Toby Jones

2.1. Birth and Family

Jones was born on September 7, 1966, in Hammersmith, London. He is the son of actors Jennifer Jones (née Heslewood) and the renowned character actor Freddie Jones. His family's artistic lineage extends to his two brothers: Rupert, who works as a director, and Casper, who is also an actor. This environment fostered an early exposure to the world of acting and storytelling.

2.2. Education

Jones received his early education at Christ Church Cathedral School and Abingdon School in Oxfordshire during the 1980s. He then pursued formal drama studies at the University of Manchester from 1986 to 1989. Further shaping his acting foundation, he trained at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris from 1989 to 1991, an institution known for its emphasis on physical theatre and ensemble work. This comprehensive training equipped him with a versatile skill set that would later define his diverse career.

3.1. Film

Jones made his film debut in Sally Potter's period drama Orlando in 1992. He subsequently appeared in minor roles in films such as Naked (1993), Les Misérables (1998), Ever After (1998), Finding Neverland (2005), and Mrs Henderson Presents (2005). His breakthrough came in 2006 when he portrayed Truman Capote in the biopic Infamous, a role that garnered significant critical attention.

He has since starred in a wide range of films, including Amazing Grace (2006), The Painted Veil (2006), and the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist (2007). In 2008, he played Karl Rove in Oliver Stone's W. and Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar in Frost/Nixon. He also appeared alongside his father, Freddie Jones, in the 2004 film Ladies in Lavender.

Jones is also recognized for his voice roles, notably as the house elf Dobby in two films of the Harry Potter series: Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010). He voiced Aristides Silk in The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Owl in Disney's live-action Christopher Robin (2018).

His presence in major blockbuster franchises includes his portrayal of Claudius Templesmith in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), he played Arnim Zola in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and reprised the role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), also making a cameo appearance in Avengers: Endgame (2019). Other significant film appearances include Mr. Eversoll in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Basil Shaw in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

Further expanding his filmography, Jones has appeared in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), My Week with Marilyn (2011), Berberian Sound Studio (2012), Dad's Army (2016), Journey's End (2017), and Empire of Light (2022). His recent works include The Last Thing He Wanted (2020), Archive (2020), Infinite (2021), The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021), A Boy Called Christmas (2021), The Wonder (2022), The Pale Blue Eye (2022), and Tetris (2023). He is also set to appear in The Instigators (2024), The Actor, Mr Burton, and Flavia, all currently in post-production.

3.2. Television

Jones's television career is marked by a series of impactful roles in miniseries, dramas, and television films, often earning him critical acclaim and award nominations.

His television credits include an appearance in Doctor Who (2010) as The Dream Lord, and in Julian Fellowes's Titanic miniseries (2012) as John Batley. He reprised his MCU role as Arnim Zola in a cameo in the TV series Agent Carter (2015), and also lent his voice to the character in the animated series What If...? (2021). From 2015 to 2016, he starred as David Pilcher/Dr. Jenkins in Wayward Pines. In 2017, he portrayed the chilling Culverton Smith in "The Lying Detective", an episode of the BBC crime drama Sherlock.

Jones earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film nomination and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role as Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO television film The Girl (2012). He received further nominations for his performance as Neil Baldwin in the BBC drama Marvellous (2014), a role praised by Sam Wollaston of The Guardian as a "lovely, very human, performance." From 2014, he appeared in the BBC Four series Detectorists, for which he received a British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance nomination in 2016 and won the award in 2018.

In 2015, Jones played Roger Yount, a banker, in the three-part BBC series Capital, based on John Lanchester's novel. Writer Peter Bowker praised Jones's portrayal, stating, "I think Toby is a genius... He always wants to know a character's needs, and what's beneath those needs. Then he takes all that material and somehow embeds it into the character and physically inhabits the character, so that you never think he's playing the character... A character like Roger is full of contradictions, a city banker with an air of entitlement but also a little insecurity picking away at him. Toby can portray that in his walk alone. That's what's great about him, he can portray cold he can portray warm and he can portray both of those things at once."

He played Captain Mainwaring in the film Dad's Army, released in February 2016. In July of the same year, he starred as the eponymous agent Verloc in the BBC's three-part television adaptation of Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent.

In 2024, Jones starred as Alan Bates in the acclaimed ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a biographical drama about the Horizon Post Office scandal, a role that highlighted a significant miscarriage of justice and resonated widely with the public. He is also set to appear as newspaper editor Alan Rusbridger in the ITV drama series The Hack, about the News International phone hacking scandal, and as John Bickford in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.

3.3. Stage

Jones has a distinguished career in theatre, marked by acclaimed performances and significant awards. He made his stage debut in 2001, starring in the London West End comedy The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Branagh. His comedic portrayal of Arthur earned him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The play later transferred to Broadway in 2003, where he was nominated for a Tony Award.

He returned to the stage in 2009 for Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre, Parlour Song at the Almeida Theatre, and The First Domino at the Brighton Festival Fringe. In 2011, he played J. M. W. Turner in The Painter at the Arcola Theatre. Jones starred as Stanley in the 2018 revival of The Birthday Party at The Harold Pinter Theatre. In 2020, he took on the title role in the Conor McPherson adaptation of Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, also at the Harold Pinter Theatre, for which he received his second Olivier Award nomination.

3.4. Radio and Audiobooks

Jones has also made significant contributions to radio dramas and audiobook narration, showcasing his versatility in audio performance. In 2003, he played Lord Brideshead in a BBC Radio adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. He voiced the title character in the 2005 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Oblomov and read the 2009 Radio 4 adaptation of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany. He played Inspector Goole in the 2010 BBC Radio adaptation of An Inspector Calls.

Since 2013, Jones has been the voice of the lead character, Joey Oldman, in the BBC Radio 4 series The Corrupted, an adaptation of the G. F. Newman novel Crime and Punishment. On December 2, 2012, he played Napoleon Bonaparte in Anthony Burgess's Napoleon Rising on Radio 3. In 2013, he played Kotris in the award-winning Doctor Who audio play, Dark Eyes, and read an abridged version of "The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry for the BBC. In 2020, he portrayed Falstaff in BBC Radio 3's Henry IV, Part 1.

In 2021, Jones recorded the audiobook versions of John Le Carré's final novel Silverview for Penguin Audio and, for Harper Audio, the seminal dystopian novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin in a translation by Bela Shayevich.

3.5. Theme park attractions

4.1. Marriage and Children

Toby Jones is married to Karen Jones. On The Graham Norton Show, Jones revealed that he and Karen were together for 26 years before they married in 2015. They have two daughters together.

5.1. Film

5.2. Television

5.3. Theatre