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Writer and actor Ian Kelly's career spans film, theatre and tv from Broadway to London's West End and National Theatre, and from Merchant Ivory to Harry Potter to classics of modern Russian cinema. He is also a bestselling historical biographer, and award winning West End playwright and screenwriter.
He now co-writes with Julian Fellowes (The Rothschilds) as well as developing tv and film projects in France, the UK and USA. His first full length play, Mr Foote's Other Leg, based on his book the same title, broke all box office records at Hampstead Theatre before transferring straight into the West End, directed by Sir Richard Eyre, starring Sir Simon Russell Beale.
Raised in Philadelphia, the West Country and North West of England of British parents, Kelly graduated from both Cambridge University and UCLA's film school on scholarships before embarking on twin acting and writing careers.
Film work includes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 (Hermione's father), The King's Man, Creation, The Children Act, In Love and War, Howards End and the Russian films Admiral Kolchak and Voina (War) - Nominated for Best Actor, Montreal Film Festival
TV work includes Downton Abbey, Sensitive Skin, The Moth, Silent Witness, Hetty Wainthropp, Just William, Beau Brummell, Underworld, Time Trumpet, Drop the Dead Donkey
Theatre work includes (Broadway, West End, National Theatre) The Pitmen Painters (original cast) Mr Foote's Other Leg, A Busy Day. Off Broadway; Cooking for Kings, Beau Brummell. Also: Arcadia (Manchester; Nominated Best Actor), Relative Values, Pygmalion, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Single Spies, Macbeth, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Changeling, Hippolytus.
As a writer: books include biographies of Beau Brummell, Casanova, Antonin Carême, Samuel Foote and the official biography of Vivienne Westwood (co written with Dame Vivienne). Plays include; Mr Foote's Other Leg (Hampstead and West End) Cooking for Kings (Off Broadway) and Playing for Stalin - commissioned for the Salzburg Festival. The scenario of the Kenneth Tindall ballet, Casanova, was written by Kelly, based on his biography of Casanova (Outstanding Achievement in Dance Award, 2017, Sadlers Wells, BroadwayWorld). Kelly is co-writing with Kit de Waal a play for Birmingham Rep on Frank Barber, Britain's first Black schoolteacher. His first radio play, The Painted Hall, was broadcast in 2022 starring Jane Asher and Hugh Bonneville. As a screenwriter, current works include The Rothschilds, for MGMtv, co-writing with Julian Fellowes, Cooking for Kings, (based on the biography of Carême) for l'Insense Films and Endemol Shine, Paris, also Messiah, for SDG Productions, Sundance, ep 2 of Arabia, for MBC Dubai, The Serpent and the Moon, co-writing with Julian Fellowes, Burns, originally for LionsgateUK, Fortunes, for Lionsgatetv, Northcliffe, for Quidem Films, Alexandre Dumas, co-writing with Candace Allen, and an untitled 18th century comedy series for Mercury/Kudos
