Hugh Anthony Quarshie is a Ghanaian-born British actor.
Some of his best-known roles include his appearances in the films Highlander (1986), The Church (1989), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), and the Doctor Who episodes "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" (2007) as well as his long-running role as Ric Griffin in the BBC medical drama Holby City (2001–2020).
Quarshie played the role of Ric for 19 years and was the longest-serving cast member in Holby City, until he confirmed his departure in October 2020. The character departed in Episode 1034 (Episode 26) of Series 22, which aired on 10 November 2020.
Early and personal life
A member of the Euro-African community of Ghana, Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English, and Dutch ancestry. He was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina (née Phillips; 1917–2004) and Richard Quarshie (1913–2006). His mother was of chiefly ancestry; her relatives currently serve as the chiefs of the Ghanaian village of Abii.
Hugh emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom at the age of three. He was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset and Dean Close School in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (during which time he played the role of Othello at the Tuckwell Theatre), before reading PPE at Christ Church, Oxford.
Career
Quarshie had considered becoming a journalist before taking up acting. He is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has appeared in many stage productions and television programmes, including the serial Behaving Badly with Judi Dench.
He is well known for playing the roles of Sunda Kastagir in Highlander, Captain Panaka in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and Ric Griffin on the television series Holby City. He attended the Star Wars fan event "Star Wars Celebration" in 1999. He portrayed Lieutenant Obutu in Wing Commander.
He appeared in the 2007 two-part Doctor Who episode "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks" as Solomon, the leader of the shanty town Hooverville. He headed the cast of Michele Soavi's The Church (1989) as Father Gus, and played Aaron the Moor in the BBC Television Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
Quarshie has also narrated for television. His work includes the 2006 documentary Mega Falls of Iguacu (about the Iguaçu Falls), the 2009 adaptation of Small Island, and the 2010 BBC Wildlife series The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart. In September 2010, he featured in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he traced his Ghanaian and Dutch origins.
The episode revealed that Quarshie was part of his country's Euro-African elite as one of his ancestors, Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, was a Dutch official on the Gold Coast. This also made him a distant relative of Dutch actor Antonie Kamerling.
Politics
Quarshie is a supporter of the Women's Equality Party.
Filmography
Dogs of war
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
Highlander
La Chiesa
Nightbreed
Wing Commander
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Conspiracy of Silence
Red Sparrow
Television
Scene
The Knowledge
Buccaneer
Wolcott
The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Rumpole of the Bailey
Angels
Sharma and Beyond
Titus Andronicus
Alas Smith and Jones
Screenplay
A Gentleman's Club
Behaving Badly
Chancer
Press Gang
Medics
Surgical Spirit
Virtual Murder
The Tomorrow People
The Comic Strip Presents...
Red Dwarf
Horizon
The Chief
MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence
Jason and the Argonauts
Holby City
Casualty
Doctor Who
White Heat
Still Star-Crossed