Clive Standen is a British actor born on a British Army base in Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. He grew up in the East Midlands in England, where he attended King Edward VII School in Melton Mowbray and later studied performing arts at Melton Mowbray College.
In his late teens, Standen was an international Muay Thai boxer and later a fencing gold medalist. His first experience with stunts and sword fighting was at the age of 12, when he worked in a professional stunt team in Nottingham, learning to ride, joust, and sword fight.
Standen's sword fighting skills are seamless, as he is left-handed but learned to fight with his right hand in his early years, making him uniquely ambidextrous in the craft. At the age of 15, he was a member of the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre, performing lead roles in plays and musicals in the West End and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
He then won a place at the London Academy of Dramatic Art (LAMDA) on their three-year acting course. Standen is best known for playing the battle-hardened warrior 'Gawain' as a series regular in the Starz network's TV series 'Camelot' and also 'Archer', the swashbuckling brother of Robin Hood in the BBC TV series 'Robin Hood'.
Standen's performance in 'Robin Hood' brought him much critical acclaim, with many of the national press comparing his charming but edgy performance and seemingly effortless sword fighting skills to Errol Flynn. He is also known for his previous recurring role as Private Harris in the British sci-fi show 'Doctor Who'.
Prior to his role in 'Camelot' and 'Robin Hood', Standen appeared in three episodes of 'Doctor Who', the crime thriller 'Waking the Dead', the Second World War drama documentary 'Ten Days to D-Day', three episodes of 'Doctors', and 'Tom Brown's Schooldays', the acclaimed ITV adaptation of the book by Thomas Hughes.
He also played the lead role of Major Alan Marshall in the Zero Hour TV dramatization of the SAS mission in Sierra Leone known as operation Barras. Standen took a lead role in the mainstream Bollywood film 'Namastey London' alongside Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar. He was also the face of Evian water in 2008.
In 2012, Clive landed a lead role in the Vertigo films feature 'Hammer of the Gods' and the new series 'Vikings' produced by MGM/History, both slated to be released in spring 2013.
