Hugh Quarshie
Quarshie atGerman Comic Con 2024
Born	Hugh Anthony Kobna Amo Quarshie (1954-12-22)22 December 1954 (age 71) Accra,Gold Coast (present-dayGhana)
Education	Bryanston School Dean Close School
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Annika Sundström
Children	3

Hugh Anthony Quarshie (born 22 December 1954) is aGhanaian-born British actor. He is known for his long-running role asRic Griffin on theBBC One medical dramaHolby City (2001–20), and for playingCaptain Panaka in theStar Wars filmEpisode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).

He is also known for stage roles with theRoyal Shakespeare Company, of which he has been a member since 1981 and an associate since 2005.^[1] His film work includesHighlander,Nightbreed andFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In1987, he was nominated for theLaurence Olivier Award for Best Actor and in2022 he was nominated for theBritish Academy Television Award for Best Actor for playing Neville Lawrence inStephen (2021).^[2][3] He has also won aCritics' Circle Theatre Award and anEmmy Award.

A member of theEuro-African community of Ghana, Quarshie is of mixedGhanaian,English andDutch ancestry. He was born inAccra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina (née Phillips; 1917–2004) and Richard Quarshie (1913–2006). His mother was ofchiefly 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.^[4] He was educated atBryanston School inDorset andDean Close School inCheltenham,Gloucestershire (during which time he played the role ofOthello at the Tuckwell Theatre), before readingPPE atChrist Church, Oxford.

Quarshie had considered becoming a journalist before taking up acting. He is a member of theRoyal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and has appeared in many stage productions and television programmes, including the serialBehaving Badly withJudi Dench. He is well known for playing the roles of Sunda Kastagir inHighlander,Captain Panaka inStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, andRic Griffin on the television seriesHolby City. He attended theStar Wars fan event "Star Wars Celebration" in 1999. He portrayed Lieutenant Obutu inWing Commander.

He appeared in the 2007 two-partDoctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as Solomon, the leader of the shanty townHooverville. He headed the cast ofMichele Soavi'sThe Church (1989) as Father Gus, and played Aaron the Moor in theBBC Television Shakespeare'sTitus Andronicus.

Quarshie has also narrated for television. His work includes the 2006 documentaryMega Falls of Iguacu (about theIguaçu Falls), the 2009 adaptation ofSmall Island, and the 2010BBC Wildlife seriesThe Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart.

In September 2010, Quarshie featured in an episode of the television genealogy seriesWho Do You Think You Are?, in which he traced his Ghanaian and Dutch origins.^[5][6] The episode revealed that Quarshie is part of his country'sold mixed-race elite as one of his ancestors, Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, was a Dutch official on theGold Coast. This also made him a distant relative of Dutch actorAntonie Kamerling.^[7]

Quarshie was a supporter of theWomen's Equality Party.^[8]

• Hugh Quarshie atIMDb
• Hugh QuarshieArchived 8 June 2008 at theWayback Machine StarWars.com

• Nicole Vassell,"'It's disappointing that Kwasi Kwarteng has allowed himself to be called Kwar-zee': actor Hugh Quarshie on the new assertiveness of young Black British people",The Independent.

• 1954 births
• 20th-century English male actors
• 21st-century English male actors
• People educated at Bryanston School
• Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
• Black British male actors
• British male stage actors
• British male film actors
• English male Shakespearean actors
• British male soap opera actors
• British male television actors
• English male voice actors
• English people of Dutch descent
• English people of Ghanaian descent
• Ghanaian emigrants to the United Kingdom
• Ghanaian people of Dutch descent
• Ghanaian people of English descent
• Living people
• Male actors from Accra
• People educated at Dean Close School
• Royal Shakespeare Company members
• Women's Equality Party people
• Ghanaian male actors

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