
Ivan Kaye
Acting
Biography
Ivan Kaye is internationally best known for his role as King Aelle in Vikings (2013-17). More recently, he has appeared as the goon leader Yankee in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). Kaye has been interested in acting from early childhood. A remarkably versatile actor, he already had a successful stage career in London's West End in dramatic and musical theatre before starting his work in television and film in his early thirties. Since the beginning of the 1990s, he has been featured in over 50 roles in TV and film. Due to his enormous versatility, Ivan Kaye has been featured in a wide array of roles encompassing lead and main parts as well as antagonists, outright villains, and comical characters. Recent major productions and roles include: drug baron Polo Yakur in Assassination Games (2011), the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza in The Borgias (2011-2013), Joshua Collins (father of the main character played by Johnny Depp) in Dark Shadows (2012), Ivar the Boneless in Hammer of the Gods (2013), King Aelle of Northumbria in Vikings (2013-2017), pub landlord Mick Sturrock in The Coroner (2015-2016) and goon leader Yankee in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). All of these productions have reached an international audience and have been dubbed in several languages. Kaye has also appeared in Layer Cake (2004) and is well-known in the UK as herdsman Bryan in BBC’s comedy series The Green Green Grass. From October 2017 to January 2018 he returned to theatre after almost twenty years, starring as Tom Kettle in the critically acclaimed multi-award-winning stage play The Ferryman at the Gielgud Theatre London. Kaye has also worked as a voice artist in several video games such as Star Wars The Old Republic, Stuntman, C-12 and more. As a founder and director of Comedy Ink Productions together with actor/writer Douglas McFerran, he has produced and acted as a lead in short comedic offerings such as the mini-series Brilliant! (2007), the short film Sherlock Holmes Confidential (2013) and his recent dark comedy short Acter (2020). Kaye has a reputation of being especially kind and appreciative towards his fans on social media and in person. He is a supporter of the Hounslow Urban Farm (where 'Green Green Grass' was partially filmed) and, with several other actors, the Justice for Andrew campaign, seeking justice for the murder of a young Liverpudlian. He has two grown-up daughters and lives in London.
Known For

The adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the sagas of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods. Legend has it that he was a direct descendant of Odin, the god of war and warriors.
Vikings

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
Casualty

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
The Bill

Set in 15th century Italy at the height of the Renaissance, The Borgias chronicles the corrupt rise of patriarch Rodrigo Borgia to the papacy, where he proceeds to commit every sin in the book to amass and retain power, influence and enormous wealth for himself and his family.
The Borgias

Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 to 20 December 2006 and starred Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Linda Henry, Jack Ellis and many more throughout the eight-year run. The series was broadcast in 17 countries and was produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road. It is set in the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, and features a mixture of serious and light storylines focusing on the prisoners and staff of G Wing. From 2010, the UK broadcast rights were bought by CBS Drama, and is repeated regularly – as of September 2012, the channel is re-running the series again in a late-night time slot.
Bad Girls

First there was Father Brown. Now, say hello to Sister Boniface. This clever, moped-riding nun is the police's secret weapon for solving murders in this divine Father Brown spin-off.
Sister Boniface Mysteries

Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers and other modern technology. It was originally broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One, and was produced for the BBC by the independent production company Carnival Films.
Bugs

Focuses on brothers Frank and Danny Kane. Their mother is the matriarch of a South London criminal gang, assisted by Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club following the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from crime.
The Paradise Club

High-flying solicitor Jane Kennedy returns to the seaside town she left as a teenager to take up the post of coroner, becoming an advocate for the dead as she investigates sudden, violent or unexplained deaths.
The Coroner

Vampire Barnabas Collins is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate and family have fallen into ruin.
Dark Shadows

England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.
The King

When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...
Layer Cake

Viking culture is seen from a first-hand experience through Athelstan's perspective. Athelstan reflects his inner thoughts on the ways of the Northmen including all their customs, values, and morals. Watch the young priest struggle with an emotional and psychological turmoil as he balances his faith in both God and Odin, revels in bloodshed then is haunted by memories of combat, and then recognizes the personalities of his barbarian family and understands that they, though pagan, are human beings.
Vikings: Athelstan's Journal

The lives of two half-sisters and their drawing master get caught up in a deadly conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed all in white.
The Woman in White

To protect an 8-year-old girl, a dangerous assassin reunites with her mother and her lethal associates to take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.
Gunpowder Milkshake

Sitcom spin-off from Only Fools and Horses, featuring the characters of Boycie and Marlene adapting to life in rural Shropshire. Starring John Challis and Sue Holderness
The Green Green Grass

Colin and Jane have decided that their marriage isn't working and that the best thing is to separate. This could be tough on their children, Joe and Emily, but their parents are civilized about the whole thing and determined to remain friends. In fact, after the split their relationship improves considerably. Jane, a nurse, embarks upon a new relationship with Roger, a single parent of three children, the terrible trio of David, Felicity and Robbie. Colin, meanwhile, has started to see Jennifer, the therapist he and Jane consulted when trying to work through their problems.
Microsoap

Faith in the Future is a British comedy television show running from 17 November 1995 to 27 February 1998. A sequel to the show Second Thoughts, it aired on ITV for 22 episodes. The show continues the story of Faith Greyshott, newly single after splitting from her long-term partner, Bill, at the end of Second Thoughts. With her daughter Hannah away travelling and her son Joe now in a shared flat, Faith decides it's time to stop being a wife and mother and live her life for herself; however, her plans are scuppered when Hannah returns and expects to move back home.
Faith in the Future

William Travers, an accomplished criminal lawyer living happily with his wife in rural Suffolk, is recovering from a traumatic series of events that have shaken his faith in the legal system when he is drawn into a case involving an old friend.
Injustice

A dramatization of the story behind and occasion of Thatcher’s last TV interview, the hugely damaging ITV grilling by her old friend Brian Walden, which some view as the final nail in her prime ministerial coffin.