Charles Venn (born 24 June 1973), formerly known by the stage names Chucky Venice and Chucky Venn, is a British actor, known for his roles as Ray Dixon in ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'',

Jacob Masters Jacob Masters is a fictional character from the British medical drama ''Casualty'', played by Charles Venn. He made his first appearance during the twenty-ninth series episode "If You Could Bottle It", which was broadcast on 18 July 2015. Venn' ...

in '' Casualty'', Curtis Alexander in

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

's ''

Dream Team Dream Team may refer to: Sport Basketball * Dream Team, the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team in Barcelona * Dream Team II, the 1994 U.S. men's national basketball team at the FIBA World Championship * Dream Team III, the 1996 ...

'' and Tremaine Gidigbi in ''

Footballers' Wives ''Footballers' Wives'' is a British television drama about fictional Premier League football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives, broadcast on ITV from 2002 to 2006. The show initially focuses on three very different couples, but ...

''. He's co-starred with actors such as Michael Jai White, Tom Frederic & Erik Palladino. In 2018 he took part in BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Karen Clifton.

Early life

Born in

Queens Park, London Queen's Park is an area located partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Brent. Some of the area within Westminster forms a civil parish, the first to be created in London since the right of communities to establish ...

, he grew up on the tough Mozart estate, which was at the time a notorious inner-London sink estate. As a boy his passion was for

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

. He attended West London College ormerly Ealing, Hammersmith and West London Collegestudying performing arts.

Career

Venn took a variety of roles as a jobbing actor, using the surname Venice. He got his big break in 2003 when he was cast as Curtis Alexander in the footballing drama ''Dream Team'' on the satellite channel Sky One. Initially only contracted to appear in two episodes, he became part of the regular cast, appearing in 98 episodes in all until the character was killed off in 2005. Venn moved to another football drama the following year, appearing as the

cuckold A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is a ...

ed 'alpha male' Tremaine Gidigbi in the final season of ''Footballers Wives''. In late 2006, Venn landed a role in the horror film sequel ''

Return to House on Haunted Hill ''Return to House on Haunted Hill'' is a 2007 American horror film and the sequel to the 1999 film ''House on Haunted Hill''. Directed by Víctor Garcia and written by William Massa, the film stars Amanda Righetti, Tom Riley, Cerina Vincent and ...

'' as Warren, he also had a role in ' Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead' as Walter and a small role in '' Bourne Ultimatum'', as Agent Hammond, and ''

The Dark Knight ''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan Nolan, Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and t ...

'', as bodyguards of one of the film's main villains, Gambol. He can also be seen in the music video "Twisted" by Fredi Kruga. Venn guest starred in an episode of the series ''

Little Miss Jocelyn ''Little Miss Jocelyn'' is a British TV sketch comedy written by and starring Jocelyn Jee Esien. The show is made up of studio sketches and hidden camera footage in which unsuspecting members of the public become part of a sketch. The series r ...

'', which aired in January 2008. Venn was also seen on an episode in the third season of '' Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List'' where Kathy visits the UK and the pair go on a date. His on-screen time lasted just over a minute, and he was subtitled throughout when the episode aired 17 July 2007. Prior to the

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

game on

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...

on 23 February, Venn performed a strange monologue. He appeared in the play ''The Brothers'' by Angie Le Mar at the Hackney Empire for several short runs from 2005. It was televised by

MTV Base MTV Base was a British pay television music channel from Paramount Networks UK & Australia that focused primarily on hip hop, R&B, grime, garage, reggae, funk, soul and dance music. It was launched as part of MTV's digital boutique of music ch ...

in March 2009 with Venn, MC Harvey and Jason Barrett in the line-up. Venn played the lead role in the film A.W.O.L also starring Jade Asha and

Rough Copy Rough Copy were a British boy band from Croydon, London. The group consists of Kazeem Ajobo, Sterling Ramsey and Joseph James Thomas. They finished fourth on the tenth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2013. They originally auditioned for the nin ...

. Venn joined the cast of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

soap ''

'' in the role of Ray Dixon, the father of Morgan Jackson-King, in November 2011, appearing in the series from 10 January 2012. He departed the show on 28 May 2013. He played a firefighter on the '' Miranda'' 2014 Christmas Special: '' I Do, But to Who?''. On 18 July 2015, Venn made his debut on BBC One's medical drama '' Casualty'' as the new nurse Jacob Masters. He later became a series regular. In January 2018, Venn participated in And They're Off! in aid of

Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educat ...

. On 21 August 2018, Venn was announced as the fourteenth celebrity to join the Strictly Come Dancing line up of 2018. He was partnered with professional dancer

Karen Clifton Karen Hauer Wyn-Jones (formerly Clifton; born 20 April 1982) is a Venezuelan-American professional Latin dance specialist and World Mambo Champion, best known for her appearances on the British television series ''Strictly Come Dancing.'' She is ...

and they finished in 6th place.

Partial filmography

*''

'' (2008) - Gambol's Bodyguard #1 *'' Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead'' (2009) - Walter

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Venn, Chucky 1973 births Black British male actors English male film actors English people of Nigerian descent English male television actors Living people People from Kilburn, London