Ivan Blakeley Kaye (born 1 July 1961) is an English actor and producer. His international fame came with roles in historical drama shows like the Duke of Milan in all three seasons of The Borgias, and King Aelle in the first four Seasons of History channel's series Vikings. More recent projects include action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, the series pilot for Amazon's adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the first British original Disney+ series Wedding Season and a leading role in the Irish comedy feature film Apocalypse Clown. In the UK, he is also widely known for is role as Bryan in the comedy series The Green Green Grass.
Kaye was born on 1 July 1961 in Northampton, Northamptonshire.[dead link] His passion for entertainment started in early childhood when he recreated television adverts at age two and performed shows with his friends throughout his childhood. As an eight-year-old boy, a key experience strengthened his enthusiasm and he joined a youth theatre group at age eleven, taking over organizational duties some years later. The only family member to have been involved in the entertainment industry before was Kaye's maternal grandmother who had been a musical star in the 1920s.
As his parents were social workers who moved frequently, Kaye attended thirteen different senior schools and experienced bullying along the way. It was in a school fight that he got his nose broken. As his parents ran hostels for mentally ill people, adolescents and delinquents, Kaye came in contact with various types of behaviours and people from an early age. According to his own appraisal, this experience has been a helpful factor for the development of his wide-ranging repertoire. While earning his degree in English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury on the insistence of his parents, he performed in as many student plays as possible and started his professional career right afterward, getting an agent after one of his first serious performances in his early twenties and making his first West End theatre appearance early on.

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