Hugh Dancy
English actor (born 1975)

Hugh Michael Horace Dancy (born 19 June 1975) is an English actor who rose to prominence for his role as the title character in the television film adaptation of David Copperfield (2000) as well as for roles in feature films as Kurt Schmid in Black Hawk Down (2001) and Prince Charmont in Ella Enchanted (2004). Other film roles include Joe Conner in Shooting Dogs (2005), Grigg Harris in The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Luke Brandon in Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), Adam Raki in Adam (2009) and Ted in Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011). On television, he portrayed criminal profiler Will Graham in the NBC television series Hannibal (2013–2015), Cal Roberts in the Hulu original series The Path (2016–2018) and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in the Channel 4 miniseries Elizabeth I (2005); the latter role earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Dancy currently portrays Senior Assistant District Attorney Nolan Price on NBC's revival of the original Law & Order (2022–present).
Early life, family and education
Dancy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and raised in Newcastle-under-Lyme. His mother, Sarah Ann Dancy (née Birley, born 1952), works in academic publishing. His father is philosophy professor Jonathan Dancy (born 1946), who teaches at the University of Reading and at the University of Texas at Austin. Hugh is the oldest of three children, followed by brother Jack Dancy (born 1977), who is co-director of the travel company Trufflepig Travel, and sister Katharine Sarah Redman (née Dancy, born 1980), who works for UNESCO.
From age 5–10, Dancy was educated at Edenhurst Preparatory School in Newcastle-under-Lyme. At age 10, Dancy attended boarding school at the Dragon School in Oxford, then, at 13 at Winchester College. At age 18, he acted in the Winchester College Players production of Twelfth Night, which was performed in both Winchester and at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall.
The public source identifies “Hugh Dancy” as english actor (born 1975). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hugh, Dancy and English.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hugh Dancy”, the useful work is to connect “english actor (born 1975)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q314603. VIAF identifies the subject as 37154088. The Library of Congress control number is no2005064026. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 2000, 2001 and 2004.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Hugh Dancy”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Hugh Dancy primary sources, Hugh Dancy archive and Hugh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hugh Dancy”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Hugh Dancy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.