David Harewood, MBE (born 8 December 1965), is an English actor. He trained at RADA. He is known for playing David Estes, the Deputy Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, in the Showtime series Homeland.
Early Life:
Harewood was born and grew up in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England, where he attended St. Benedict's Junior School and Washwood Heath Comprehensive School. As a schoolboy, he excelled at all sports, from sprinting through basketball to rugby and especially football. If it were not for acting, it is likely that he would have followed a career as a professional goalkeeper. David was a member of National Youth Theatre.In his youth, he worked in a wine bar, Albert's in Dale End, in Birmingham City Centre. David has an older brother named Paul who works for Draexlmaier. His parents are black Africans, ethnically Congolese.
Career:
At 18, Harewood gained a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began a career in 1990 and appeared in The Hawk, Great Moments in Aviation, Harnessing Peacocks, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Macbeth on the Estate, Strings and Ballykissangel. He is known for his television appearances on The Vice and Fat Friends and for his film roles in Blood Diamond and The Merchant of Venice. He played Don Coleman in Hustle series 7 The Fall of Railton FC (2011).
In 2008, Harewood played Major Simon Brooks in The Palace; he also appeared (that December) on Celebrity Mastermind, with specialist subject Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials — and he appeared in the BBC film adaptation of the Philip Pullman novels The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North, both of which are titles from the Sally Lockhart Mysteries.
In 2009, Harewood appeared in the BBC single drama Mrs Mandela, playing Nelson Mandela. He also portrayed Brother Tuck in the third series of Robin Hood. He appeared in the Doctor Who story The End of Time. He played Martin Luther King in the premiere of the play The Mountaintop, by the American playwright Katori Hall, directed by James Dacre, which opened at Theatre 503 in London on 9 June 2009.
Harewood next appeared in two episodes of Chris Ryan's Strike Back as Colonel Tshuma. From June to September 2010, he played Theseus in the premiere of Moira Buffini's play Welcome to Thebes at the National Theatre in London. He played the character Martin Viner in an episode of New Tricks. He narrates Welcome to Lagos, a BBC documentary about Lagos. And in October 2010, Harewood commenced filming for a new British independent film, The Hot Potato. The film will also star Ray Winstone, Colm Meaney and Jack Huston. He played Frankenstein's monster in the TV live event Frankenstein's Wedding.
From 2011, Harewood starred as David Estes, the Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, in the Showtime series Homeland. After appearing in 15 episodes, his character was killed off in a bomb explosion at the end of Season 2. Also in 2011, he voiced Captain Quinton Cole in the video game Battlefield 3.
In the 2012 New Year Honours, Harewood was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to drama.
In May 2012, he presented a Party Election Broadcast for the British Labour Party.
In July 2013, it was revealed on the PlayStation Blog, by the game director, that he would play as the role of Sinclair in the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Killzone: Shadow Fall. Sinclair is the director of the Vektan Security Agency, under whom our protagonist, a Shadow Marshall, works.
In October 2013, Harewood voiced an interactive video campaign for the British Lung Foundation aiming to ban smoking in cars with children on board in the United Kingdom.
In June 2014 David was then cast as Tulip dealer in Tulip Fever (a film by Justin Chadwick).