Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He first gained success on the sketch comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982), before going on to play the title roles in the sitcoms Blackadder (1983–1989) and Mr. Bean (1990–1995), and in the film series Johnny English (2003–present).
He reprised the Mr. Bean character in the films Bean (1997) and Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007), and voices the character in Mr. Bean: The Animated Series (2002–present).
Throughout his career, he has frequently collaborated with screenwriter Richard Curtis and composer Howard Goodall, both of whom he met at the Oxford University Dramatic Society during the 1970s.
Atkinson's other film appearances include the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983), The Witches (1990), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Rat Race (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002), Love Actually (2003), and Wonka (2023), as well as voicing the character Zazu in the Disney animated film The Lion King (1994). He also starred as Inspector Raymond Fowler in the BBC sitcom The Thin Blue Line (1995–1996), French police commissioner Jules Maigret in ITV's Maigret (2016–2017), and Trevor Bingley in the Netflix sitcoms Man vs. Bee (2022) and Man vs. Baby (2025).
Atkinson's work in theatre includes the role of Fagin in the 2009 West End revival of the musical Oliver!.
In 2003, The Observer listed Atkinson as one of the 50 funniest actors in British comedy, and among the top 50 comedians ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians. Atkinson received the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance in 1981, for his work in Not the Nine O'Clock News, and again in 1990, for his work in Blackadder, as well as an Olivier Award for his 1981 West End theatre performance in Rowan Atkinson in Revue. Atkinson was appointed CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.
Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, or Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, on 6 January 1955. The youngest of four boys, his parents were Eric Atkinson, a farmer and company director, and Ella May (née Bainbridge), who married on 29 June 1945. His three older brothers are Paul, who died as an infant; Rodney, a Eurosceptic economist who narrowly lost the UK Independence Party leadership election in 2000; and Rupert.
Atkinson was brought up Anglican. He was educated at the Durham Chorister School, a preparatory school, and then at St Bees School. Rodney, Rowan and their older brother Rupert were brought up in Consett and went to school with the future Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Durham Choristers. After receiving top grades in science A levels, he secured a place at Newcastle University, where he received a BSc degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1975. Atkinson briefly embarked on a PhD study at The Queen's College, Oxford, where his father had studied in 1935, before devoting his full attention to acting. He graduated with an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering and was made an Honorary Fellow of the college in 2006. His master's thesis, published in 1978, considered the application of self-tuning control.
Atkinson first won national attention in The Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1976. He had already written and performed sketches for shows in Oxford by the Etceteras – the revue group of the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) – and for the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), meeting writer Richard Curtis, and composer Howard Goodall, with whom he would continue to collaborate during his career.
Atkinson starred in a series of comedy shows for BBC Radio 3 in 1979 called The Atkinson People. It consisted of a series of satirical interviews with fictional great men, who were played by Atkinson himself. The series was written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, and produced by Griff Rhys Jones.
After university, Atkinson did a one-off pilot for London Weekend Television in 1979 called Canned Laughter. He gained further national attention when he performed on the third The Secret Policeman's Ball in June 1979 which was broadcast on the BBC, and since then he has appeared on televised skits with various performers including Elton John, John Cleese ("Beekeeping") and Kate Bush, the latter with whom he performed the humorous song "Do Bears... ?" for the British charity event Comic Relief in 1986. Solo skits on television (and without dialogue) have included playing an invisible drum kit and an invisible piano. In October 1979, Atkinson first appeared on Not the Nine O'Clock News for the BBC, produced by his friend John Lloyd. He featured in the show with Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, and Pamela Stephenson, and he was one of the main sketch writers.
The success of Not the Nine O'Clock News led to Atkinson taking the lead role of Edmund Blackadder in the BBC mock-historical comedy Blackadder. His co-stars included Tony Robinson (who played his long-suffering sidekick Baldrick), Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. The first series, The Black Adder (1983), co-written by Atkinson and Richard Curtis, was set in the mediæval period, with the title character unintelligent and naïve. The second series, Blackadder II (1986), written by Curtis and Ben Elton, marked a turning point for the show. It followed the fortunes of one of the descendants of Atkinson's original character, this time in the Elizabethan era, with the character reinvented as a devious anti-hero. Metro states, "watching Atkinson work in series two is to watch a master of the sarcastic retort in action". Two sequels followed, Blackadder the Third (1987), set in the Regency era, and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), set in World War I. The Blackadder series became one of the most successful of all BBC situation comedies, spawning television specials including Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988), and later Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999), which was set at the turn of the Millennium. The final scene of Blackadder Goes Forth (when Blackadder and his men go "over the top" and charge into No-Man's-Land) has been described as "bold and highly poignant". Possessing an acerbic wit and armed with numerous quick put-downs (which are often wasted on those at whom they are directed), Edmund Blackadder was ranked third (behind Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers) on a 2001 Channel 4 poll of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.
Atkinson's other creation, the hapless Mr. Bean, first appeared on New Year's Day in 1990 in a half-hour special for Thames Television. The character of Mr. Bean has been likened to a modern-day Buster Keaton, but Atkinson himself has stated that Jacques Tati's character Monsieur Hulot was the main inspiration. Atkinson states, "The essence of Mr Bean is that he's entirely selfish and self-centred and doesn't actually acknowledge the outside world. He's a child in a man's body. Which is what most visual comedians are about: Stan Laurel, Chaplin, Benny Hill".
Several sequels to Mr. Bean appeared on television until 1995, and the character later appeared in a feature film. Bean (1997) was directed by Mel Smith, Atkinson's colleague in Not the Nine O'Clock News. A second film, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in 2007.
Atkinson also portrayed Inspector Raymond Fowler in The Thin Blue Line (1995–96), a television sitcom written by Ben Elton, which takes place in a police station located in fictitious Gasforth.
Atkinson has fronted campaigns for Kronenbourg, Fujifilm, and Give Blood. He appeared as a hapless and error-prone espionage agent named Richard Lathum in a long-running series of adverts for Barclaycard, on which character his title role in Johnny English, Johnny English Reborn and Johnny English Strikes Again was based. In 1999, he played the Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death, a special Doctor Who serial produced for the charity telethon Comic Relief. Atkinson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC's Top Gear in July 2011, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2. Placing him at the top of the leaderboard, his lap time was quicker than the previous high-profile record holder Tom Cruise, whose time was a 1:44.2.