Jonathan Harden

Jonathan Harden is a Northern Irish actor and director from Belfast.

Early life Jonathan Harden was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Career Harden's most notable credits include the roles of Martin Baxter in Australian miniseries Mix Tape, David 'Jonty' Johnston in BBC cop drama Blue Lights, Sean Rawlins in the crime drama series Unforgotten, Gregory in the final season of the comedy series Peep Show, Brendan Murphy in Jimmy McGovern's 2021 prison drama Time, and a Resistance Monitor in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Harden's stage credits include Henry Joy McCracken in Stewart Parker's Northern Star at the Finborough Theatre and Children of the Sun at the Royal National Theatre under the direction of the late Howard Davies. Of his performance in Northern Star, the Time Out review wrote, "Jonathan Harden reveals himself as an extraordinary talent whose performance leaves an afterglow like a good whiskey."

Harden provided the narration for 2015 BAFTA-winning short film Boogaloo and Graham. He has also provided voices for several video games, most notably as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. In 2014, he played Axl in the Ridley Scott-produced Halo film Halo: Nightfall.

In 2015, Harden launched In Anything at the Minute? The Honest Actors' Podcast, a project centred on interviews with other jobbing actors and available on iTunes. In 2017, he produced and directed his first film project, Guard, a female-led boxing film set in Belfast. It had its debut at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 2017, and soon after had its North American premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. In 2018, it was followed by Troubles, on the subject of male mental health, which again debuted at the Galway Film Fleadh.

Following his venture into film directing, Harden made his London stage directing debut in 2020, with Joe Crilly's On McQuillan's Hill at the Finborough Theatre. The production sold out and received critical acclaim, including five stars from the Morning Star and four stars from The Stage. Originally produced in 2000 at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, the Finborough production was an English premiere and marked the 20th anniversary of the play's Belfast debut.

In 2021, Harden appeared in Jimmy McGovern's prison drama Time as lifer, Brendan Murphy. The role earned him praise from many, with Esquire calling this performance, "a highly-charged, emotive turn, and the Sunday Life noting it as "superb".

Personal life Harden is a vegan and enjoys running. He is married to Northern Irish actress Bronágh Taggart.

Filmography Film Year Title Role 2008 Fifty Dead Men Walking Young Man's Brother 2009 Five Minutes of Heaven David 2009 Ditching Paul 2009 Ghost Machine Benny 2011 Dreams of a Life Cleaner 2011 Whole Lotta Sole Sammy Pavis 2012 Jump Richie 2012 The Good Man Stephen 2012 Hives Bus 2013 The Invisible Woman Charles / Mr Arnott 2014 Rise of the Footsoldier II Dave 2015 The Ones Below Mark 2015 The Truth Commissioner Gleeson 2016 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Resistance Monitor 2017 Another Mother's Son Bookshop Owner 2017 Victoria & Abdul Kaiser Wilhelm II 2017 Justice.net Gerald McNulty 2018 Doing Money DC Liam Partridge 2020 The Courier Leonard

Television Year Title Role 2009 Small Island Postal Worker #1 2010 Coming Up The Young Man 2012 Titanic: Blood and Steel Walter Hill 2012 The Life and Adventures of Nick Nickleby Newman Noggs 2013 The Mimic Connor 2014 Halo: Nightfall Axl 2015 Humans Andy 2015 Unforgotten Sean Rawlins 2015 Peep Show Gregory 2016 Casualty Dion Bateman 2016 My Mother and Other Strangers Martin Brady 2016 SS-GB Assassin 2016 The Secret D.C. Devine 2017 EastEnders DS Kye Anderson 2018 Dark Heart Grant Balden 2020 COBRA DI Miller 2021 Time Brendan Murphy 2022 Sherwood Reverend Wells2023 Blue Lights Inspector David 'Jonty' Johnston 2023 World on Fire Captain Briggs 2024 Ellis Adam Reid 2025 Mix Tape Martin Baxter 2025 The Rainmaker Agent Nick Cistulli