Dan Starkey (actor)

Dan Starkey (born 27 September 1977) is an English actor known for making numerous appearances in the BBC One science-fiction TV series Doctor Who. He has portrayed a number of different Sontaran characters, most notably Strax, who has come across the Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations of the Doctor, played by Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi respectively. In 2016, he joined the CBBC sketch show, Class Dismissed and has appeared in 36 episodes (every episode of Series 1, 2 & 3). He left the show after Series 3.

Dan Starkey was born on 27 September 1977. Starkey studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and graduated in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic before training at the Bristol Old Vic (graduating in 2006).

He played the enraged loner Simon in Muswell Hill by Torben Betts at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre (Feb/March 2012) and was nominated as Best Male Performance at the 2012 Off West End Theatre Awards (Offies). In November 2013 Starkey appeared in the one-off 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

On 2 January 2015, Starkey was a member of the winning team on Christmas University Challenge, representing Trinity Hall, Cambridge who defeated Balliol College, Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Hull. His team-mates were international rower Tom James, world champion cyclist Emma Pooley and novelist Adam Mars-Jones.