Orlando Wells

Orlando Wells (born 9 June 1973) is an English actor and writer.

Wells is the son of actress Susannah York and Michael Wells. As an actor, Wells is best known for playing Irwin in Alan Bennett's History Boys and playing John Stonehouse in James Graham's This House.

He has recently finished writing Lenin Forever!, a radio play for BBC Radio 4 about the two scientists who were tasked with embalming Lenin in 1924.

He has also written five original plays: The Winter Room (RSC fringe festival), Cold Enough, The Tin Horizon (Theatre 503), The Woodcutter's Tale (developed with NT Studio), and Four Days in Hong Kong (about Glenn Greenwald's and Laura Poitras's first meeting with Edward Snowden), produced for the Orange Tree Theatre Festival.

Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian of The Tin Horizon, 'a play that proves Wells has a gift for gothic futurism... a name to watch... shows a wild imagination at work and displays unmistakable signs of talent.'[citation needed ]

Wells revised and adapted Patrick Hamilton's The Duke in Darkness for a 2013 production at the Tabard Theatre, Chiswick, directed by Phoebe Barran. The following year Wells co-wrote, with Opera Erratica director Patrick Eakin Young, the libretto for the experimental opera Triptych, performed in 2014 at The Print Room and Wilton's Music Hall.

He was a series-writer for the animated children programs Xolight and Noksu. He has written the full-length feature Bait the Hook, and a short film, Shrike, longlisted for Channel 4's Coming Up.