David Thewlis

David Wheeler (born March 20, 1963), better known as David Thewlis, is an English actor and filmmaker. He is known as a character actor and has appeared in a wide variety of genres in both film and television. He has received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and nominations for two BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Award, Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Thewlis made his film debut in Little Dorrit (1987) and acted in the Mike Leigh films Life is Sweet (1990) and Naked (1993), winning the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for the latter. He then appeared in films such as Black Beauty (1994), Restoration (1995), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Dragonheart (1996), and Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He became more widely known to film audiences for his roles as Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter franchise (2004–2011) and Ares / Sir Patrick Morgan in Wonder Woman (2017). Other film roles include Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), War Horse (2011), The Theory of Everything (2014), Anomalisa (2015), I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), and Enola Holmes 2 (2022).

Thewlis’ most notable television roles include V. M. Varga in the third season of FX’s Fargo (2017), the voice of the Shame Wizard in the Netflix animated sitcoms Big Mouth (2017–present) and Human Resources (2022–present), Christopher Edwards in the HBO miniseries Landscapers (2021), and John Dee in the Netflix drama series The Sandman (2022). His performance in Fargo earned him nominations for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Critics’ Choice Award.

Known For

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Not in library

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2004

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Not in library

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

2011

Wonder Woman Not in library

Wonder Woman

2017

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Not in library

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Not in library

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Not in library

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

2010

Justice League Not in library

Justice League

2017

The Big Lebowski Not in library

The Big Lebowski

1998

The Theory of Everything Not in library

The Theory of Everything

2014

Zack Snyder's Justice League Not in library

Zack Snyder's Justice League

2021

Acting

2026 Signal One
2026 Dirty Business as Ash Smith (3 episodes)
2025 The Thing with Feathers as Crow (voice)
2025 Avatar: Fire and Ash as Peylak In Library
2025 Sherlock & Daughter as Sherlock Holmes (8 episodes)
2024 KAOS as Hades (6 episodes)
2023 The Artful Dodger as Norbert Fagin (16 episodes)
2022 Enola Holmes 2 as Grail
2022 The Amazing Maurice as Boss Man / Rat King (voice)
2022 Human Resources as Memory Bank Manager (voice) (1 episode)
2022 Human Resources as Lionel St. Swithens (voice) (20 episodes)
2022 The Sandman as John Dee (4 episodes)
2021 Rare Beasts as Vic
2021 Zack Snyder's Justice League as Ares
2021 Landscapers as Christopher Edwards (4 episodes)
2020 Eternal Beauty as Mike
2020 Guest of Honour as Jim
2020 I'm Thinking of Ending Things as Father
2020 Barkskins as Claude Trepagny (8 episodes)
2019 The Feed as Lawrence Hatfield (10 episodes)
2018 The Mercy as Rodney Hallworth
2018 Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal as Self (archive footage)
2017 Wonder Woman as Sir Patrick / Ares
2017 Harry Potter: A History Of Magic as Himself
2017 Justice League as Ares
2017 Big Mouth as Shame Wizard (voice) (8 episodes)
2017 Big Mouth
2016 None of Them Are You: Crafting Anomalisa as Self
2015 Queen & Country as Sargeant Major Bradley
2015 Macbeth as Duncan
2015 Regression as Professor Kenneth Raines
2015 Legend as Leslie Payne
2015 An Inspector Calls as Inspector Goole - The Inspector
2015 Anomalisa as Michael Stone (voice)
2014 The Theory of Everything as Dennis Sciama
2014 Stonehearst Asylum as Mickey Finn
2014 Sunday Roast as Dick Puck
2014 Fargo as V.M. Vargas (10 episodes)
2013 RED 2 as The Frog
2013 The Zero Theorem as Joby
2013 The Fifth Estate as Nick Davies
2013 Separate We Come, Separate We Go as Norman
2012 Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen as (archive footage)
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Remus Lupin
2011 Anonymous as William Cecil
2011 War Horse as Lyons
2011 The Lady as Michael Aris
2011 The Organ Grinder's Monkey as Pablo (voice)
2011 How to Get a Head in Sculpture as Self
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 as Remus Lupin
2010 Mr. Nice as Jim McCann
2010 London Boulevard as Jordan
2010 Athena as Chuck
2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as Remus Lupin
2009 Veronika Decides to Die as Dr. Blake
2008 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as Father
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Remus Lupin
2007 The Inner Life of Martin Frost as Martin Frost
2006 The Omen as Keith Jennings
2006 Basic Instinct 2 as Roy Washburn
2006 All the Invisible Children as Jonathan (segment "Jonathan")
2006 The Street as Joe Jennerson / Harry Jennerson (6 episodes)
2005 Kingdom of Heaven as Hospitaler
2005 The New World as Wingfield
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as Remus Lupin
2004 The Magic Touch of Harry Potter as Self
2003 Timeline as Robert Doniger
2003 Cheeky as Harry Sankey
2003 Little Wolf's Book of Badness as Mr. Twister (voice)
2002 D.I.Y. Hard as Man
2002 Hamilton Mattress as Hamilton Mattress (voice)
2002 Dinotopia as Cyrus Crabb
2002 Discovering Dinotopia as Cyrus
2002 Dinotopia as Cyrus Crabb (3 episodes)
2001 Goodbye Charlie Bright as Charlie's Dad
2000 Gangster No. 1 as Freddie Mays
2000 The Miracle Maker as Judas Iscariot (voice)
2000 Endgame as Clov
2000 Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? as Nesbit
1999 Love Story as Dealer
1998 Divorcing Jack as Dan Starkey
1998 Besieged as Jason Kinsky
1998 The Big Lebowski as Knox Harrington
1997 Seven Years in Tibet as Peter Aufschnaiter
1997 The Making of 'DragonHeart' as Self
1997 American Perfekt as Santini
1996 James and the Giant Peach as Earthworm (voice)
1996 DragonHeart as King Einon
1996 The Island of Dr. Moreau as Douglas
1995 Restoration as John Pearce
1995 Total Eclipse as Paul Verlaine
1994 Black Beauty as Jerry Barker
1994 Dreamtown: A Brief Anatomy of Blackpool as Self
1994 Dandelion Dead as Oswald Martin (4 episodes)
1993 Naked as Johnny
1993 The Trial as Franz
1993 Frank Stubbs Promotes as Mike Bence (1 episode)
1992 Damage as Detective
1992 Swords at Teatime as Mike
1992 Black and Blue as Crematorium Attendant
1991 Afraid of the Dark as Locksmith / Tom Miller
1991 Filipina Dreamgirls as Tim Shanks
1991 Journey to Knock as Terry
1991 Skulduggery as Tony
1991 Prime Suspect as James Jackson (2 episodes)
1990 Life Is Sweet as Nicola's Lover
1990 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit as Doctor (3 episodes)
1989 Resurrected as Kevin Deakin
1989 A Bit of a Do
1988 Vroom as Ringe
1988 Deep Red Instant Love
1987 Road as Joey
1987 The Short & Curlies as Clive
1987 Little Dorrit as George Braddle
1987 Valentine Park as Max (12 episodes)
1986 The Singing Detective as Soldier (2 episodes)
1985 Radio Pictures as JIM 'Grams'
1985 Screen Two as Franz (1 episode)
1981 Only Fools and Horses as Stew (1 episode)

Directing

2003 Cheeky Director
1995 Hello, Hello, Hello Director

Writing

2014 Sunday Roast Writer
2003 Cheeky Writer
1995 Hello, Hello, Hello Writer