British actor, writer, producer, director, singer and dancer Danny John-Jules began his career as a dancer in various variety shows and West End productions. He was one of the original cast members of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Starlight Express’. His screen debut came in the year 1975 with the short film ‘Seven Green Bottles’ wherein he played the role of ‘Frog’. This was followed by parts in the films like ‘Scum’ (1979, uncredited), ‘The Great Muppet Caper’ (1981, uncredited) and 'Little Shop of Horrors' (1986). He also did voiceover for two characters – Firey 3/Firey 4 – in the 1986 classic movie ‘Labyrinth’. On television, he was seen in bit parts in the TV series ‘The Hot Shoe Show’ (1983) and ‘Danger: Marmalade at Work’ (1984). He bagged his breakthrough role in the British science fiction comedy series ‘Red Dwarf’ in which he portrayed the role of The Cat, a humanoid creature with cat-like teeth. The first series of the show aired in the year 1988 and thereafter 11 more series (including a miniseries) were broadcasted till 2017 followed by a feature-length special ‘The Promised Land’ in 2020. Danny John-Jules appeared in all the seasons as well as the special (total 74 episodes). From 1989 to 1994, he was also a part of the successful children’s TV series ‘Maid Marian and Her Merry Men’. In this BBC1 show, he played the role of Barrington in four series (26 episodes). In 1995, he was seen as Byron Lucifer in 5 episodes of the sci-fi TV series ‘The Tomorrow People’.
In the 1990s, apart from these, Danny John-Jules acted in an episode each of TV series ‘Jackanory’ (1991), ‘Spatz’ (1991), ‘Runaway Bay’ (1992) and ‘The Bill’ (1994) as well as 2 episodes of another series called ‘The Demon Headmaster’ (1996). On television, he also became a part of TV movies ‘In Dreams’ (1992) and ‘Can't Smeg Won't Smeg’ (1998). In films, he was seen in ‘London Kills Me’ (1991) and ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (1998). Additionally, in 1999, he lent his voice to Gex in the video game ‘Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko’.
Danny John-Jules continued acting in films in 2000s and appeared in movies like ‘Blade II’ (2002), ‘A Goat's Tail’ (2006), ‘Underground’ (2007), ‘Sucker Punch’ (2008), ‘Freestyle’ (2010) and ‘The Whistleblower’ (2010). His short films of the period were ‘The Meeting’ (2002), ‘Sleep’ (2002), ‘The Video Tape (2003) and ‘Fallen Angels’ (2007). Amongst his most prominent work on television were ‘The Story Makers’ (2002-2004), ‘The Crouches’ (2003-2005), ‘M.I.High’ (2007-2008) and ‘Chop Socky Chooks’ (2007-2008). In the first of these, which was a CBeebies educational children's television programme, he played the role of Milton Wordsworth in 74 episodes. Of the 4 series of the show, he appeared in all of them with the exception of season 2. In the second series, which was BBC One’s comedy drama sitcom, he was seen in the role of Ed in 11 episodes. In the third, a CBBC action series, he played the role of Lenny Bicknall – the handler of the first M.I. High team – in the first two seasons of the show (23 episodes). In the last of these, which was a British Canadian animated action-comedy series, Danny John-Jules did voiceover work in 17 episodes. His other television acting credits of the decade include two episodes of TV series ‘Casualty’ (2004) and an episode each of TV series ‘Doctors’ (2006), ‘Chute!’ (2007) and ‘Starhyke’ (2009).
In 2011, he began appearing as Officer Dwayne Myers in the British–French crime drama series ‘Death In Paradise’ and quickly became a fan favourite. He continued with his role till season 7 in 2018 and later returned in a guest appearance (same character) in the Christmas special episode in 2021 (total 57 episodes). In 2018, he participated as a contestant in the 16th series of the dance competition show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. In the show, he was paired up with the professional dancer Amy Dowden and the two were eliminated in Week 8. During this period, Danny John-Jules also made quick appearances in an episode each of television series ‘The Life of Rock with Brian Pern’ (2014), ‘Top Coppers’ (2015), ‘Drunk History: UK’ (2016), ‘Urban Myths’ (2017), ‘Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators’ (2022) and ‘Dodger’ (2022).
Since 2011, he has acted in movies like ‘The Grind’ (2012), ‘Voodoo Magic’ (2013), ‘Amoc’ (2017) and ‘Creation Stories’ (2021) as well as the short film ‘Swap’ (2012) and ‘Bucky’ (2016; also wrote produced and directed it). He also lent his voice to the character of Elf in the animated Christmas science fantasy comedy film ‘Arthur Christmas’ (2011). From 2015 to 2018, he did voiceover for the character of Curtis in the animated children's television series ‘Bob the Builder’ and from 2018 to 2022 he lent his voice to the characters of Niven and Spark in another animated sci-fi children’s series ‘Robozuna’.
As a writer, producer and director, Danny John-Jules worked in the TV series documentaries ‘Motorbike Diaries: Mad in the Med’ (2012), ‘The Easy Riders: Viva Valencia’ (2014), ‘The Easy Riders: Challenge 125’ (2014), ‘The Easy Riders: 5 Peaks Challenge’ (2015), ‘The Unlikely Bikers’ (2016) and ‘Two Wheels One Love’ (2018). He appeared as himself in all these series except ‘The Unlikely Bikers’. Apart from these, he wrote, produced and appeared as himself in the TV series documentary ‘The Easy Riders: Wrong Way Round’ (2016). Additionally, he turned co-producer and director for and appeared as himself in another television series documentary ‘Motorbike Diaries: Dakar Dreams’ (2013) too.
Few other documentaries wherein he has appeared as himself include ‘Flashback: The History of UK Black Music’ (2016), ‘Under the Radar: The Mike Edmonds Story’ (2016), ‘Two Wheels One Love’ (2018), ‘Greatest Chocolate Adverts of All Time’ (2019) and ‘Agatha & Poirot: Partners in Crime’ (2021). Danny John-Jules also turned narrator for the TV movie documentary ‘Before Grenfell: A Hidden History’ (2018) and the TV special documentary ‘Craig & Danny: Funny, Black and on TV’ (2020).
