Shetland is having a bit of a shake-up as Samuel Anderson has joined the cast as procurator fiscal Matt Blake, following the departure of Harry Lamont (Tibu Fortes) at the end of the last season. Samuel, 42, is an accomplished actor, having starred in major shows like Doctor Who, Amandaland and Trollied. However, away from the screen, the star prefers to keep his private life out of the public eye. Here's everything you need to know about the new Shetland star…
Early life and career
The actor was born in 1982 to an Irish mother and Jamaican father. The family lived in Handsworth when Samuel was born, before later moving to Perry Barr when he was 11. Speaking to The Birmingham Post in 2006 about what got him into acting, he said: "I was on the bus one day with my cousin, when I was about 15. We used to go rollerblading. He was getting off the bus in the city centre because he was going to college, and I didn't know he did anything like that.
"He said he was going to a drama college, the Birmingham Theatre School, which was based at the old Rep. I was kind of interested in that and I decided to follow along in the next couple of weeks. At that stage I didn't really want to do anything. I just wanted to muck about, to be honest. There was no career that appealed to me. I couldn't play football. I suppose the same as all 15-year-olds, I thought I would chill out as long as possible."
Samuel soon found himself on stage in Alan Bennett's The History Boys, in which he played opposite Richard Griffiths and James Corden. He played Crowther in the play and later portrayed the same character when he made his film debut in an adaptation of the production. On the silver screen, he's also appeared alongside the late Dame Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van, and in 2024, he appeared in the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black.
However, much of his acting career has taken place on television. Samuel made his television debut in Doctors before appearing in soap opera Emmerdale as police officer, Ross Kirk, between 2007 and 2009. Other early credits include Fingers in James Corden's Gavin & Stacey, Jason in Totally Frank and Julius in Hex.
He later started landing larger parts, including as Danny Pink in Doctor Who, the on-off boyfriend of Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman). Samuel also played Daniel Wilson in Sky comedy series Trollied, Patrick in the BBC's Witless and William in Netflix's Another Life. More recently, he joined the cast of Amandaland as Mal, a neighbour of Amanda (Lucy Punch).
Personal life
The 42-year-old keeps a lot of his personal life away from the cameras, not even having official social media pages and it's currently unknown whether he is dating. The star has two sisters, who both have a rare condition caused by variants in the PRMT7 gene. This had led to severe developmental delays and decreased muscle tone.
The actor is incredibly proud of his two sisters, and speaking to The Sunday Times in March, he said: "They're the oldest people alive with this condition. Normally I'm the most chilled-out person – good luck if you can offend me – but when I was younger, if people would give them a funny look or say something about them, I'd see the red mist. Now I understand it's a lack of understanding on their part, but then…"