Learn more about Martin Freeman's career ahead of 'The Fifth Step'

The star of The Office, Sherlock, and The Hobbit returns to the West End in David Ireland's new play opposite Jack Lowden.

Born in Aldershot, Hampshire, in 1971, Martin Freeman trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He has been a beloved presence since he played Tim Canterbury in The Office in 2001, and his career spans comedy, prestige television, independent films, blockbusters, and theatre.

Freeman made his earliest television appearances in episodes of The Bill, This Life, Casualty, and Black Books. He appeared on the sketch show Bruiser by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, on which Ricky Gervais was an additional writer. The following year, he co-starred with Gervais in The Office, the satirical sitcom exploring the mundanity of corporate life (it's very different in tone to the lovable American remake!). The role of the self-deprecating, underachieving Tim cemented his “everyman” image and his “will they, won’t they” romance with Lucy Davis’s Dawn captivated the nation.

Freeman had his first lead film role as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 2005. Between 2010-17, he played Dr John Watson in Sherlock, a modernised version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch as the great detective. The role of Watson earned Freeman a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor and a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. Other major television roles include Lester Nygaard in the first season of Minnesota-set crime drama Fargo and Paul Worsley in Breeders, a dark comedy about parenthood.

On the big screen, Freeman is probably best known for playing the good-natured Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s three-part The Hobbit film series (An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, and The Battle of the Five Armies). He also played Everett K. Ross in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. He reprised this role in the miniseries Secret Invasion.

Freeman is also an accomplished and versatile stage actor. From May to July, he stars in new play The Fifth Step, opposite Jack Lowden. Read on to learn more about his stage work.

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Volpone and Mother Courage and Her Children (1995)

Freeman made his London stage debut in two shows at the National Theatre. In Matthew Warchus’s production of Ben Jonson’s Volpone, he played Third Merchant to Michael Gambon in the title role and Simon Russell Beale as Mosca. In David Hare’s adaptation of Mother Courage and Her Children, he played the Young Man. The late Diana Rigg took the title role and Jonathan Kent directed.

Jump Cow to Heaven (1997)

Freeman appeared in a three-hander by Gill Adams that was performed at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Hull Truck Theatre, and Riverside Studios. According to the publicity material, the play was set in “London, 1967. The Krays spring the Mad Axe-Man from Dartmoor. His every need is met, including a minder and a hooker”. Sounds pretty bizarre!

The Dispute (1999)

Neil Bartlett directed this production of Pierre Marivaux’s 18th-century philosophical comedy about four orphans who are released into an experimental Garden of Eden, which played at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon before touring. Freeman played one of the two boys. Adjoa Andoh was also in the cast.

The Exonerated (2006)

Freeman appeared as a guest star for one week at Riverside Studios in this verbatim play based on 40 people who were sentenced to death and spent between two to 22 years on death row before being found not guilty and freed. Other guest performers included Alanis Morrisette, Kristin Davis, and Stockard Channing (quite the motley crew!).

The Last Laugh (2007)

Freeman and fellow sitcom star Roger Lloyd Pack (Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley) paired up in this touring production of a rather meta play by Richard Harris. Freeman played the Writer to Lloyd Pack’s Censor, in which the former is required to adjust his script to make it palatable for performance under a dictatorship.

Clybourne Park (2010)

Bruce Norris’s play about race relations in a Chicago suburb was inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Set across two timelines (the late 1950s and the present day, during the Obama administration), Freeman played Karl and Steve, both of whom represented white resentment. The production won the Olivier Award for Best New Play. According to reports from 2022, Freeman has been cast in a film adaption directed by Pam Mackinnon, who directed the stage production.

Richard III (2014)

Jamie Lloyd’s production at Trafalgar Studios transposed Shakespeare’s history play to the infamously cold winter of 1978-9, a real “winter of discontent”. Freeman played the villainous/misunderstood monarch, and his fellow actors included Gina McKee as Queen Elizabeth and Maggie Steed as Queen Margaret. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s 4-star review noted that “Lloyd directs his actors to give it a concentrated immediacy that pulls you into the here and now” and “Freeman brings a riveting strangeness and intensity to the title role”.

Labour of Love (2017)

In James Graham’s witty homage to the Labour Party’s fluctuating fortunes and the ongoing schism between radical reform and the centre ground, Freeman played fictional Blairite MP David Lyon, parachuted into a Nottingham seat in the 1990 election. Tamsin Greig co-starred as his “Old Labour” constituency agent.

Pinter 7 (2019)

In 2018-19, the Harold Pinter Theatre hosted a star-led seven-part season of Harold Pinter’s short plays. In the final instalment, Freeman starred opposite Danny Dyer in The Dumb Waiter. According to LondonTheatre.co.uk’s 4-star review, “Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman play it hilariously like the double-act comedy routine it is, but again there are more sinister undercurrents. Both actors began their careers in the theatre and it's a joy to see them back onstage; they also bring a whole new audience with them, who cheered them to the rafters”.

The Fifth Step (2025)

Freeman shortly returns to the stage in a new play by David Ireland (Cyprus Avenue, Ulster American) about the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous. Freeman plays James, a veteran member who agrees to be the sponsor of new member Luka (Jack Lowden, Slow Horses). As the two men bond, it becomes apparent that both have dangerous secrets that could be their undoing.

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