the recurring role of Robert Ludlow in Casualty for a run of 10 episodes in 2010 as well as guesting in a Silent Witness two-parter entitled "Run".

The same year Newman starred with Sean Harris and Melissa George in Julian Gilbey's action-oriented A Lonely Place to Die.

In 2010/11 he played Edmund in the Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare's King Lear. The production subsequently toured the UK and played a six week engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Brooklyn, New York. This followed massive critical success in the National Theatre's production of Danton's Death, in which Newman portrayed the powerful, persuasive Saint Just. Both productions were directed by Michael Grandage.

On 30 May 2011, it was announced that Newman had joined the cast of BBC One drama series Waterloo Road in the role of the new head teacher, Michael Byrne. He completed series 7 and 8 as the character, leaving the show in early 2013, after its relocation to Greenock in Scotland.

In early 2013, he became an ambassador for the Blind Veterans UK charity, to help them reach 68,000 blind veterans unaware of the assistance the charity can provide. This was in conjunction with his portrayal of Mal Walker, a blind veteran of Afghanistan in the feature film Greyhawk, directed by Guy Pitt.

In August 2013, he began work on Season 2 of Directv's series Rogue. The series aired in 2014.

Other American television appearances include the 2013 NBC series Dracula, and a recurring role in 24: Live Another Day. He subsequently appeared in the BBC America series The Last Kingdom.

This was followed with a series role in Kurt Sutter's short lived FX show "The Bastard Executioner", shot in Wales. He also returned to the National Theatre, playing Ralph in the acclaimed Indhu Rubisingham production of The Motherfucker with the Hat at the Lyttelton Theatre. The show drew rave reviews from the critics, and was a major hit in the opening season of Rufus Norris's tenure.

He regularly lends his voice to high profile video games, commercials and documentaries for the BBC and Discovery Channel.

His latest role as a voice actor was as Jack the Ripper in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate- Jack the Ripper DLC in late November 2015.

Personal life

In February 2013, Newman became engaged to Heather Stewart. They married in Ayrshire, Scotland in June 2014.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]