All About David

David Tennant was born in 1971 as David McDonald, and lived in Bathgate, in West Lothian. His dad was a Presbyterian minister. He changed his name because there was already an actor with the same name.

Unlike me (I was about 11 or 12 before I decided I wanted to act), David always wanted to be an actor even as a little boy: "I was about three when I decided acting was something I wanted to do, which is lucky, because I was far too young to realise how unlikely it was that I would succeed. If I'd been 12 I'd have probably thought, hey, hang on, people from Paisley don't really do that; I'll get a job in a shoe shop instead. But no, I had a really singular view of my path." (A Close Encounter with David Tennant)

He was "discovered" at a Saturday youth theatre by Scottish TV and never looked back.

He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama His first audition was for the political Scottish Theatre Group 7:84 and he played Manuele Giri in their touring production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a parable of how Hitler rose to power.

Looking through the things that he did, he played a lot of really different characters such as in BBC's "Takin' Over the Asylum" where he played a manic-depressive called Campbell Bain. For other TV roles, see the TV page.

In 1996 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. See the theatre page for a list of all the parts he has played on stage.

David has also appeared in quite a few films but it is for his role as the tenth Dr Who that most people of my generation first got to find out about him.

Some of David's Favourite Things:

Music: The Proclaimers and The Kaiser Chiefs
Colours: red and blue
Car: well he drives a Skoda (honestly! so I've read!)
Politics: Labour