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Anatol Yusef
Anatol Yusef
Education	Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2000)
Occupations	Actor; Writer; Director;

Anatol Yusef is an English film, television and stage actor, writer, director. He was born in Barking, East London and is best known for his work at The Royal Shakespeare Company, for his portrayal of Meyer Lansky in the television series Boardwalk Empire, and Channel 4's Southcliffe.

Biography

As a teenager, Yusef found early work in television shows including Jeeves and Wooster, Grange Hill, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He appeared in the films Batman and Aliens (director's cut). He received the country’s highest marks in GCSE and A-Level Drama studies which awarded him a scholarship from Essex County Council for Acting School. He then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. While training he worked on the television show, Thief Takers and was a finalist in the BBC Carleton Hobbs Radio Award.^[1]In his formative years Anatol also enjoyed success in national public speaking competitions which earned him the position of compère at Youth Makes music festival at the Royal Albert Hall.

Upon graduating drama school in 2000, Yusef was offered a role in Fred Schepisi's award-winning film Last Orders, playing the younger self of Bob Hoskins' "Ray" and working with British actors Sir Michael Caine, Dame Helen Mirren, Ray Winstone, David Hemmings, and Tom Courtenay.^[2]

He became a resident company member with the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the RSC's production of King Lear, Nicholas de Jongh of the London Evening Standard claimed "Anatol Yusef's tremendous Cornwall, the best [he] [had] ever seen".^[3]

In 2006, Yusef's performance as Mercutio in Bill Bryden's Romeo and Juliet at the Birmingham Rep was heralded as "sparkl[ing]"^[4]

In 2008, Yusef appeared in the title role in a New York off-off Broadway production of Richard III, and was described by Backstage as "a superlative actor" and "magnetic".^[5] Yusef has since remained in New York City. He has worked throughout New York, in 2011 appearing in A Movement of the Soul, playing Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, for which he learned American Sign Language. In 2012, he appeared in José Rivera’s “Massacre (Sing to Your Children)” and received special mention by David Rooney in The New York Times for his role as Joe.^[6]

From 2009–2012 he was co-founder and joint-artistic director of Fixitsolife Theater Company in Manhattan, New York.

In 2010 he was cast as Meyer Lansky in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, first appearing in Episode 7 of Season 1, "Home" and remained throughout the series. In an interview with The Morton Report, Yusef described Lansky as self-educated, a massively intelligent overachiever and "a ruthless, ruthless man".^[7] Anatol's characterization of Mr. Lansky has been recognized in many publications, including from author and critic Clive James's article in Prospect magazine, 'Martin Scorsese: American God’ ^[8] where he describes Yusef’s as “the most impressive performance in the show,” as well as Michael Noble's review of the show on Den of Geek.^[9]

In 2014 he appeared in a central ensemble including, Rory Kinnear, Shirley Henderson, Sean Harris, and Eddie Marsan, in Channel 4's BAFTA-nominated Southcliffe, receiving special mention in an article by IndieWire on the best TV episodes of 2014.^[10]

In 2016, Yusef narrated the European championship series on Howler Radio, a collection of five podcast narratives written by a selection football journalists, the most popular being "The Summer Football Came Home".^[11]

In 2017, he appeared as Laertes and the Player King in Sam Gold’s Hamlet at the Public Theatre with Oscar Isaac in the title role. He received unilaterally excellent reviews including, Marilyn Stasio of Variety who stated that “he makes his presence felt in a riveting performance”^[12] and Ben Brantley of The New York Times added that he “is splendid as a pugilistic Laertes and a lyrical Player King.”^[13] Helen Shaw also commented that Anatol “does a speech as the Player that runs rings around the stars nearby.”^[14]^[15]

In 2018, Anatol starred as King Leontes in Arin Arbus’ production of The Winter’s Tale at Theatre for a New Audience, again receiving positive reviews. Off Off Online praised him as “completely convincing, masterly in the language and commanding a range of emotions.”^[16] Jesse Green of The New York Times called the production terrific and haled Anatol’s performance.^[17]

Anatol was last seen on stage playing opposite Elizabeth McGovern in the two-hander Ava: The Secret Conversations, directed by Gaby Dellal, and written by McGovern. His portrayal of biographer Peter Evans as well as turns as Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, and Artie Shaw were described as "capturing the essence of Ava’s trio of lovers with an interesting character performance that really brings the story to life.”^[18]

Upcoming releases include You Can't Win, & Day Of The Fight, directed by Jack Huston.

As well as an upcoming book of short stories and poetry.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Last Orders	Young Ray
2003	Ten Minutes	Peter	Short
2003	The Gathering	The Gathering
2006	O Jerusalem	Major Tell
2009	The Reward	Felix	Short
2011	Corner Shop	Danny	Short
2016	Bastille Day	Tom Luddy
2024	You can't Win	Dirty Dick
2023	Day of the Fight

Television

Year	Title	Role
1990, 1992	Jeeves and Wooster	Sydney Blumenfield	Seasons 1 and 3
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Hubert Van Hook	Episode: "Benares, January 1910"
1995	Grange Hill	Mark	Episode #18.4
1999	Thief Takers	Aziz	Episode: "Shadows"
2000	Second Sight: Kingdom of the Blind	Sandwich Shop Owner	TV movie
2002, 2006	The Bill	Rick Lessalles, Kevin Mann	2 episodes
2003	Trial & Retribution	PC Barry Skinner	2 episodes
2003	The Afternoon Play: Turkish Delight	Ahmed
2010–2014	Boardwalk Empire	Meyer Lansky	31 episodes
2013	Southcliffe	Paul Gould	TV miniseries
2016	Preacher	Deblanc	Season 1

Theatre

Year	Title	Role
2000	The Mysteries	Herod/Cain
2000	Under Milk Wood	Rev. Eli Jenkins, Dai Bread
2000	After Miss Julie	John
2002	Blackbird	Sarhad
2004	Best of Motives	Ahmed
2005	King Lear	Duke of Cornwall
2005	Romeo and Juliet	Sampson
2005	Macbeth	Banquo
2006	Romeo and Juliet	Mercutio
2007	Startled Response	Umut
2008	Richard III	Richard III
2009	Moonlight	Jake
2010	Proof	Hal
2010	The Science of Guilt	Kevin
2011	A Movement of the Soul	Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
2012	Massacre (Sing to Your Children)	Joe
2017	Hamlet	Laertes, The Player King
2018	The Winter's Tale	Leontes
2022	Ava: The Secret Conversations	Peter Evans, Frank Sinatra, Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw