# Hugh Quarshie

Hugh Anthony Quarshie (born 22 December 1954) is a Ghanaian-born British actor. He is known for his long-running role as Ric Griffin on the BBC One medical drama Holby City (2001–20), and for playing Captain Panaka in the Star Wars film Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).
He is also known for stage roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which he has been a member since 1981 and an associate since 2005. His film work includes Highlander, Nightbreed and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In 1987, he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and in 2022 he was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for playing Neville Lawrence in Stephen (2021). He has also won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and an Emmy Award.

## Early life

A member of the Euro-African community of Ghana, Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry. He was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina (née Phillips; 1917–2004) and Richard Quarshie (1913–2006). His mother was of chiefly ancestry; her relatives currently serve as the chiefs of the Ghanaian village of Abii.
Hugh emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom at the age of three. He was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset and Dean Close School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (during which time he played the role of Othello at the Tuckwell Theatre), before reading PPE at Christ Church, Oxford.

## Career

Quarshie had considered becoming a journalist before taking up acting. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and has appeared in many stage productions and television programmes, including the serial Behaving Badly with Judi Dench. He is well known for playing the roles of Sunda Kastagir in Highlander, Captain Panaka in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and Ric Griffin on the television series Holby City. He attended the Star Wars fan event "Star Wars Celebration" in 1999. He portrayed Lieutenant Obutu in Wing Commander.
He appeared in the 2007 two-part Doctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as Solomon, the leader of the shanty town Hooverville. He headed the cast of Michele Soavi's The Church (1989) as Father Gus, and played Aaron the Moor in the BBC Television Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
Quarshie has also narrated for television. His work includes the 2006 documentary Mega Falls of Iguacu (about the Iguaçu Falls), the 2009 adaptation of Small Island, and the 2010 BBC Wildlife series The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart.

## Personal life

In September 2010, Quarshie featured in an episode of the television genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he traced his Ghanaian and Dutch origins. The episode revealed that Quarshie is part of his country's old mixed-race elite as one of his ancestors, Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, was a Dutch official on the Gold Coast. This also made him a distant relative of Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling.

## Political views

Quarshie is a supporter of the Women's Equality Party.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1980 | The Dogs of War | Zangaron Officer | |
| 1985 | Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend | Kenge Obe | |
| 1986 | Highlander | Sunda Kastagir | |
| 1989 | La Chiesa | Father Gus | |
| 1990 | Nightbreed | Detective Joyce | |
| 1999 | Wing Commander | Lieutenant Obutu | |
| 1999 | Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | Captain Panaka | |
| 2000 | It Was An Accident | George Hurlock | |
| 2000 | Threesome | Dave | Short film |
| 2003 | Conspiracy of Silence | Fr Joseph Ennis, SJ | |
| 2011 | Ghosted | Ade | |
| 2012 | Black Magic | | Short film |
| 2013 | The Meeting | Jack | Short film |
| 2018 | Red Sparrow | Simon Benford | |
| 2018 | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Mustafa Kama | |
| 2020 | What Matters | Ewan | Short film |
| 2021 | Fire Ants | Ewen | Short film |
| 2022 | The Railway Children Return | General Harrison | |
| 2023 | Book Club: The Next Chapter | Ousmane | |
| 2024 | The Return | Imphinomous | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1968 | Scene | | Episode: "Wide Games" |
| 1979 | The Knowledge | Campion | TV movie |
| 1980 | Buccaneer | Major Nbodi | 2 episodes |
| 1981 | Wolcott | Dennis St George | Miniseries |
| 1981 | The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs | Danny Young | TV movie |
| 1981 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Philostrate | TV movie |
| 1983 | Rumpole of the Bailey | Jonathan Mazenze | Episode: "Rumpole and the Golden Thread" |
| 1983 | Angels | Turi Mimi | 2 episodes |
| 1984 | Sharma and Beyond | Man on Stairs | TV movie |
| 1985 | Titus Andronicus | Aaron | TV movie |
| 1985 | Alas Smith and Jones | | 1 episode |
| 1986–89 | ScreenPlay | Mike / Wallace | 2 episodes |
| 1988 | A Gentleman's Club | Baba | Episode: A Question of Er... |
| 1989 | Behaving Badly | Daniel | 4 episodes |
| 1991 | Chancer | Kazeem | 2 episodes |
| 1991 | Press Gang | Inspector Hibbert | 2 episodes |
| 1992–94 | Medics | Dr. Tom Carey | 19 episodes |
| 1992 | Surgical Spirit | Fergus Debonaire | 1 episode |
| 1992 | Virtual Murder | Dr. Mellor | Episode: A Dream of Dracula |
| 1992 | The Tomorrow People | Professor John Galt | 5 episodes (The 5-part story officially known as "The Origin Story") |
| 1993 | The Comic Strip Presents... | Lieutenant Delaney | Episode: Gregory: Diary of a Nutcase |
| 1993 | Red Dwarf | Computer Voice | Episode: "Emohawk: Polymorph II" |
| 1994 | Horizon | Narrator (voice) | Documentary |
| 1994 | The Chief | Vincent Pierce | 1 episode |
| 1994 | MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis | Inspector Rhodes | TV movie |
| 1994 | Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | Cassius (voice) | Episode: Julius Caesar |
| 1999 | The Murder of Stephen Lawrence | Neville Lawrence | TV movie |
| 2000 | Arabian Nights | Mustappa | Miniseries |
| 2000 | Jason and the Argonauts | Chiron the Centaur | Miniseries |
| 2001 | In Deep | Jim Craddock |
| 2001–2020, 2022 | Holby City | Ric Griffin | 506 episodes |
| 2004–2019 | Casualty | Ric Griffin | |
| 2007 | Doctor Who | Solomon | Episodes: "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" |
| 2009 | Hot Cities | Narrator | 8 episodes |
| 2012 | White Heat | Victor | 6 episodes |
| 2017 | Still Star-Crossed | Prince Cosimo | 3 episodes |
| 2019 | Absentia | Dr. Semo Oduwale | Season 2 |
| 2021 | Stephen | Neville Lawrence | Miniseries |
| 2021–2022 | Breeders | Alex | 6 episodes |
| 2022 | Vera | Dr. Leon Palmer | Episode: "Vital Signs" |
| 2022 | Silent Witness | | Series 25; Episode: "History Part 1" |
| 2022 | Riches | Stephen Richards | |
| 2023 | Maryland | Pete | 3 episodes |
| 2024 | McDonald & Dodds | Clarence Adderley | Episode: "Jinxy Sings The Blues" |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1984 | Cymbeline | Posthumous | Royal Exchange, Manchester |
| 1985 | The Admirable Crichton | Crichton | Royal Exchange, Manchester |
| 1995 | Goethe's Faust | Mephistopheles | RSC |
| 1995 | Julius Caesar | Mark Antony | RSC |
| 2015 | Othello | Othello | RSC |