Benjamin Faulks (born 13 March 1979) is a British actor and presenter. He is best known for creating the

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

television series '' Mr Bloom's Nursery'' in which he plays the titular character, for which he was nominated for a

British Academy Children's Award The British Academy Children's Awards were presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They were awarded annually since 1996, before which time they were a part of the main British Academy ...

in 2011 and 2012.

Early life and education

Faulks was born and grew up in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and moved to

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

in 1998 to go to drama college. He attended Bretton Hall (now part of the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

) where he earned a

first class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied, sometimes with significant var ...

in theatre acting, graduating in 2001.

Career

Faulks won the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Fringe Performer in 2004 for a one-man play he created. In 2006, Faulks featured in a

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

TV advert, and in 2007, starred in ''The Endurance'' at the

Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The univer ...

theatre. The idea for ''Mr. Bloom's Nursery'' came from a piece of street theatre that Faulks had written in 2006 called ''The Vegetable Nannies''; he had toured the play across the UK, as well as in Europe and Canada but wanted to pitch it as a preschool television show. Faulks developed it into a proposal in 2008, and it was picked up by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 2009. ''Mr. Bloom's Nursery'' won an RTS North and West Award for Best Children's Programme in 2011. Faulks was also nominated for the

for Best Performer in 2011 and 2012, but was beaten by

Harley Bird Harley Fiona Riley (born 13 December 2001), better known by her stage name of Harley Bird, is an English actress. She was the third as well as the longest running voice of ''Peppa Pig'', taking on the role in 2007 and leaving in 2020. The role w ...

for her voicing of

Peppa Pig ''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series created by Neville Astley and Mark Baker. Produced by Hasbro Entertainment and Karrot Animation and formerly produced by Astley Baker Davies, the show follows Peppa, an anthro ...

and

Khalil Madovi Khalil Nathan-Kudzai Madovi (born 10 November 1997) is an English actor, artist and musician. He played Josh Carter in the CBBC series ''4 O'Clock Club'' (2012–2015), for which he won the Children's BAFTA for Best Performer. In 2016, he relea ...

for his role in ''

4 O'Clock Club ''4 O'Clock Club'' is a British comedy drama and musical children's television series set in a secondary school, which premiered on 13 January 2012 on CBBC. Background In March 2011, auditions were held for ''4 O'Clock Club'', and the show was ...

'' respectively. Faulks played Mark Brown in ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...

'' in 2015. In 2021, he was announced as an ambassador for Ask the Question, a

community interest company A community interest company (CIC, pronounced "see-eye-see", or colloquially, "kick") is a form of social enterprise in the United Kingdom intended "for people wishing to establish businesses which trade with a social purpose..., or to carry on ...

providing support to disadvantaged students.

Personal life

Faulks' wife, Mimi, is a freelance creative producer and they often work together on projects. , they have three children and live in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

References

External links

Manchester Evening NewsGuardian coverage
1979 births Living people English male television actors Entertainers from Truro Male actors from Cornwall English television presenters Alumni of the University of Leeds English children's television presenters {{UK-tv-actor-1970s-stub