Northampton rugby kid, Bristol Old Vic grind, Olivier-nominated Pink Mist, the Jamie Tartt redemption arc, and the Emmy run that made a Womble fan famous.
If you only know Phil Dunster as Jamie Tartt, you know the loudest version of a career that started in rugby shorts and ended up on a West End stage singing Oklahoma!. Jamie arrives as the show's unapologetic villain and leaves as proof that kindness can rewire a person without sanding off who they are. Dunster made that journey feel earned because he had already lived a few pivots himself.
He was born Philip James Dunster on March 31, 1992, in Northampton. The path to AFC Richmond did not run through drama school brochures at first. It ran through contact sports, military family expectations, and a late decision that the stage might be the honest bet.
Phil Dunster. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Born
March 31, 1992
Hometown
Northampton, England
Active
2015-present
Training
Bristol Old Vic '14
Olivier
Affiliate nom '16
Emmy noms
1
SAG
Ensemble win '22
Known for
Jamie Tartt
Early life: rugby, head boy, and a different kind of service
Dunster grew up in Northampton and attended Leighton Park School in Reading, where he became head boy. That detail matters. Jamie Tartt performs confidence for a living. Dunster apparently ran assemblies and student life before he ever ran lines.
Rugby came first. He played seriously enough to trial with London Irish at fifteen, then stopped growing into the size the position wanted. The body made one decision. His brain made another. With a father and brother in the military, he briefly considered that route too. Theatre won because it felt like the harder truth, not the softer escape.
He graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2014 with a BA in Acting. Classical training shows up later in how he handles Jamie's shifts: the accent work, the physical swagger, the ability to land a punchline and a tear in the same scene without tipping the scale.
He auditioned for Danny Rojas and became Jamie Tartt
Theatre first: Claudio, Arthur, and Curly
Out of drama school Dunster went straight to the stage. He played Claudio in a Reading Theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing. Then came the role that announced him: Arthur in Pink Mist at Bristol Old Vic and the Bush Theatre in London. The play follows wounded soldiers home from Afghanistan. Dunster carried the lead. The industry noticed.
In 2016 he received an affiliate Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in Affiliate Theatre for Pink Mist. That same year he appeared in The Entertainer at the Garrick Theatre with Kenneth Branagh's company. Theatre was not a detour on the way to TV. It was the foundation.
Cut to 2024. Dunster starred as Curly in the concert production of Oklahoma! at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, singing alongside Hannah Waddingham on her Home for Christmas Apple TV+ special. A Mancunian footballer who can belt Rodgers and Hammerstein is not a party trick. It is a résumé.
Screen grind before the mustache
Dunster's pre-Ted Lasso screen work is the usual British actor patchwork done well. Catastrophe on Channel 4. Stan Lee's Lucky Man. A turn on Benidorm. Main cast on Sky One's Strike Back: Retribution as Lance Corporal Will Jensen. Recurring roles on Save Me and Humans. Guest spots on No Offence and Man in an Orange Shirt.
The film credits stack prestige without vanity. Megan Leavey. Murder on the Orient Express as Colonel John Armstrong, in the same Kenneth Branagh ecosystem that shaped his early theatre. All Is True. Judy opposite Renee Zellweger. The Good Liar with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. None of these are starring roles. All of them are proof he could hold a frame next to heavyweights.
Television kept widening. Andrey Razumovsky in Catherine the Great. Quincey Morris in the BBC Dracula miniseries. Lead billing on ITV's The Trouble with Maggie Cole as Jamie Cole, a nice dry run for playing another Jamie who needs to grow up.
Why Phil Dunster got the role of Jamie in Ted LassoWatch on YouTube
Ted Lasso: Jamie Tartt as public character development
Jamie Tartt begins as the show's premium antagonist: vain, cruel, talented, and absolutely certain the world owes him applause. Dunster plays him with a Mancunian edge borrowed from Liam Gallagher swagger, grime cadence, and the kind of regional muscle that reads as hunger on camera. The accent was not a gimmick. It was architecture.
Across three seasons Jamie moves from Richmond traitor to Richmond leader. He learns to pass. He learns to apologize without making it about his hair. He builds an unlikely friendship with Roy Kent that becomes one of the show's best engines. Dunster never rushes the turn. You believe the jerk because he keeps the jerk's spine even when the choices get kinder.
The work landed. In 2023 Dunster received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Ted Lasso season three. Ted Lasso became one of the rare shows to have every original series regular nominated for an Emmy, joining company like Golden Girls and Schitt's Creek. Dunster and Brett Goldstein were nominated in the same category. Dunster called Goldstein a great bloke with lovely eyebrows and meant it.
The cast also took home a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2022. Jamie Tartt made Dunster famous. The nomination made the industry admit the growth arc was acting, not just writing.
Ted Lasso: A Conversation with Brett Goldstein and Phil DunsterWatch on YouTube
After Richmond: thrillers, Apple drama, and Rooster
Dunster did not vanish into meme country. He played Mike Stephens in Amazon's The Devil's Hour, a troubled character opposite Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi, and returned for season two. He led Surface on Apple TV+ as Quinn Huntley across eight episodes in 2025. He showed up in HBO's Rooster opposite Steve Carell as Archie Bates, flexing comedy and emotional range in the same breath.
He also wrote and directed the short Idiomatic in 2024. The man who plays a footballer famous for product endorsements is quietly building a filmmaker's shelf. That tracks for someone who chose theatre over the military because he wanted a harder truth.
The person off the pitch
Dunster is an AFC Wimbledon supporter, which is exactly the kind of football allegiance Jamie Tartt would mock before adopting it ironically and then for real. He engaged to actress Ellie Heydon in 2024 and married by March 2026. The press photos look like someone who plays arrogant on clock and relaxed off it.
Castmates describe him as nothing like Jamie in daily life: thoughtful, collaborative, quick to credit directors and writers for the character's shape. The Jamie Tartt persona is performance. Dunster's actual reputation in the Ted Lasso company is closer to the version of Jamie who stays for the team photo.
Actor stats (the scoreboard)
Primetime Emmys: 1 nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Ted Lasso, 2023).
SAG Awards: ensemble win with the Ted Lasso cast (2022).
Olivier Awards: affiliate nomination for Outstanding Performance in Affiliate Theatre for Pink Mist (2016).
Other markers: lead theatre credits at Bristol Old Vic, Bush Theatre, Garrick Theatre, Royal Court, and Theatre Royal Drury Lane; announced as Eret in the live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2026).
The career shape is clear. Sport built discipline. Drama school built craft. British TV and film built credibility. Ted Lasso built the audience. Theatre and new film work are building the second act before the first one feels finished.
Complete filmography
Feature credits commonly listed for Dunster, year by year. Upcoming titles included where already announced.
Feature films
Year
Title
Role
2013
The Film-Maker's Son
Big Robbie
2015
The Rise of the Krays
Dickie Baker
2016
The Fall of the Krays
Dickie Baker
2017
Megan Leavey
Coletta
2017
Murder on the Orient Express
Colonel John Armstrong
2018
All Is True
Henry, the Student
2019
Judy
Ben
2019
The Good Liar
Roy Courtnay (1948)
2022
Pragma (short)
Jack Hurt
2023
Panda (short)
Waiter
2024
Idiomatic (short; also writer, director)
Alex
2025
Picture This
Milo Bonner
2026
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (live-action; announced)
Eret
Television (selected)
Television highlights
Year
Title
Role
2015-2017
Catastrophe
Nico
2016
Stan Lee's Lucky Man
JC
2017-2018
Strike Back: Retribution (main)
LCpl. Will Jensen
2018
Save Me
BJ McGory
2018
Humans
Tristan
2019
Catherine the Great
Andrey Razumovsky
2020
Dracula
Quincey Morris
2020
The Trouble with Maggie Cole (main)
Jamie Cole
2020-2023
Ted Lasso (main)
Jamie Tartt
2022-2024
The Devil's Hour
Mike Stephens
2023
Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas (special)
Self
2025
Surface (main)
Quinn Huntley
2026-
Rooster (main)
Archie Bates
Theatre (selected)
Stage credits
Year
Title
Role
2015
Much Ado About Nothing (Reading Theatre)
Claudio
2016
Pink Mist (Bristol Old Vic / Bush; Olivier nom)
Arthur
2016
The Entertainer (Garrick Theatre)
-
2024
Brace Brace (Royal Court)
-
2024
Oklahoma! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert)
Curly
What the résumé actually says
Strip away the hair gel and you get a Northampton kid who wanted to serve, found out his body had other plans, and redirected that drive into acting with the same seriousness. He did the Olivier-nominated theatre work. He did the British TV grind. He did the Kenneth Branagh films. Then he got famous playing a man who learns, in front of millions, how to become someone worth rooting for.
Jamie Tartt grew up in public because Dunster understood the assignment: keep the edge, change the choices, never lie about the hunger underneath. That is why the Emmy nomination felt inevitable to fans before the academy caught up. Dunster made Jamie Tartt grow up in public, and the career around him is doing the same thing on a slower, sturdier clock.
