Ivan Kaye

Ivan Kaye

Born: July 1, 1961
in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England
Ivan Kaye is internationally best known for his role as King Aelle in Vikings (2013-17). More recently, he has appeared as the goon leader Yankee in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021).

Kaye has been interested in acting from early childhood. A remarkably versatile actor, he already had a successful stage career in London's West End in dramatic and musical theatre before starting his work in television and film in his early thirties.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, he has been featured in over 50 roles in TV and film. Due to his enormous versatility, Ivan Kaye has been featured in a wide array of roles encompassing lead and main parts as well as antagonists, outright villains, and comical characters.

Recent major productions and roles include: drug baron Polo Yakur in Assassination Games (2011), the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza in The Borgias (2011-2013), Joshua Collins (father of the main character played by Johnny Depp) in Dark Shadows (2012), Ivar the Boneless in Hammer of the Gods (2013), King Aelle of Northumbria in Vikings (2013-2017), pub landlord Mick Sturrock in The Coroner (2015-2016) and goon leader Yankee in Gunpowder Milkshake (2021). All of these productions have reached an international audience and have been dubbed in several languages.

Kaye has also appeared in Layer Cake (2004) and is well-known in the UK as herdsman Bryan in BBC’s comedy series The Green Green Grass.

From October 2017 to January 2018 he returned to theatre after almost twenty years, starring as Tom Kettle in the critically acclaimed multi-award-winning stage play The Ferryman at the Gielgud Theatre London.

Kaye has also worked as a voice artist in several video games such as Star Wars The Old Republic, Stuntman, C-12 and more.

As a founder and director of Comedy Ink Productions together with actor/writer Douglas McFerran, he has produced and acted as a lead in short comedic offerings such as the mini-series Brilliant! (2007), the short film Sherlock Holmes Confidential (2013) and his recent dark comedy short Acter (2020).

Kaye has a reputation of being especially kind and appreciative towards his fans on social media and in person. He is a supporter of the Hounslow Urban Farm (where 'Green Green Grass' was partially filmed) and, with several other actors, the Justice for Andrew campaign, seeking justice for the murder of a young Liverpudlian. He has two grown-up daughters and lives in London.

Movies for Ivan Kaye...

Apocalypse Clown
Title: Apocalypse Clown
Character: The Great Alphonso
Released: July 14, 2023
Type: Movie
When a mysterious technological blackout plunges Ireland into anarchy and chaos, a group of failed, washed-up clowns are forced to traverse the country for one last shot at their dreams.
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Title: Sister Boniface Mysteries
Character: Ted Button
Released: February 8, 2022
Type: TV
First there was Father Brown. Now, say hello to Sister Boniface. This clever, moped-riding nun is the police's secret weapon for solving murders in this divine Father Brown spin-off.
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The Dead Collectors
Title: The Dead Collectors
Character: Peter
Released: November 14, 2021
Type: Movie
During a pandemic in an alternate reality, two men have the job of collecting the deceased.
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End of Term
Title: End of Term
Character: Garth Stroman
Released: October 12, 2021
Type: Movie
A group of students are tormented by the lingering menace of Garth Stroman, an artist who had a disturbing vision fifty years prior. The pupils discover that true art can only be achieved through suffering and pain.
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Gunpowder Milkshake
Title: Gunpowder Milkshake
Character: Yankee
Released: July 14, 2021
Type: Movie
To protect an 8-year-old girl, a dangerous assassin reunites with her mother and her lethal associates to take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.
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The King
Title: The King
Character: Scrope
Released: October 11, 2019
Type: Movie
England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.
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For Love or Money
Title: For Love or Money
Character: Patrick
Released: March 15, 2019
Type: Movie
What started off as a whirlwind romance takes an unexpected turn when Mark discovers his beautiful bride-to-be is plotting against him. In cahoots with an old school buddy, they hatch a plan to take half of Mark’s £20 million fortune and use it for their own happy ending. What they don’t realize is that Mark is one step ahead of them.
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Cliffs of Freedom
Title: Cliffs of Freedom
Character: Ghazi Khalif
Released: March 1, 2019
Type: Movie
The timeless story of an ill-fated romance between a young Greek village girl and a conflicted Turkish officer during the dawn of the Greek War for Independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1821.
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Title: The Woman in White
Character: Pesca
Released: April 22, 2018
Type: TV
The lives of two half-sisters and their drawing master get caught up in a deadly conspiracy revolving around a mentally ill woman dressed all in white.
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Title: The Coroner
Character: Mick Sturrock
Released: November 16, 2015
Type: TV
High-flying solicitor Jane Kennedy returns to the seaside town she left as a teenager to take up the post of coroner, becoming an advocate for the dead as she investigates sudden, violent or unexplained deaths.
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Title: Undercover
Character: Garabed
Released: June 16, 2015
Type: TV
Family. It can be the most important thing in the world. And it can also be a massive pain in the arse. Undercover is a high stakes action comedy about Chris, a lonely, over analysing neurotic traffic police officer who finds himself hopelessly out of his depth when he infiltrates an Armenian crime family.
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Title: Vikings: Athelstan's Journal
Character: King Aelle (archive footage)
Released: January 30, 2015
Type: TV
Viking culture is seen from a first-hand experience through Athelstan's perspective. Athelstan reflects his inner thoughts on the ways of the Northmen including all their customs, values, and morals. Watch the young priest struggle with an emotional and psychological turmoil as he balances his faith in both God and Odin, revels in bloodshed then is haunted by memories of combat, and then recognizes the personalities of his barbarian family and understands that they, though pagan, are human beings.
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Hammer of the Gods
Title: Hammer of the Gods
Character: Ivar
Released: July 5, 2013
Type: Movie
Action epic sees a passionate young man transform into a brutal warrior as he travels the unforgiving landscape in search of his long lost brother Hakan The Ferrocious, whose people are relying on him to restore order to their kingdom.
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Title: Vikings
Character: King Aelle
Released: March 3, 2013
Type: TV
The adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the sagas of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods. Legend has it that he was a direct descendant of Odin, the god of war and warriors.
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Tortoise in Love
Title: Tortoise in Love
Character: Sean
Released: July 13, 2012
Type: Movie
Tortoise in Love is a feel-good romantic comedy in the tradition of Local Hero, Calendar Girls and The Full Monty. It's about an incredibly slow mover in love and the village that tries to speed him up. The entire film is set in the beautiful English countryside of the Vale of the White Horse in Oxfordshire. The story of the making of Tortoise in Love could almost be a film in itself. Almost the entire village of Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire was involved in the making of the film. Young mums helped with the sales and design and publicity. Retired folk provided the drivers and stewards and props and logistics support. The Women's Institute organised a phenomenal catering effort and all the cast and crew were lodged in village homes for the duration of the shoot.
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Dark Shadows
Title: Dark Shadows
Character: Joshua Collins
Released: May 9, 2012
Type: Movie
Vampire Barnabas Collins is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate and family have fallen into ruin.
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Assassination Games
Title: Assassination Games
Character: Polo Yakur
Released: July 28, 2011
Type: Movie
Brazil is a contract killer, willing to take any job if the price is right. Flint left the assassin game when a ruthless drug dealer’s brutal attack left his wife in a coma. When a contract is put out on the same coldblooded drug dealer, both Brazil and Flint want him dead – one for the money, the other for revenge. With crooked Interpol agents and vicious members of the criminal underworld hot on their trail, these two assassins reluctantly join forces to quickly take out their target before they themselves are terminated.
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Title: The Borgias
Character: Ludovico Sforza
Released: April 3, 2011
Type: TV
Set in 15th century Italy at the height of the Renaissance, The Borgias chronicles the corrupt rise of patriarch Rodrigo Borgia to the papacy, where he proceeds to commit every sin in the book to amass and retain power, influence and enormous wealth for himself and his family.
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Title: The Borgias
Character: Duke Ludovico Sforza
Released: April 3, 2011
Type: TV
Set in 15th century Italy at the height of the Renaissance, The Borgias chronicles the corrupt rise of patriarch Rodrigo Borgia to the papacy, where he proceeds to commit every sin in the book to amass and retain power, influence and enormous wealth for himself and his family.
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Title: The Green Green Grass
Released: September 9, 2005
Type: TV
Sitcom spin-off from Only Fools and Horses, featuring the characters of Boycie and Marlene adapting to life in rural Shropshire. Starring John Challis and Sue Holderness
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Control
Title: Control
Character: Norton
Released: December 7, 2004
Type: Movie
Lee Ray Oliver, a death row inmate, is given a second chance at life if he agrees to undergo a new chemical treatment used to modify behavior.
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Layer Cake
Title: Layer Cake
Character: Freddie Hurst
Released: September 30, 2004
Type: Movie
When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...
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Inside the Mind of Paul Gascoigne
Title: Inside the Mind of Paul Gascoigne
Character: Narrator
Released: July 10, 2003
Type: Movie
A look at the footballer at the end of the nineties
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Title: Dinotopia
Released: November 28, 2002
Type: TV
Frank Scott, a wealthy American, crashes his plane into the Caribbean. His two teenaged sons, Karl and David, survive, only to find themselves castaways on Dinotopia. Karl and David are constantly at odds, even as they struggle to adjust to life in their strange new world where talking dinosaurs live side by side in an uneasy alliance with humans.
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Lenny Blue
Title: Lenny Blue
Character: DI Ron Featherstone
Released: July 1, 2002
Type: Movie
Two years after the events of Tough Love, Lenny Milton has been transferred, but still finds that he is hated by his colleagues, who have branded him a grass. Meanwhile, when a friend of his Lenny's son dies during a heroin-related overdose, a drug-related gang war breaks out, and Lenny seizes his opportunity to re-ignite his feud with drug trafficker Barry Hindes. Obsessed with bring Hindes to justice, Lenny ignores the advice of his colleagues as he sees a chance for vengeance.
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Title: A Dinner of Herbs
Character: dan bannaman
Released: November 24, 2000
Type: TV
After taking his young son Roddy to a remote Northumberland village, Peter Greenbank meets a violent death, leaving the boy alone with no family to speak of. Roddy is adopted and raised by Kate Makepeace, a good friend of his father’s, and develops a close friendship with Hal and Mary Ellen. But their sibling bond is put to the test as they become adults. The hidden secrets of the past are painfully unearthed as their lives are intertwined by a tragic destiny.
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Title: Bad Girls
Character: Charlie Atkins
Released: June 1, 1999
Type: TV
Bad Girls is a British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1 June 1999 to 20 December 2006 and starred Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones, Debra Stephenson, Linda Henry, Jack Ellis and many more throughout the eight-year run. The series was broadcast in 17 countries and was produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road. It is set in the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, and features a mixture of serious and light storylines focusing on the prisoners and staff of G Wing. From 2010, the UK broadcast rights were bought by CBS Drama, and is repeated regularly – as of September 2012, the channel is re-running the series again in a late-night time slot.
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Title: Microsoap
Character: Roger
Released: September 25, 1998
Type: TV
Microsoap is a children's sitcom, co-written by Mark Haddon and co-produced by the BBC and the Disney Channel. A total of 26 episodes were made, lasting over four series, and airing from 1998-2001. The series Producer for all episodes was Andy Rowley. Directors were Juliet May, Baz Taylor, Graeme Harper. The original sets were production designed by Peter Findley. The story is based around the lives of two children, Joe and Emily Parker, who are brother and sister. The series begin with the split of their parents, Colin and Jane, who decide the marriage isn't working. They don't want to make life for their children difficult, so they remain friends. Jane begins to see a builder named Roger, a single parent of three children, David, Felicity and Robbie. They move in next door, and Roger knocks through a wall making one big house. Meanwhile, Colin sees Jennifer, the marriage therapist he and Jane used. This forms the background story for each episode of the series, that starred Suzanne Burden, Paul Terry, Jeff Rawle and Rebecca Hunter.
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Solomon
Title: Solomon
Character: Adonijah
Released: December 15, 1997
Type: Movie
David, now an old man, is still king of Israel. Among his sons, the ambitious Adonijah and the clever Solomon, fierce rivals, since both are prospective heirs to the throne and only one can be.
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Title: Trial & Retribution
Released: October 19, 1997
Type: TV
Trial & Retribution is a feature-length ITV police procedural television drama series that began in 1997. It was devised and written by Lynda La Plante as a follow-on from her successful television series Prime Suspect. Each episode of the Trial & Retribution series is broadcast over two nights. The 2008 series 10 had 10 episodes, the longest run of the drama so far. The latest series was number 12 which aired in February 2009.
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Title: Faith in the Future
Released: November 17, 1995
Type: TV
Faith in the Future is a British comedy television show running from 17 November 1995 to 27 February 1998. A sequel to the show Second Thoughts, it aired on ITV for 22 episodes. The show continues the story of Faith Greyshott, newly single after splitting from her long-term partner, Bill, at the end of Second Thoughts. With her daughter Hannah away travelling and her son Joe now in a shared flat, Faith decides it's time to stop being a wife and mother and live her life for herself; however, her plans are scuppered when Hannah returns and expects to move back home.
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Title: Bugs
Released: April 1, 1995
Type: TV
Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers and other modern technology. It was originally broadcast on Saturday evenings on BBC One, and was produced for the BBC by the independent production company Carnival Films.
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Cold Comfort Farm
Title: Cold Comfort Farm
Character: Reuben Starkadder
Released: January 1, 1995
Type: Movie
In this adaptation of the satirical British novel, Flora Poste, a plucky London society girl orphaned at age 19, finds a new home with some rough relatives, the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm. With a take-charge attitude and some encouragement from her mischievous friend, Mary, Flora changes the Starkadders' lives forever when she settles into their rustic estate, bringing the backward clan up to date and finding inspiration for her novel in the process.
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Title: The Paradise Club
Character: Arthur Burns
Released: September 19, 1989
Type: TV
The Paradise Club is a BBC television drama starring Don Henderson and Leslie Grantham as Frank & Danny Kane. Two series were produced and were broadcast between 1989 and 1990. The show focuses upon two brothers, Frank & Danny Kane. Their mother, Ma Kane, is the matriarch of a criminal gang in South London, helped by her son Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club on the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from crime.
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Title: Casualty
Character: Guy
Released: September 6, 1986
Type: TV
Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.
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Title: The Bill
Released: October 16, 1984
Type: TV
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.