Danny Dyer

Danny Dyer (born Danial John Dyer; 24 July 1977) is an English actor and presenter. Dyer's breakthrough role was as Moff in Human Traffic, with other notable roles as Mick Carter in EastEnders, Billy the Limpet in Mean Machine and as Tommy Johnson in The Football Factory. Following the success of The Football Factory, Dyer was often typecast in "hard-man" roles, although it was this image that allowed him to present The Real Football Factories, its spin-off, The Real Football Factories International and Danny Dyer's Deadliest Men. Dyer has also worked in theatre, having appeared in three plays written by Harold Pinter, with whom he had a close friendship. In 2013, Dyer joined the cast of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, in the role of Mick Carter. He had previously turned down a role in 2009, and in his autobiography, Straight Up, said that he would not join the cast until he was "fat, bald and fifty". He won the Serial Drama Performance award at the National Television Awards in 2015, 2016, and 2019. From 2019 until 2022, he presented the BBC game show The Wall. Early life Danial John Dyer was born in the Custom House area of London on 24 July 1977, the son of Christine (née Meakin) and Antony Dyer. He has a younger brother, Tony (born 1979), and sister, Kayleigh (born 1986). His parents split up when he was nine and he was raised by his mother in Custom House. He began acting when he was a teen, and was bullied at school so badly by his peers that he lied about taking acting classes. In 2016, Dyer's family history was the subject of a Series 13 episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?, where it was revealed that his family hails from the Poplar area of London. Census records showed many of them working in the manual occupations connected to the docks on the River Thames. Further research found that Dyer is a descendant of Thomas Cromwell and of Elizabeth Seymour, the sister of Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour. Elizabeth married Cromwell's son Gregory Cromwell and, with the Seymour family's assertion to be descended from Edward III (Dyer's 25th generation ancestor), the line can be traced back to William the Conqueror and Charlemagne. In response, geneticist Adam Rutherford argued that an English person being descended from a Plantagenet king was "not remarkable", musing that "almost every Briton" can claim such descent.