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Hugh Quarshie
Quarshie at German Comic Con 2024
Born	Hugh Anthony Kobna Amo Quarshie (1954-12-22) 22 December 1954 (age 69) Accra, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)
Nationality	British
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 a Ghanaian-born British actor. He is known for his long-running role as Ric Griffin on the BBC One medical drama Holby City (2001–20), and for playing Captain Panaka in the Star Wars film Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).

He is also known for stage roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which he has been a member since 1981 and an associate since 2005. His film work includes Highlander, Nightbreed and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. He is a BAFTA Award nominee, and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and Emmy Award winner.

Early life

A member of the Euro-African community of Ghana, Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry. He was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina (née Phillips; 1917–2004) and Richard Quarshie (1913–2006). His mother was of chiefly 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. He was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset and Dean Close School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (during which time he played the role of Othello at the Tuckwell Theatre), before reading PPE at Christ Church, Oxford.

Career

Quarshie had considered becoming a journalist before taking up acting. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and has appeared in many stage productions and television programmes, including the serial Behaving Badly with Judi Dench. He is well known for playing the roles of Sunda Kastagir in Highlander, Captain Panaka in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and Ric Griffin on the television series Holby City. He attended the Star Wars fan event "Star Wars Celebration" in 1999. He portrayed Lieutenant Obutu in Wing Commander.

He appeared in the 2007 two-part Doctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as Solomon, the leader of the shanty town Hooverville. He headed the cast of Michele Soavi's The Church (1989) as Father Gus, and played Aaron the Moor in the BBC Television Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.

Quarshie has also narrated for television. His work includes the 2006 documentary Mega Falls of Iguacu (about the Iguaçu Falls), the 2009 adaptation of Small Island, and the 2010 BBC Wildlife series The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart.

Personal life

In September 2010, Quarshie featured in an episode of the television genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he traced his Ghanaian and Dutch origins. The episode revealed that Quarshie is part of his country's old mixed-race elite as one of his ancestors, Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, was a Dutch official on the Gold Coast. This also made him a distant relative of Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling.

Political views

Quarshie is a supporter of the Women's Equality Party.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

References

1. "Hugh Quarshie: The RSC and me | Royal Shakespeare Company". www.rsc.org.uk. October 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
2. "Hugh Quarshie". TheGenealogist. Genealogy Supplies. 25 August 2010. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
3. "Hugh Quarshie". Who Do You Think You Are?. BBC Magazines. 2010. Archived from the original on 18 October 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
4. "Hugh Quarshie — Holby City's African chief". BBC News. 6 September 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
5. "Hugh Quarshie". GoldCoastDataBase. Retrieved 24 March 2019. Hugh Quarshie is related to Antonie Kamerling through Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling's brother Anthony Wilhelm Constantinus Gerardus Kamerling (1824–1875) (registration required)
6. Hugh Quarshie (23 April 2016). Hugh Quarshie: Give half your votes to equality on 5 May – WE think that's fair (Video). Women's Equality Channel. Retrieved 28 April 2016 – via YouTube.

External links

• Hugh Quarshie at IMDb
• Hugh Quarshie Archived 8 June 2008 at the Wayback 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
• Actors 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
• British people of Dutch descent
• British 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