Gordon Warnecke

Gordon was born in Highgate, London to Edward and Iris Warnecke. His father came from Germany and his mother from Guyana, South America. Both of them settled in England when they were quite young before they met each other. Gordon attended a comprehensive school in North London and not attaining the grades to go to university to study English he went on to study acting at the De Leon Drama School in Richmond. When he left he joined M6 Theatre Company where he obtained his Equity acting card and then performed for various theatre companies before getting his break through film role in the award winning film My Beautiful Laundrette, written by Hanif Kuerishi and directed by Stephen Frears, playing Omar, the co-lead with Daniel Day-Lewis. He has since worked extensively in Film, Television and Theatre. Film credits include Franco Zeffirelli's Young Toscanini, Exitz and most recently the Canadian feature film, Venus, directed by Eisha Marjara. Television credits include A Fatal Inversion, Dr Who, EastEnders, Only Fools And Horses and Holby City. In theatre he has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Julius Caesar, The Jew Of Malta and Three Sisters), Borderline with the Nuffield Theatre, Blood at the Royal Court Theatre, the award winning Monkey Bars (Unicorn Theatre) and last year a stage adaptation by Hanif Kuerishi of his film script My Beautiful Laundrette which toured. This time round he played Papa, the father of Omar who he played in the original film. He is divorced and has one son and lives with his partner, Hilary, in Hertfordshire. When Gordon is not acting he writes and directs his own short films and co-runs a small film company, 2Step Media that makes films to promote businesses on line as well as educational videos. He is a die hard Arsenal football supporter.