Peter Polycarpou

Polycarpou’s film career includes roles in Evita (1996), Oklahoma! (1999), and De-Lovely (2004). On television, he appeared in The Bill, Holby City, Casualty, Waking the Dead, EastEnders (2006), and Tyrant (2015). In music, he recorded the theme song for Love Hurts in 1992, which reached No. 26 on the UK Singles Chart.

On stage, Polycarpou was the first actor to play John Thomas in Miss Saigon on the West End. He was an original cast member of Les Misérables, understudying Enjolras while playing Jean Prouvaire, and later portrayed Grantaire and Thénardier. He reprised Jean Prouvaire in Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert (1995) and has played The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. He appeared in the UK premiere of David Mamet’s The Woods at the Finborough Theatre and played Dr. Neville Craven in the original West End production of The Secret Garden. In Oklahoma! (1998–1999), he played Ali Hakim opposite Hugh Jackman.

Polycarpou’s later stage work includes leading roles in Imagine This (2008), Love Story (2010–2011), Sweeney Todd (2011), Guys and Dolls (2014), City of Angels (2014), Oslo (2017–2018), and Man of La Mancha (2019). He appeared at Chichester Festival Theatre in Love Story and Sweeney Todd, and his performance as Ahmed Qurie in Oslo earned him a 2018 Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. On radio, he portrayed Omar Yussef in BBC adaptations (2018) and narrated Where the Line is Drawn (2018).

In film outside of mainstream cinema, he starred in O Jerusalem (2007), the short film Broken, and co-directed the short Mad George. As a playwright, he staged Searching for the Lemons and Cypriot Graffiti at Theatro Technis, focusing on UK Cypriot identity.