Ivan Kaye
Birthday: 1961-07-01
Place of Birth: Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
Synopsis
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.
Acting
The Dead Collectors
as Peter
During a pandemic in an alternate reality, two men have the job of collecting the deceased.
For Love or Money
as Patrick
What started off as a whirlwind romance takes an unexpected turn when Mark discovers his beautiful bride-to-be is plotting against him. In cahoots with an old school buddy, they hatch a plan to take half of Mark’s £20 million fortune and use it for their own happy ending. What they don’t realize is that Mark is one step ahead of them.
The Woman in White
as Pesca
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.
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Undercover
as Garabed
Family. It can be the most important thing in the world. And it can also be a massive pain in the arse. Undercover is a high stakes action comedy about Chris, a lonely, over analysing neurotic traffic police officer who finds himself hopelessly out of his depth when he infiltrates an Armenian crime family.
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The Coroner
as Mick Sturrock
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.
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Hammer of the Gods
as Ivar
Action epic sees a passionate young man transform into a brutal warrior as he travels the unforgiving landscape in search of his long lost brother Hakan The Ferrocious, whose people are relying on him to restore order to their kingdom.
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Tortoise in Love
as Sean
Tortoise in Love is a feel-good romantic comedy in the tradition of Local Hero, Calendar Girls and The Full Monty. It's about an incredibly slow mover in love and the village that tries to speed him up. The entire film is set in the beautiful English countryside of the Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire. The story of the making of Tortoise in Love could almost be a film in itself. Almost the entire village of Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire was involved in the making of the film. Young mums helped with the sales and design and publicity. Retired folk provided the drivers and stewards and props and logistics support. The Women's Institute organised a phenomenal catering effort and all the cast and crew were lodged in village homes for the duration of the shoot.
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Assassination Games
as Polo Yakur
Brazil is a contract killer, willing to take any job if the price is right. Flint left the assassin game when a ruthless drug dealer’s brutal attack left his wife in a coma. When a contract is put out on the same coldblooded drug dealer, both Brazil and Flint want him dead – one for the money, the other for revenge. With crooked Interpol agents and vicious members of the criminal underworld hot on their trail, these two assassins reluctantly join forces to quickly take out their target before they themselves are terminated.
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Control
as Norton
Lee Ray Oliver, a death row inmate, is given a second chance at life if he agrees to undergo a new chemical treatment used to modify behavior.
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Cold Comfort Farm
as Reuben Starkadder
In this adaptation of the satirical British novel, Flora Poste, a plucky London society girl orphaned at age 19, finds a new home with some rough relatives, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm. With a take-charge attitude and some encouragement from her mischievous friend, Mary, Flora changes the Starkadders' lives forever when she settles into their rustic estate, bringing the backward clan up to date and finding inspiration for her novel in the process.
