Sacha Dhawan: Who is Doctor Who's new Master?
Everything you need to know about the actor playing the evil Time Lord in Doctor Who series 12
Sacha Dhawan is appearing in the current series of Doctor Who as classic villain the Master, following in the footsteps of actors like Derek Jacobi, Roger Delgado, Anthony Ainley and Michelle Gomez among others.
Dhawan adds Doctor Who to an impressive small screen CV that already includes work on several of the nation’s most popular shows. Here’s everything you need to know about his career so far...
Early years
Dhawan was prepared for the spotlight from an early age - starting acting at the age of twelve and attending Laine-Johnson Theatre School in Manchester.
His career began with a series of roles on children’s TV shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s, appearing alongside Felicity Jones in Weirdsister College (a sequel series to The Worst Witch) and playing a key role in series 2 and 3 of CITV show Out of Sight.
He went on to star in the EastEnders spin-off TV movie Perfectly Frank in 2003, and played the role of Akhtar in Alan Bennet’s hit West End play The History Boys between 2004 and 2006, both in London and also on Broadway, in Australia and New Zealand and finally in Hong Kong. He also reprised the role for the 2006 film of the play, alongside most of the show’s original cast.
Who connections
His role in the upcoming series 12 will not be Dhawan’s first dalliance with the Doctor - he previously appeared in the 2013 television film An Adventure in Space and Time, which was written by Mark Gatiss.
That drama, which was part of the celebrations for the show’s 50th anniversary, told the story of the creation of the series, with David Bradley portraying William Hartnell, who famously played the first Doctor. Dhawan played Waris Hussein, who was the original director of the series and played a key part in recruiting Hartnell to the series.
This was not the first time Dhawan had collaborated with Gatiss, who has a long association with the franchise. Their partnership will soon be seen in action in the new adaptation of Dracula – which is currently airing on BBC One, while Dhawan also appeared on other Gatiss projects including Sherlock and 2013 Christmas ghost story The Tractate Middoth.
Recent work
In addition to his work with Gatiss, Dhawan has appeared on a number of other popular British shows. This includes a role in series 2 of Line of Duty as D.S Manish Prasad, two episodes of hit sci-fi mystery Utopia and a recurring part in Mr Selfrigde as Jimmy Dillon.
His film roles include a part in M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth, and a cameo role in Alan Bennett adaptation The Lady in the Van, which starred Maggie Smith.
From 2017 to 2018, he appeared in Netflix Marvel series The Iron Fist where he played Davos, a skilled martial artist who appeared in nine episodes, predominantly in the show’s second season.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
