The star of the trending Netflix series The Gentlemen, Theo James, is half-Greek. He is the son of a Greek father and Scottish mother.
Viewers have been Googling more details about the actor’s life, and they’ve come across his real name—and it’s quite long. Theo James is a stage name, which he’s been using since he started his career almost twenty years ago. Theo James was born Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis.
Theo’s father, Philip Taptiklis, is of Greek heritage. However, his mother, Jane Martin, is Scottish. Hence the Kinnaird/Taptiklis combo. “James is my middle name and I use that and in a funny way, I kind of regret it,” Theo previously said in an interview.
“When I first started as an actor, it was 15 years ago, and I remember an agent saying: ‘Taptiklis, too Greek. Go with James,’” he added.
Theo was born just outside of London in High Wycombe but was raised in Askett in Buckinghamshire and attended Aylesbury Grammar School before studying philosophy at Nottingham University and subsequently training in acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in southwest London. He now lives with his wife Ruth Kearney in north London.
In writing for GQ about his family history, Theo revealed: “I was searching through some of my possessions, long forgotten, and found a picture of my Grandfather, Nikos.
“He was Greek and served in the British Navy during the Second World War. But in 1941 as a young doctor in training, he was forced to flee the Nazis as they swept through Greece and took Athens.
“On a tiny boat with twelve others, he crossed the dangerous waters of the Aegean in mid-November and landed in Turkey. From there he made his way, with thousands of others to Syria where he found safety in Damascus.”
Netflix’s The Gentlemen is the apogee of Theo James’ career
Theo James gained recognition for playing Tobias Eaton in The Divergent Series film trilogy (2014–2016). He has starred in the horror films Underworld: Awakening (2012) and Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) as well as the science fiction film Archive (2020).
In television, he appeared in the crime drama series Golden Boy (2012), the romance series The Time Traveler’s Wife (2022), and the dark comedy series The White Lotus (2022), which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award.
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