David Wheeler (born March 20, 1963), better known as David Thewlis, is an English actor and filmmaker. He is known as a character actor and has appeared in a wide variety of genres in both film and television. He has received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and nominations for two BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Award, Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Thewlis made his film debut in Little Dorrit (1987) and acted in the Mike Leigh films Life is Sweet (1990) and Naked (1993), winning the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for the latter. He then appeared in films such as Black Beauty (1994), Restoration (1995), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Dragonheart (1996), and Seven Years in Tibet (1997). He became more widely known to film audiences for his roles as Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter franchise (2004–2011) and Ares / Sir Patrick Morgan in Wonder Woman (2017). Other film roles include Kingdom of Heaven (2005), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008), War Horse (2011), The Theory of Everything (2014), Anomalisa (2015), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020), and Enola Holmes 2 (2022). Thewlis' most notable television roles include V. M. Varga in the third season of FX's Fargo (2017), the voice of the Shame Wizard in the Netflix animated sitcoms Big Mouth (2017–present) and Human Resources (2022–present), Christopher Edwards in the HBO miniseries Landscapers (2021), and John Dee in the Netflix drama series The Sandman (2022). His performance in Fargo earned him nominations for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Critics' Choice Award.
96 movies · 26 shows
Signal One
2026·6.5
Avatar: Fire and Ash
2025·7.6
The Thing with Feathers
2025·6.5
The Amazing Maurice
2022·6.6
Enola Holmes 2
2022·7.4
Rare Beasts
2021·5.5
Zack Snyder's Justice League
2021·8.1
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
2020·6.5
Eternal Beauty
2020·6.2
Guest of Honour
2020·5.4
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal
2018·5.4
The Mercy
2018·5.9
Justice League
2017·6.1
Harry Potter: A History Of Magic
2017·7.3
Wonder Woman
2017·7.2
None of Them Are You: Crafting Anomalisa
2016·0.0
Anomalisa
2015·7.1
Regression
2015·5.6
Macbeth
2015·6.4
An Inspector Calls
2015·7.4
Legend
2015·7.1
Queen & Country
2015·6.1
The Theory of Everything
2014·7.8
Stonehearst Asylum
2014·6.9
Sunday Roast
2014·0.0
Separate We Come, Separate We Go
2013·6.5
The Fifth Estate
2013·6.0
The Zero Theorem
2013·6.1
RED 2
2013·6.5
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
2012·7.6
War Horse
2011·7.3
The Lady
2011·6.8
Anonymous
2011·6.4
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
2011·8.1
The Organ Grinder's Monkey
2011·5.0
How to Get a Head in Sculpture
2011·8.0
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
2010·7.7
London Boulevard
2010·5.9
Mr. Nice
2010·6.1
Athena
2010·0.0
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2009·7.7
Veronika Decides to Die
2009·5.9
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008·7.8
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
2007·4.5
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007·7.7
The Omen
2006·5.7
Basic Instinct 2
2006·5.0
All the Invisible Children
2006·7.0
The New World
2005·6.5
Kingdom of Heaven
2005·7.1
The Magic Touch of Harry Potter
2004·7.7
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004·8.0
Little Wolf's Book of Badness
2003·8.0
Timeline
2003·5.7
Cheeky
2003·6.6
Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film
2003·10.0
D.I.Y. Hard
2002·9.0
Discovering Dinotopia
2002·6.4
Dinotopia
2002·7.6
Hamilton Mattress
2002·6.8
Goodbye Charlie Bright
2001·5.9
Endgame
2000·7.3
Gangster No. 1
2000·6.4
The Miracle Maker
2000·6.1
Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?
2000·6.2
Love Story
1999·9.0
Divorcing Jack
1998·6.0
The Big Lebowski
1998·7.8
Besieged
1998·6.7
Seven Years in Tibet
1997·7.2
American Perfekt
1997·6.5
The Making of 'DragonHeart'
1997·7.3
The Island of Dr. Moreau
1996·4.9
DragonHeart
1996·6.6
James and the Giant Peach
1996·6.6
Restoration
1995·6.1
Total Eclipse
1995·6.4
Dreamtown: A Brief Anatomy of Blackpool
1994·0.0
Black Beauty
1994·6.7
Naked
1993·7.3
The Trial
1993·6.0
Damage
1992·6.6
Black and Blue
1992·9.0
Swords at Teatime
1992·9.0
Afraid of the Dark
1991·5.6
Journey to Knock
1991·10.0
Filipina Dreamgirls
1991·7.3
Skulduggery
1991·0.0
Life Is Sweet
1991·7.0
Resurrected
1989·6.4
Vroom
1988·6.5
Deep Red Instant Love
1988·0.0
Little Dorrit
1987·6.4
The Short & Curlies
1987·6.4
Road
1987·7.2
Radio Pictures
1985·0.0