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CAST BIOGRAPHIES
  
DEV PATEL (Ramanujan)
 
Dev Patel plays the legendary Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (22 December 1887 - 26 April 1920), who was born into a poor Brahmin family in a small village near Chennai in South India but developed an inspirational knowledge of mathematics. He was invited to further his studies at Trinity College at Cambridge University by renowned Professor G.H. Hardy. Together their collaborations are still revered by contemporary mathematicians. Ramanujan contracted tuberculosis while at Cambridge and died at the early age of 32 a year after his return to his native India.

Patel recently starred opposite Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, and Richard Gere in John Madden’s The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for Fox Searchlight, and opposite Hugh Jackman, Sharlto Copley and Sigourney Weaver in Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie for Columbia. 

Patel also starred opposite Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer in all three seasons of HBO’s Golden Globe® nominated series, The Newsroom, created by Aaron Sorkin.  He was nominated for a 2013 NAACP Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of “Neal” in the show.

Patel starred opposite Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, and Dame Maggie Smith in John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for Fox Searchlight.  The film was a worldwide commercial success and was nominated for numerous Golden Globe® and SAG® awards.

Patel catapulted to success in 2009 when he starred in the Academy Award® winning film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle. He received rave reviews for his performance and garnered a number of award wins including the National Board of Review Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, The British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer, The Broadcast Film Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor, and The Chicago & Washington Film Critics’ Awards for Most Promising Performer.  Patel also starred in the cult hit Skins for the BBC.

Patel can next be seen opposite Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara in Garth Davis’s Lion for The Weinstein Company.


JEREMY IRONS (G.H. Hardy)

Irons plays renowned Cambridge Professor, Godfrey Harold “G. H.” Hardy FRS (7 February 1877 - 1 December 1947), an English mathematician known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. Those outside the field of mathematics usually recognize Hardy by his 1940 essay on the aesthetics of mathematics, “A Mathematician’s Apology,” which is often considered one of the best insights into the mind of a working mathematician written for the layman. Starting in 1914, Hardy was the mentor of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, a relationship that has become celebrated. Hardy almost immediately recognized Ramanujan’s extraordinary albeit untutored brilliance, and Hardy and Ramanujan became close collaborators. In an interview when Hardy was asked what his greatest contribution to mathematics was, Hardy unhesitatingly replied that it was the discovery of Ramanujan. He called their collaboration “the one romantic incident in my life.”


Irons won the Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance as Claus von Bülow in the Edward R. Pressman produced Reversal of Fortune. He is also a Golden Globe®, Emmy®, Tony®, and SAG® award winner.

The British-born Irons has an extraordinary legacy of film, television and theatre performances including: The French Lieutenant’s Woman, in which he starred opposite Meryl Streep; The Mission; and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. Irons starred in Damage and M. Butterfly before he made pop culture history as the voice of the evil lion Scar in Disney’s classic The Lion King.

Irons showed his grasp of the action genre starring opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard: With A Vengeance, and also starred as Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne’s Lolita. Other career highlights include: Being Julia with Annette Bening; Appaloosa with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen; and Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty. Irons received a Tony® for his performance in Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing and most recently appeared in London in the National Theatre’s Never So Good and in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Gods Weep. Irons is probably best known for his role as Charles Ryder in the cult TV series Brideshead Revisited. Irons joined Helen Mirren and director Tom Hooper in the award-winning television miniseries Elizabeth I. Irons was also lauded for his portrayal of iconic photographer Alfred Stieglitz in the award-winning biographical picture Georgia O’Keeffe.

Irons recent film work includes the award-winning independent feature Margin Call with Kevin Spacey; The Words with Bradley Cooper, Night Train to Lisbon directed by Bille August. 

In addition, Irons adds the credit of executive producer, in Trashed, a Blenheim Production feature documentary directed by Candida Brady, where he is featured as an investigative reporter. Trashed continues to play in theaters and festivals globally. Over a span of three years, commencing in 2010, Irons took on the role of Pope Alexander VI in the epic Showtime series The Borgias, a historical- fiction television drama created by Neil Jordan. The series, set around the turn of the 16th century, follows the Borgia family, an Italian dynasty of Spanish origin.

Fans can look forward to seeing Irons in many films coming up as he has recently completed production on: High-Rise, Jeremy Thomas’ anticipated JG Ballard adaptation from director Ben Wheatley; Race, directed by Stephen Hopkins, based on the true story of Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics, in which Irons portrays Avery Brundage; and, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where Irons plays the role of Alfred Pennyworth, directed by Zack Snyder. Warner Bros., which will be released worldwide on March 25th, 2016.

Irons has recently completed production on The Correspondent, directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore. 


DEVIKA BHISE (Janaki)

Newcomer Devika Bhise plays Ramanujan’s young wife, Janaki, an unassuming bright-eyed girl who lived in a village so tiny it appears on none but the most detailed maps. Ramanujan and Janaki’s marriage was arranged after Ramanujan’s mother compared their horoscopes and determined the two were a good match. The two were married in 1909, and later moved to Madras when Ramanujan got a clerical job in the Madras Port Trust. They lived with Ramanujan’s mother until Ramanujan left for England in 1914. After having been apart for almost five years, Janaki and Ramanujan reunited in Madras in 1919, where Janaki nursed an ill Ramanujan till his utimely death in 1920. Janaki never remarried, but financially supported the education of several children and became a foster mother to the son of a close friend. She died at the age of 94.

Born and raised in New York City, Bhise has been singing, acting, and performing since the age of five.  She began learning Bharatanatyam, the oldest form of Indian classical dance, in her early childhood, and over the years she has performed Bharatanatyam as a soloist at an array of venues in New York including Lincoln Center, Asia Society, Symphony Space, and Danny Kaye Playhouse.  Her love of dance was never limited to Bharatanatyam, and at the age of 13 she began to broaden her abilities by pursuing other styles such as jazz, modern dance, hip-hop, and salsa.

Bhise attended Brearley, an all-girls private school in Manhattan, where she participated in many school plays and musicals as well as productions in other New York City schools.  While at Brearley, she joined SAG by acting in her first film, The Accidental Husband, directed by Griffin Dunne.  Bhise is also an avid jazz vocalist and has performed solo jazz concerts as an invited artist for fundraisers at venues including The Plaza Hotel, Essex House, Select City Walk in New Delhi, and The Goa Literary Festival.  In twelfth grade, Bhise directed and produced a documentary film entitled Hijras: The Third Gender, which won the award for Best Social Documentary at the Independent Film and Video Festival in both New York and Los Angeles.  Consequently, Johns Hopkins University awarded her the Hodson Trust Scholarship for outstanding academics, leadership, and community service.

  At Johns Hopkins, Bhise not only actively participated in the theater program led by the esteemed John Astin but also acted in plays in Baltimore city.  Astin also served as her mentor for the Woodrow Wilson Research Fellowship, where Bhisé brought Kudiyattam, a nearly extinct UNESCO heritage art form to the United States for the first time.  The troupe made debut performances Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the Asia Society in New York City.  As a fellow, Bhise also wrote a comparative analysis between the acting techniques of contemporary western drama and ancient Sanskrit theater.

While in Baltimore, Bhise played the role of the goddess Namagiri in The Partition, a play based on Robert Kanigel’s book The Man Who Knew Infinity, at the Spotlighter’s Theater in Baltimore.  Most recently, Bhise acted in in Partial Comfort’s off-Broadway production of And Miles To Go, the CBS series Elementary, and the MTV series One Bad Choice.  


TOBY JONES (John Littlewood)

Toby Jones plays John Edensor Littlewood (9 June 1885 - 6 September 1977), who studied at Trinity College, Cambridge where he became the Senior Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1905. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1908. Most of Littlewood’s work was in the field of mathematical analysis. He began research under the supervision of Ernest William Barnes, who suggested that he attempt to prove the Riemann hypothesis. This work won him his Trinity fellowship. He coined Littlewood’s Law, which states that individuals can expect “miracles” to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. He continued to write papers into his 80s, particularly in analytical areas of what would become the theory of dynamical systems. Littlewood is also remembered for his book of reminiscences, A Mathematician’s Miscellany (new edition published in 1986). Among his own PhD students were Sarvadaman Chowla, Harold Davenport, Donald C. Spencer, and Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Littlewood collaborated for many years with G. H. Hardy and together they tutored Ramanujan during his period at Cambridge. They devised the first Hardy Littlewood conjecture, a strong form of the twin prime conjecture.

Multi-award winner Toby Jones is one of the most distinguished film, television and stage actors of his generation. He studied Drama at the University of Manchester and at L'École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris under Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

Jones can currently be seen in the FOX series Wayward Pines, Matteo Garrone’s The Tale Of Tales, which recently premiered in competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, and in By Our Selves, an experimental film by Andrew Kotting, which retraces the epic walk undertaken by poet John Clare from Epping Forest up into Northamptonshire.

Jones has just completed Capital, a three-part drama for BBC1 adapted from John Lanchester’s novel of the same name and is currently filming the Sci-Fi thriller, Morgan, produced by Ridley Scott for Twentieth Century Fox. Jones also recently finished filming Dad’s Army directed by Oliver Parker for Universal Pictures and Disney’s Alice In Wonderland: Through The Looking Glass.

Last year, Jones starred as Neil Baldwin in the BBC Two drama, Marvellous, which won the 2015 BAFTA for Best Single Film and earned Jones the BPG Best Actor Award and a nomination for a BAFTA and RTS Award. Jones was also the lead opposite Mackenzie Crook in the BAFTA-winning comedy series, Detectorists. Written and directed by Mackenzie, the story follows the relationship between two friends who share a passion for metal detecting. Jones will soon begin filming for series 2.

Jones won both the Capri European Talent Award and the award for Best British Actor at the London Film Critics Circle awards for his leading role as Truman Capote in Infamous. He was also nominated for British Supporting Actor of the Year at the 2008 London’s Critics’ Circle Film Awards for his role in The Painted Veil.

In 2012, Jones played ‘Gilderoy’ in Peter Strickland’s multi-award winning film, Berberian Sound Studio. For his performance, Jones won British Actor of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Choice Awards, Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards, and Best Actor at the London Evening Standard Awards. That same year, Jones played ‘Claudius Templesmith’ in the US box office hit, The Hunger Games. He reprised his role in the sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

In 2011, Jones appeared in My Week With Marilyn and played ‘Percy Alleline’ in multi-award winning film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Jones also starred as ‘Dr Arnim Zola’ in Paramount Pictures’ Captain America: The First Avenger and returned for The Winter Soldier earlier this year.

In 2009, Jones was nominated in the British Supporting Actor of the Year category at the London’s Critics Circle Film Awards for his role as ‘Swifty Lazar’ in Universal Pictures Frost/Nixon. Jones is also known as the voice of ‘Dobby’ the house elf in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 1, for which he was nominated for Best Digital Acting Performance at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards. Jones has also voiced the character of ‘Silk’ in Stephen Spielberg’s 2011 Golden Globe®-winning The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn.

In 2013, Jones led the cast in Leave To Remain, a film directed by BAFTA-winning documentarian Bruce Goodison. Toby’s other film credits include; Red Lights with Robert De Niro, The Rite with Anthony Hopkins, Virginia, Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘N Roll, Creation, Oliver Stone’s W, City Of Ember, St Trinians, The Mist, Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching, the Edward R. Pressman produced Amazing Grace directed by Michael Apted with Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon and Rufus Sewell, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies In Lavender, Finding Neverland, Orlando, and last year Susanne Bier’s Serena with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

Also in 2013, Jones starred opposite Sienna Miller and Imelda Staunton as ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ in The Girl for HBO and the BBC. Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe® for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, for Best Leading Actor at the BAFTAs and for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. His other television credits include: Christopher And His Kind (BBC), God In America (PBS), Doctor Who (BBC), Mo (C4), 10 Days To War (BBC), The Old Curiosity Shop (BBC), A Harlot’s Progress (C4), Elizabeth 1 (HBO), and The Way We Live Now (BBC).

For theatre, Jones was seen in Mirror Circle Transformation again opposite Imelda Staunton for the Royal Court. The play received rave reviews and Paul Taylor of the Independent stated, “Toby Jones is splendid as the pathologically awkward Schultz”. He was awarded the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for ‘Best Actor in a Supporting Role’ for his performance in The Play What I Wrote, a musical farce written by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben, starring Foley and McColl, and directed by Kenneth Branagh. The Olivier award-winning show was a celebration of the British double act Morecambe and Wise, and an irreverent and farcical exploration of the nature of double acts in general.

Jones starred as ‘Arthur’ at the Wyndham Theatre, London before the play opened on Broadway, New York, where it was nominated for a Tony® as Best Entertainment. Jones’s other theatre credits include: The Painter (Arcola Theatre), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (Olivier Theatre), Parlour Song (Almeida Theatre), and Measure For Measure (National Theatre with Complicite).


STEPHEN FRY (Sir Francis Spring)

Stephen Fry plays Sir Francis Joseph Edward Spring KCIE (20 January 1849 - 25 August 1933), who after graduating from Trinity College, served as Consulting Engineer to the Government of India and played a pivotal role in the development of railways in East India. Upon leaving the civil service in 1904, Spring was appointed Chairman of the Madras Port Trust and served in that position until 1919. He was a member of the Madras Legislative Council and a fellow of the University of Madras and the University of Calcutta. Between 1910 and 1913, he was a member of the Imperial Legislative Council of India.

The Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan worked as a Grade III Class IV clerk from 1912 to 1914 at the Madras Port Trust under Spring’s chairmanship. Ramaujan’s mathematical talents were made known to Spring by his chief accountant, S. Narayana Iyer. Soon, Spring developed an interest in him and lobbied for government support and sponsorship of his research studies in England, resulting in Ramanujan gaining entrance to Trinity College.

Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director and all round national treasure.

Whilst at university, Fry became involved with the Cambridge Footlights, where he met his long-time collaborator and friend Hugh Laurie. As half of the comic double act, Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and took the role of ‘Jeeves’ (with Laurie playing ‘Wooster’) in Jeeves and Wooster.

Fry’s acting roles include: the lead in the film Wilde; ‘Melchett’ in the BBC television series Blackadder; the titular character in the television series Kingdom; a recurring guest role as ‘Dr. Gordon Wyatt’ on the crime series Bones; as ‘Gordon Deitrich’ in the dystopian thriller V for Vendetta; ‘Mycroft Holmes’ in Warner’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows; and ‘The Master of Laketown’ in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Fry has also written and presented several documentary series, including the Emmy Award® winning Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, and is also the long-time host of the BBC television quiz show QI. He played ‘Prime Minister Alistair Davies’ in the 9th season of Fox TV’s 24: Live Another Day.

As a proudly out gay man, the award-winning Out There, documenting the lives of lesbian, bisexual gay and transgender people around the world is part of Fry’s thirty year advocacy of the rights of the LGBT community.

As well as his work in television, Fry has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines, appears frequently on radio, reads for voice-overs and has written four novels and three volumes of autobiography, Moab Is My Washpot, The Fry Chronicles and his latest, More Fool Me.


JEREMY NORTHAM (Bertrand Arthur William Russell)

Jeremy Northam plays Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM FRS (18 May 1872 - 2 February 1970), who was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense. In the early 20th century, Russell led the British “revolt against idealism.” He is widely held to be one of the 20th century’s premier logicians. With A. N. Whitehead he wrote “Principia Mathematica,” an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay, “On Denoting,” has been considered a “paradigm of philosophy.” His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.

Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed anti-imperialism and went to prison for his pacifism during World War I. Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticized Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament. In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.”

Northam was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, the youngest of four siblings and educated at Bristol Grammar School and Bedford College, University of London and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Northam performed at the Royal National Theatre where he replaced Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of Hamlet, and won the Olivier Award in 1990 for “most promising newcomer” for his performance in The Voysey Inheritance.

Northam made his American film debut in The Net, and has appeared frequently in British films such as Carrington, Emma, The Winslow Boy, An Ideal Husband, Enigma, and as Welsh actor and singer Ivor Novello in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park.

In 2002, he starred in the film Cypher alongside Lucy Liu. That same year, he portrayed singer Dean Martin in the CBS film Martin and Lewis. In 2004, he portrayed golfer Walter Hagen in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. In 2007 and 2008, he portrayed Thomas More on the Showtime series, The Tudors. He played John Brodie-Innes in the 2009 film Creation, based on the life of Charles Darwin. Most recently, he has been seen in Miami Medical, White Heat and New Worlds.


KEVIN R. MCNALLY (Percy Alexander MacMahon)

Kevin R. McNally plays Percy Alexander MacMahon (26 September 1854 - 25 December 1929), who was a mathematician especially noted in connection with the partitions of numbers and enumerative combinatorics. MacMahon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1890. At Cambridge, he would take on Ramanujan in friendly bouts of mental calculation and regularly thrash him. Hardy is known to have said “Major MacMahon was in general slightly the quicker and more accurate of the two.”

McNally was born in Bristol, England. At the age of 16, he got his first job at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. A year later he received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and in 1975 he won the Best Actor Bancroft Gold Medal for his stage performance. McNally’s most notable stage performances in London’s West End include his appearance as Alan Bennett opposite Maggie Smith in The Lady in the Van, and opposite Juliette Binoche in Naked. He also starred as Richard in Terry Johnson’s Dead Funny at the Savoy Theatre.

Since 1976, McNally has been involved in numerous TV productions beginning with his portrayal of the Roman ruler Castor, son of Tiberius, in the acclaimed BBC history series I, Claudius, and his portrayal of Drake Carne in the popular series Poldark. His career on television ascended after his work in Masada and in the cult TV series Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma. During the 1980s and 1990s, McNally established himself as a reputable and versatile actor on both the British and American television. He played a broad variety of leading and supporting characters ranging from the Soviet politician Kirov in Stalin, to homicide detective Jack Taylor in Chiller and from an insecure son, Alan Hook, in the TV series Dad, to a convicted murderer James Hopkin in Bloodlines. He also portrayed Frank Worsley in Shackleton (2002), as well as Harry Woolf in Life on Mars (2006). More recently, he has appeared in Downton Abbey, Supernatural and CSI.

McNally made his big screen debut as HMS Ranger Crewman in the James Bond adventure The Spy Who Loved Me. After having appeared in more than twenty feature films, McNally shot to international fame as pirate Joshamee Gibbs, his best known film role, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006). He returned in the role Joshamee Gibbs in the third installment of the Pirates’ franchise Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007).


RICHARD JOHNSON (Henry Jackson)

Richard Johnson plays Henry Jackson, OM, FBA (12 March 1839 - 25 September 1921), who was the vice-master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1914 to 1919. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1903 and was awarded the Order of Merit on June 26, 1908. From 1882 to 1892, Jackson sat on the Council of the Senate of the University of Cambridge, and was an active member of a number of the university boards. He lived within the walls of Trinity College for more than 50 years.

Born in Essex, Johnson went to Felsted School then trained at RADA and made his first professional appearances on stage with John Gielgud’s company. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy, and made his film debut in 1959, when he appeared in a major co-starring role in the MGM film Never So Few starring Frank Sinatra and Gina Lollobrigida. He was subsequently contracted by MGM to appear in one film per year over six years. His biggest successes as a film actor came with The Haunting (1963), opposite Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier in Khartoum (1966), the spy film Danger Route (1967), and as Bulldog Drummond (reimagined as a 007-type hero) in Deadlier Than the Male (1967) and its sequel Some Girls Do (1969). Johnson was director Terence Young’s choice for the role of James Bond, but he turned the producers down as he did not favor a lengthy contract. He also appeared in several Italian films, including Lucio Fulci’s cult classic, Zombi 2 and Sergio Martino’s L’isola degli uomini pesce (aka Island of the Fishmen). At the same time, he was a stage actor, appearing in the title role in Tony Richardson’s production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre in 1958. In the 1960s, he starred in an episode of the TV anthology The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, playing a con artist who fleeces Fay Bainter and is given his just deserts courtesy of Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Johnson’s stage career was extensive and distinguished. His early work in the London theatre attracted the attention of the director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. He appeared in many important productions at that theatre in the late 1950s and early 1960s, making notable successes as Romeo, Orlando, Pericles and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar. In 1958 he appeared in Sir Peter Hall’s first production at the theatre, Cymbeline, and the following year in Twelfth Night (as Sir Andrew Aguecheek). Hall took over the direction of the company in 1959 - it was renamed the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) - and he invited Johnson to be part of the first group of actors to be named an Associate Artist of the RSC, a position Johnson retains to this day. He continued to act with the RSC from time to time. Johnson’s most notable role was Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, which he played on two occasions in 1971-72 and 1991-92. He played the same role in ITV’s 1974 production and also appeared as the King in Cymbeline for BBC TV.

Other TV appearances include Rembrandt in the BBC’s Tony-award winning play of the same name and the leading role in Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, for which he was awarded the Best Actor prize (1993) by the TV critics’ Guild of Television Writers.

Johnson’s film credits include Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. He also worked on several TV films, appearing as Stanley Baldwin in Wallis & Edward in 2005, as Earl Mountbatten in Whatever Love Means in 2007, and in Lewis in 2009. He also contributed to British episodic TV, including Spooks, Waking the Dead, twice in Midsomer Murders, and twice in Doc Martin (as Colonel Gilbert Spencer). Beginning in 2007, Johnson led the cast of the BBC’s award-winning hit radio comedy series Bleak Expectations, which attained its 4th series in 2010.

Johnson wrote the original story for the 1975 thriller, Hennessy, starring Rod Steiger, himself and Lee Remick.

Throughout his career Johnson continued to teach Shakespearean skills to young actors and students. He toured American universities and taught summer schools at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. He was appointed to the Council of RADA in 2000, and also served as a Council Member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in the 1970s.

Johnson founded the British production company United British Artists (UBA) in 1981, and served as the company’s CEO until 1990 when he resigned in order to resume his acting career. During his tenure at UBA he produced the films Turtle Diary (starring Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley, with a screenplay commissioned from Harold Pinter), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (starring Maggie Smith, directed by Jack Clayton). In the London theatre he produced Harold Pinter’s Old Times, a revival of Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance at the Old Vic, and for theatre and TV, the docudrama Biko, about the death of the South African hero of apartheid-resistance.

Johnson passed away on June 6, 2015 at the age of 87. The Man Who Knew Infinity was Johnson’s last film.


ANTHONY CALF (Robert Alfred Herman)

Anthony Calf plays Robert Alfred Herman (1861 - 1927), a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who coached many students to a high wrangler rank in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. Herman, Littlewood’s friend and former Tripos coach, opposed Ramanujan’s Trinity fellowship due to doubts about Ramanujan’s mental state. However, he was forced to accept Ramanujan due to his status as a Fellow of the Royal Society; denying a F.R.S. would have been a scandal.

Calf was born in Hammersmith, London, and studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He has recurring roles in the television medical drama Holby City as ‘Michael Beauchamp’ and in New Tricks as ‘Strickland.’ He has also worked in theatre, where his credits include productions of The Madness of King George II with the National Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the New Shakespeare Co., and in Rock ‘n’ Roll at The Royal Court Theatre. He has been nominated as best actor in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2008 for his work in Uncle Vanya at Gate Theatre. He appeared in the critically acclaimed production of My Fair Lady at The Sheffield Crucible in the role of Colonel Pickering alongside Dominic West and as Victor Pryne in Private Lives at Chichester in 2012 and in its subsequent West End transfer in 2013.

Calf made his television debut in the 1982 Doctor Who episode, “The Visitation.” In the same year, he landed the role of Digby in a television adaptation of Beau Geste. His other television credits include the part of novelist Lawrence Durrell in My Family and Other Animals, Pip in Great Expectations and Colonel Fitzwilliam in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. He has also appeared in episodes of Doc Martin, Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders III and Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 2010, Calf played the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in the BBC’s revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, reprising his stage role as Anthony Eden in Howard Brenton’s Never So Good (2008).

Most recently, Calf appeared in NBC’s Dracula, Restless, and Call the Midwife.


PÀDRAIC DELANEY (Beglan)

Pàdriac Delaney plays Beglan, the personal assistant to Trinity professor G. H. Hardy.

Delaney first started acting in theatre, performing in Hamlet, The Madman and the Nun, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Hollow in the Sand.

Delaney soon added screen acting to his resume, starring in the 2003 short film An Cuainín, and in 2005 appearing in the Irish television series Pure Mule and The Clinic. He went on to play the lead in the RTÉ series Legend.

It was in 2006 that he first appeared before international audiences as Irish revolutionary Teddy O’Donovan in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley opposite Cillian Murphy. The film won the Palme D’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and in 2007 Delaney was nominated for two Irish Film and Television Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Breakthrough Talent. That same year, Delaney was also honored as a Irish Shooting Star by the Berlin International Film Festival.

Delaney was a cast member of the Showtime series The Tudors in which he played Anne Boleyn’s brother, George, alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII.

In late 2007, Delaney appeared on stage at the Tricycle Theatre in the role of ‘Father Flynn’ in John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt: A Parable. He was reunited with Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham in 2009, his co-stars in The Wind That Shakes The Barley, for the comedy Perriers Bounty.

In 2010, he filmed the role of ‘Sundance’ in the western Blackthorn alongside Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.


SHAZAD LATIF (Chandra Mahalanobis)

Latif plays Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, FRS (29 June 1893 - 28 June 1972) who was an Indian scientist and applied statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure. He left for England in 1913 to join the University of London, however missed a train and stayed with a friend at King’s College, Cambridge. He was impressed by King’s College Chapel there and his host's friend M. A. Candeth suggested that he could try joining there, which he did. He interacted with the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan during the latter’s time at Cambridge. After his Tripos in physics, Mahalanobis worked with C. T. R. Wilson at the Cavendish

Born in London of mixed Pakistani, English and Scottish descent, Latif grew up in Tufnell Park, North London. He studied at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and performed in many stage productions including King Lear playing Cornwall and Richard Sheridan’s comedy, School for Scandal, playing Joseph Surface. He left the school a year early to take up his role on Spooks.

Latif’s professional theatre credits include playing Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Mumbai Tales at the Blue Elephant Theatre in London.

Spooks was his first major role on TV followed by roles in Fresh Meat, Silk, My Mad Fat Diary, Love Matters and Salting the Battlefield.

He most recently has appeared with Dev Patel in the film The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.



ARUNDHATI NAG (Komalatammal)

Arundhati Nag plays Ramanujan’s mother, Komalatammal. In September 1887, two months before her child was due to be born, 19-year-old Komalatammal traveled to Erode, her “parental” home, to prepare for the birth of her child, Ramanujan (born on December 22, 1887). One year later, she and Ramanujan returned to Kumbakonam, where he spent the next twenty years of his life. Komalatammal sang devotional songs at a nearby temple, and was an intense, obsessive woman, who was incredibly spiritual, a trait that she passed on to her son along with her strong will. She was forceful in advancing her son’s interests and is credited with encouraging her son’s mathematical aptitude and success.

Nag is a prominent South Indian film actress and theatre personality. She has been involved with multilingual theatre in India for more than 25 years, first in Mumbai where she was involved with Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), and did various productions in Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi theatre, besides working in television with director Jyoti Vyas’s Gujarati TV series, Haji Aavti Kaal Che. Later, and after her marriage to Kannada actor-director Shankar Nag, her association with theatre continued in Bangalore, culminating in realizing the dream project of her late husband after his death in 1990, of the Ranga Shankara theatre in Bangalore.

She was awarded the 2008 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Theatre Acting from India’s National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre. She was also awarded the 57th National Film Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Paa.

Arundhati is the founder and the managing trustee of the Sanket Trust, established in 1992, which has Girish Karnad as its chairman, and which runs the Ranga Shankara, a Bangalore theatre, which after four years of construction was inaugurated on October 28, 2004. Now the annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival has become a regular feature on Bangalore’s cultural calendar.

  

  
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