Mackenzie Crook

Mackenzie Crook (born Paul James Crook) is an English actor, director, comedian, and writer, best known for his roles in television and film. He gained widespread recognition for portraying Gareth Keenan in the British sitcom The Office (2001–2003) and for his role as Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series (2003–2007). He also played Orell in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and the title role of Worzel Gummidge (2019–2022), which he wrote and directed.

Crook has also worked extensively in theatre, including a Tony Award-nominated performance in Jerusalem.

Early life and education Crook was born Paul James Crook, and grew up in Dartford, Kent, England. As a child he received a course of hormone therapy for three years to treat a growth hormone deficiency. As there was no drama department at his grammar school, he joined a local youth theatre. He has said that he failed his A-levels because he "completely lost interest" after his GCSEs.

Crook's first jobs included working at a Pizza Hut restaurant and at Halfords, where he felt he was "waiting for real life to start".

After moving to London when he was in his early twenties, Crook worked on the comedy circuit, appearing as two characters he created, Mr. Bagshaw and Charlie Cheese.

Career

Film and television One of Crook's earliest television appearances was in the 1998 Channel 4 sketch show Barking, where he played the grotesque schoolteacher Mr Bagshaw, who was said to be based on a variety of obnoxious overbearing science teachers Crook had in school. In 1998, Crook was offered his first major television role as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show, from which he was later dropped.

In 2001, Crook auditioned for the role of Gareth Keenan in Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's popular mockumentary The Office. Though it was originally written for a larger, thuggish actor, Crook won the role,

Crook featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), as Ragetti, a pirate with a comically ill-fitting wooden false eye, who is teamed with Pintel (Lee Arenberg).

Crook has appeared in advertisements as the character for Visa and M&M's. He has also been heard as himself in adverts for MTV and Film4, and as a voiceover artiste for motor insurance company Green Flag in 2007. In 2010, he narrated an advertisement for electrical retailer Currys.

Crook appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and had a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher.

Crook played the leading role of Paul Callow in the comedy film Three and Out, released on 25 April 2008.

Crook starred in Wyndham Price's drama Abraham's Point as Comet Snape and appeared in City of Ember as Looper, and on TV was featured in the documentary Tattoos: A Scarred History (2009). He also appeared in Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack and the ITV drama Demons (originally titled The Last Van Helsing) as the vampire Gladiolus Hadilus Tradius Thrip. In January 2009, Crook assisted in the second and third episodes of the third series of the E4 teen drama Skins, where he played psychotic Bristol gangster Johnny White. In September 2009, he appeared in Merlin, for the first episode of the second season, as Cedric.

In November 2010, Crook starred in A Reluctant Tragic Hero, a comic play by Anton Chekhov, on the Sky Arts channel, which also starred Johnny Vegas, with whom he also starred in 2004's Sex Lives of the Potato Men, a film about the sexual antics of a group of potato delivery men in Birmingham. Crook played Corporal Buckley, a brutal career soldier, in Jimmy McGovern's Accused, broadcast on BBC One in November 2010. During the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con it was announced that Crook would play the role of Orell in the third season of Game of Thrones.

Crook also wrote, directed and starred in the television comedy series Detectorists, which was first broadcast on BBC Four on 2 October 2014. Filmed in the countryside of Suffolk and the market town of Framlingham, the show is a gently humorous and affectionate portrayal of a pair of metal-detecting enthusiasts, Andy (Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones), and their colleagues in the fictional Danebury Metal Detecting Club. In 2015, Crook won a British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series for the show, whilst the series won the British Academy Television Award for Best Situation Comedy. A second series was broadcast in the UK in October/November 2015. A Christmas special was broadcast on 23 December 2015. In 2017 the third and final series of Detectorists was broadcast. A final special episode was released for Christmas 2022.

Crook played the role of Nestor of Maddox in the television fantasy-comedy series Yonderland, broadcast on Sky One, which starred and was written by the cast of the educational historical comedy series Horrible Histories. He plays the father of the main character Debbie, played by Martha Howe-Douglas, and appears in three episodes of series 2: episodes 1, 2 and 4.

In 2026, Crook wrote and directed the sitcom Small Prophets, which stars Pearce Quigley (also from Detectorists), Lauren Patel, Michael Palin, and himself.

Theatre Crook played Billy Bibbit in the 2004 London West End production of the stage play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest opposite Christian Slater, Starting at the Royal Court Theatre in London in February/March 2007, it transferred to Broadway in September 2008. In December 2008, he finished the Broadway run of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre. He and the play received positive reviews and it was transferred to the West End's Apollo Theatre in February 2010. In May 2011 he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, for his role in the Broadway transfer of the show, and also appeared in the 2011 London revival. Another revival of the play ran in 2022 at the Apollo Theatre, featuring the creative team from the first production as well as Mark Rylance and Crook in their original roles as Johnny "Rooster" Byron and Ginger.

On 18 April 2010, Crook took part in the fund raising event We Are One, a celebration of tribal peoples, in aid of indigenous rights organisation Survival International, at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. The evening was a performance of tribal prose and poetry from some of the UK and Hollywood's leading actors and musicians. The event was created and directed by Mark Rylance. Crook appeared as Jasper in The Aliens at the Bush Theatre in October 2010. In early 2012 he played Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar Warehouse.

Other work Crook has directed a music video for the London electro band Paw Paw (his sister Zoe is one of the band members). The stop motion animation video accompanies the band's debut single 'Wired OK', released on 16 July 2007 on Albino Recordings.

Crook appeared as a postman in the music video for Paul McCartney's single "Dance Tonight" alongside actress Natalie Portman. The video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry and was posted exclusively on YouTube on 22 May 2007.

Crook has a deal with publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book. The book contains references to a storm in 1987 which hit Dartford and surrounding areas.

On 9 April 2010, it was announced that Crook would star in the music video for Slow Club's new single, "Giving Up on Love", after band member Rebecca Taylor wrote to him.

Crook regularly works in radio, and appeared in the BBC Radio Four show North by Northamptonshire, in 2011 alongside Geoffrey Palmer, Sheila Hancock, Lizzie Roper and Jessica Henwick.

Crook narrated the audiobook version of the novel Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace.

In June 2024, it was announced that Crook would direct the second series of Bridget Christie's Channel 4 comedy-drama about menopause The Change.

Crook has written two children's books: The Windvale Sprites and The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth. His first book written for adults, If Nick Drake Came To My House, was set for release in November 2024.

Personal life Crook is an atheist. He and his wife Lindsay, a former advertising executive, live in Muswell Hill, London. They were married in April 2001 and have a son and a daughter. Game of Thrones Orell 6 episodesNominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Almost Human Rudy Lom The Cafe Dave 2 episodes 2014–2022 Detectorists Andy Stone 20 episodes; Writer and directorBAFTA Television Craft Award for Best Writing in a Comedy SeriesBAFTA Television Award for Best Situation Comedy

Ordinary Lies 'Paracetamol' Pete 6 episodes Yonderland Nester of Maddox 3 episodes 2018–2021 Britannia Veran/Harka 2018 Watership Down Hawkbit TV miniseries 2019–2021 Worzel Gummidge Worzel 6 episodesWriter and director 2021 Lake The Detectorist (voice) Video game 2025 The Wayfinders Goran Season 1 2026 Small Prophets Gordon 6 episodes: Creator, writer and executive producer