Ross Kemp facts
Katherine Hall
Ross Kemp was born on July 21st, 1964, in Barking, London. His father John was a Detective Chief Inspector in the British police force, and his mother Jean was a hairdresser. He also has a brother named Darren who works for the BBC as a film maker.
He was an excellent athlete at school (and still plays amateur rugby to this day), but young Ross had yearned to be an actor from a young age. He went on to study drama at the Webber Douglas Academy and went straight into regular work after graduating in 1985.
He first appeared on British TV screens the year afterwards, when he played the character Graham Lodsworth in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale (which was known as Emmerdale Farm in those days). He then went on to make appearances in episodes of Fire Service drama London's Burning and the BBC comedy Birds of a Feather.
Although he was formerly best known for his portrayal of Grant Mitchell in EastEnders, since 2006, Kemp has been widely recognised for his investigative journalism in critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary series such as Ross Kemp on Gangs.
In Ross Kemp on Gangs, Kemp travels around the world talking to gang members, taking in trips to countries including Brazil, El Salvador, East Timor, Belize and Bulgaria and meeting both local authorities and residents who have been affected by gang violence.
In 2007, Ross Kemp on Gangs won a BAFTA award for Best Factual Series. Mr Kemp can keep his gong on his mantelpiece alongside the two British Soap Awards Best Actor trophies he won for his portrayal of Albert Square’s cockney hardman Grant Mitchell in 1999 and 2006.
Before he was well-known on TV as an actor, Kemp appeared in a 1990 television commercial for the Kellogg's company, dressed a golfer and tunefully extolling the virtues of Fruit 'n Fibre breakfast cereal, noting that his ‘breakfast was going with a swing’.
On 11 June 2002 Kemp married Rebekah Wade in Las Vegas. The actor and the editor of The Sun newspaper met at a golf tournament in 1995 and got engaged a year later, but the couple are now divorced.
After leaving EastEnders, Kemp switched channels and went to work for ITV. He appeared in the drama Hero of the Hour, but during filming, he was hit in the face by the discharge from a blank round when a gun stunt went wrong. He also suffered cuts to his chest and face and was treated at the scene by paramedics. But despite this drama-filled incident, Ross recovered quickly.
In 2005, Kemp starred in an episode of Ricky Gervais’ comedy series Extras. He played himself, and mocking his reputation for acting in ‘hardman’ roles, took the part of a posturing but timid actor playing Horatio Nelson in a historical TV drama to rave reviews.
