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Bruno - Biography
Bruno is the third youngest in a large family of five sisters and two brothers. Bruno also has parents John and Dianne, who are native Australians.
It has always been music, rather than acting, that has played a big part in Bruno's life. His dad makes musical instruments (ocarina flutes), whilst some of his sisters play violins and cello's. Bruno himself used to play the cello when younger, and also played a bit of the piano and ocarina flute. In fact, as an 8 year old boy, Bruno actually played the ocarina with some members of his family on a CD album entitled Ocarinas Of The World Vol 1.
It probably comes as some surprise then that, despite coming from such a musical family, it was acting that gave Bruno the desire to perform, rather than anything musical.
Over the years, Bruno has proved himself to be multi talented as a musician. He performed as Robbie Williams on a celebrity version of Stars in their Eyes in 2003. He has also performed at charity concerts in and around the Manchester area too, not forgetting his talent in playing the cello, piano and ocarina flute too. However, despite his obvious musical talent, he claims that he decided to go into acting because he lacks the concentration needed to be a musician!
Bruno was born on 21st March 1983. Although he currently lives in Manchester, he was actually born in Norfolk, where he lived until he was four years old. After that, he moved to Buxton in Derbyshire, where he was educated. He completed (and passed) his National Diploma in Acting at Manchester City College, however.
He actually hated drama at school because he thought it was too theoretical and he didn't like the teacher. He wasn't very academic whilst at school, although he did enjoy art, english, and music.
His Design and Technology teacher once posted on an online message board that Bruno was a very likeable student but a nightmare to teach! Apparently, the group he hung around with were the worst she had ever taught and Bruno used to spend most of his time killing himself laughing. She was also always telling him off for not tucking his shirt in. One time, she even caught Bruno playing a flute and cymbals in the back of her class! She did state though that Bruno was always a very talented actor and musician.
Bruno says that he has been acting as soon as he was born. He used to imitate stuff from the moment he could speak and learn accents and memorise stories and relay them back. He also did a number of plays whilst at primary and secondary school, and it wasn't long before he joined a local theatre group.
It was his drama school teacher who introduced him to his first agent and he had soon landed an audition for a Sunny Delight commercial, although he didn't get it. However, hard work and persistence soon pays off and so it wasn't long before he landed a small part in one episode of Coronation Street. He played Candice Stowe's boyfriend, Darren Michaels, although didn't have any lines to say, so he thought he would improvise in order to get noticed - he ended up saying "hello" in his scene, but the bosses at Corrie weren't impressed!
After this, he landed a slightly bigger part in BBC1 drama Linda Green. Whilst filming the series, he was asked to go to another Coronation Street audition, to screen test for the part of new long term character Todd Grimshaw. He ended up getting the part and the rest, as they say, is history! Obviously his portrayal of Darren Michaels had impressed them more than he thought!
Bruno admits that he was shocked when told that Todd was going to turn out to be gay. He felt that it was going to be such a big change for the character and also for him as an actor and as a person too. Although he did have his doubts at first, as he was unsure about whether the storyline would be handled sensitively and whether he would be able to do the part justice, he absolutely relished having such a major storyline to play. He received much critical acclaim for his performances as Todd and was nominated for the Most Popular Actor award at the National Television Awards in October 2004, although he lost out to David Jason. He has also been nominated for Best Actor awards at the TV Quick awards and Inside Soap awards. Although being narrowly beaten there as well, he hasn't entirely gone home empty handed as the Todd/Karl/Sarah love triangle won Best Storyline at the TV Quick awards, and the Todd & Karl Canal Street kiss won Best Snog at the Inside Soap awards. Heat magazine readers also voted for Bruno as their Best TV Performance of the year in 2004.
All good things come to an end, however, and after nearly four years of working towards the culmination of this storyline, Bruno felt that it was time to move on, much to the disappointment of his bosses. Bruno was a well liked member of the cast, with people there comparing him with top Hollywood actor Jude Law, and commenting how his performances "sparkled". Producer Tony Wood did try and get Bruno to stay but Bruno had made his mind up. He left the show in a blaze of glory in September 2004, although his spirit still lives on, as does Todd's. Characters in the show still mention Todd from time to time, and a framed photo of Bruno takes pride of place in Eileen Grimshaw's front room. Bruno is also still good friends with a few of the Corrie cast - namely Antony Cotton (Sean), Jennie McAlpine (Fizz), and Chris Finch (Karl).
Rumours also abounded of a Corrie spin off centering around Todd's new life in London and, although flattered to be thought of, Bruno denied that this was going to happen.
Following on from Corrie, Bruno's first job was as a boy scout called Damon in the movie The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. It was his cinematic debut, although he only featured in one scene. He claims that it was the weirdest day of filming he has ever had in his whole life- he was taken on top of a hill and had to say his lines with a rain machine blowing water on him, although he couldn't hear what he was saying because it was so loud! The film opened to rave reviews in June 2005 and spent a number of weeks inside the Box Office Top Ten.
After spending a day filming the movie in Ireland, it was off to Cardiff for two months to film his first major role since leaving Corrie- as Adam Mitchell in Doctor Who. Bruno's rather cushy role saw him become The Doctor's newest companion for two episodes- which also gave him the dubious honour of becoming the first companion ever to be kicked off the TARDIS! Bruno had a brilliant time filming the series with his co stars Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, and his two episodes scored fantastic ratings of over 8 million each. He was actually the only guest actor to have two episodes in the top five rated episodes of the series. Adam was last seen being dropped off home with a piece of technology from the year 200,000 embedded inside his brain, giving his mum a rather nasty shock!
Following on from this, he spent another day on a film set- this time filming his role as Sid for the Brit movie Halal Harry. Later on, Bruno commented how he has only ever spent a maximum of one day filming a movie and that he would like to stretch that to two days- it seems that he has achieved this 'ambition' now though as he was required to film some extra shots for the film in July 2005.
Another of Bruno's ambitions was to tread the boards in theatre- he feels that this will make him a better actor. His dream came true in July 2005 when he beat off strong competition from over 2000 other hopefuls to land the male lead in Romeo & Juliet in an open air production outside Stafford Castle. He performed as Romeo Montague for two weeks from June 30th to July 16th and was said to have loved every minute of it. After a slightly shaky start (with Bruno said to be "terrified" on the opening night), Bruno really grew into the role and received great reviews for his professional stage debut. The play was almost a sell out, with 93% of all tickets sold, and Bruno and the rest of the cast were well received by the audiences each night, with people particularly commenting on the chemistry between Bruno and his Juliet, Scarlett Johnson.
After finishing in Romeo & Juliet, Bruno added another skill to his CV by reading the book Horace out on digital radio station BBC7!
He also added yet another skill to his CV by taking part in a rehearsed play reading of Night Sky at the prestigious Old Vic Theatre in October 2005, teaming up once again with Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston. Bruno played the part of Ali and achieved more critical acclaim.
After this, he filmed the part of Jason Parker in hit BBC drama Dalziel & Pascoe, which was aired on BBC1 in April 2006.
He has also continued to develop his acting career on the stage by playing the part of Nathan in Life Imitates Art at the Camden People's Theatre. His most challenging role to date, this has been his most "adult" role as well, with an over 18 audience only. With this new play, he also proved his versatility as an actor once more- Nathan was a cockney barman and aspiring actor and, again, a different kind of role to others Bruno has performed.
After finishing in Life Imitates Art, there was no time for Bruno to rest as he went straight into rehearsals for another play- A Taste Of Honey, a highly critically acclaimed play that spent 3 months touring the UK. Bruno played the part of Geoffrey, a gay art student. With Geoffrey being another gay character, Bruno admits that he was unsure whether to accept the role or not but everyone kept telling him to do it, and so he eventually did. A Taste Of Honey proved to be a fairly high profile production and Bruno received rave reviews for his sensitive and understated performance as Geoffrey.
With Bruno's career flourishing, things were also going well in his private life, with girlfriend Victoria giving birth to their son Freddie in May 2007.
Shortly after Freddie's birth, rumours suggested that Bruno would soon be seen reprising his role as Todd in Corrie. These rumours were never officially confirmed, but were proved to be fact in September 2007 when pictures were published of Bruno filming with his co stars on location. Bruno returned for 14 episodes and these were shown on TV during October and November.
For a while, it looked like Bruno would be returning to Corrie full-time again as executive producer Keiran Roberts confirmed that he had instructed writers to come up with storylines for Todd. Bruno's on screen brother Ryan Thomas was also said to have started a petition on set to get Bruno back permanently.
However, perhaps Keiran and Ryan were a little premature in trying to get Bruno back as it soon seemed that he was keen to return to what he has become more known for since leaving Corrie - theatre. First he was cast as The Prince in a new musical titled Sleeping Beauty, which was due to be premiered in Dublin. However, numerous problems meant that the show was cancelled before it had even got going.
Bruno had soon lined up his next role though as it was announced that he would be playing the part of Jimmy in the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, which would be touring throughout the UK from July 2008 until May 2009. This would see Bruno making his musical theatre debut as it is something he has never done professionally before.
Flashdance opened to rave reviews in Plymouth and continued to see rave reviews, both for the show and also for Bruno's performance, throughout its almost year long run.
With Flashdance now finished, however, Bruno has turned more to his family background in music and is currently working on musical projects with his band, although he is due to return to acting in the summer when he joins the tour of Calendar Girls.
Whether it's in acting or singing though, it certainly seems that the incredibly talented Bruno has a very bright future ahead of him.
© Bruno Langley Fans - April 2010
<< back
It has always been music, rather than acting, that has played a big part in Bruno's life. His dad makes musical instruments (ocarina flutes), whilst some of his sisters play violins and cello's. Bruno himself used to play the cello when younger, and also played a bit of the piano and ocarina flute. In fact, as an 8 year old boy, Bruno actually played the ocarina with some members of his family on a CD album entitled Ocarinas Of The World Vol 1.
It probably comes as some surprise then that, despite coming from such a musical family, it was acting that gave Bruno the desire to perform, rather than anything musical.
Over the years, Bruno has proved himself to be multi talented as a musician. He performed as Robbie Williams on a celebrity version of Stars in their Eyes in 2003. He has also performed at charity concerts in and around the Manchester area too, not forgetting his talent in playing the cello, piano and ocarina flute too. However, despite his obvious musical talent, he claims that he decided to go into acting because he lacks the concentration needed to be a musician!
Bruno was born on 21st March 1983. Although he currently lives in Manchester, he was actually born in Norfolk, where he lived until he was four years old. After that, he moved to Buxton in Derbyshire, where he was educated. He completed (and passed) his National Diploma in Acting at Manchester City College, however.
He actually hated drama at school because he thought it was too theoretical and he didn't like the teacher. He wasn't very academic whilst at school, although he did enjoy art, english, and music.
His Design and Technology teacher once posted on an online message board that Bruno was a very likeable student but a nightmare to teach! Apparently, the group he hung around with were the worst she had ever taught and Bruno used to spend most of his time killing himself laughing. She was also always telling him off for not tucking his shirt in. One time, she even caught Bruno playing a flute and cymbals in the back of her class! She did state though that Bruno was always a very talented actor and musician.
Bruno says that he has been acting as soon as he was born. He used to imitate stuff from the moment he could speak and learn accents and memorise stories and relay them back. He also did a number of plays whilst at primary and secondary school, and it wasn't long before he joined a local theatre group.
It was his drama school teacher who introduced him to his first agent and he had soon landed an audition for a Sunny Delight commercial, although he didn't get it. However, hard work and persistence soon pays off and so it wasn't long before he landed a small part in one episode of Coronation Street. He played Candice Stowe's boyfriend, Darren Michaels, although didn't have any lines to say, so he thought he would improvise in order to get noticed - he ended up saying "hello" in his scene, but the bosses at Corrie weren't impressed!
After this, he landed a slightly bigger part in BBC1 drama Linda Green. Whilst filming the series, he was asked to go to another Coronation Street audition, to screen test for the part of new long term character Todd Grimshaw. He ended up getting the part and the rest, as they say, is history! Obviously his portrayal of Darren Michaels had impressed them more than he thought!
Bruno admits that he was shocked when told that Todd was going to turn out to be gay. He felt that it was going to be such a big change for the character and also for him as an actor and as a person too. Although he did have his doubts at first, as he was unsure about whether the storyline would be handled sensitively and whether he would be able to do the part justice, he absolutely relished having such a major storyline to play. He received much critical acclaim for his performances as Todd and was nominated for the Most Popular Actor award at the National Television Awards in October 2004, although he lost out to David Jason. He has also been nominated for Best Actor awards at the TV Quick awards and Inside Soap awards. Although being narrowly beaten there as well, he hasn't entirely gone home empty handed as the Todd/Karl/Sarah love triangle won Best Storyline at the TV Quick awards, and the Todd & Karl Canal Street kiss won Best Snog at the Inside Soap awards. Heat magazine readers also voted for Bruno as their Best TV Performance of the year in 2004.
All good things come to an end, however, and after nearly four years of working towards the culmination of this storyline, Bruno felt that it was time to move on, much to the disappointment of his bosses. Bruno was a well liked member of the cast, with people there comparing him with top Hollywood actor Jude Law, and commenting how his performances "sparkled". Producer Tony Wood did try and get Bruno to stay but Bruno had made his mind up. He left the show in a blaze of glory in September 2004, although his spirit still lives on, as does Todd's. Characters in the show still mention Todd from time to time, and a framed photo of Bruno takes pride of place in Eileen Grimshaw's front room. Bruno is also still good friends with a few of the Corrie cast - namely Antony Cotton (Sean), Jennie McAlpine (Fizz), and Chris Finch (Karl).
Rumours also abounded of a Corrie spin off centering around Todd's new life in London and, although flattered to be thought of, Bruno denied that this was going to happen.
Following on from Corrie, Bruno's first job was as a boy scout called Damon in the movie The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. It was his cinematic debut, although he only featured in one scene. He claims that it was the weirdest day of filming he has ever had in his whole life- he was taken on top of a hill and had to say his lines with a rain machine blowing water on him, although he couldn't hear what he was saying because it was so loud! The film opened to rave reviews in June 2005 and spent a number of weeks inside the Box Office Top Ten.
After spending a day filming the movie in Ireland, it was off to Cardiff for two months to film his first major role since leaving Corrie- as Adam Mitchell in Doctor Who. Bruno's rather cushy role saw him become The Doctor's newest companion for two episodes- which also gave him the dubious honour of becoming the first companion ever to be kicked off the TARDIS! Bruno had a brilliant time filming the series with his co stars Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, and his two episodes scored fantastic ratings of over 8 million each. He was actually the only guest actor to have two episodes in the top five rated episodes of the series. Adam was last seen being dropped off home with a piece of technology from the year 200,000 embedded inside his brain, giving his mum a rather nasty shock!
Following on from this, he spent another day on a film set- this time filming his role as Sid for the Brit movie Halal Harry. Later on, Bruno commented how he has only ever spent a maximum of one day filming a movie and that he would like to stretch that to two days- it seems that he has achieved this 'ambition' now though as he was required to film some extra shots for the film in July 2005.
Another of Bruno's ambitions was to tread the boards in theatre- he feels that this will make him a better actor. His dream came true in July 2005 when he beat off strong competition from over 2000 other hopefuls to land the male lead in Romeo & Juliet in an open air production outside Stafford Castle. He performed as Romeo Montague for two weeks from June 30th to July 16th and was said to have loved every minute of it. After a slightly shaky start (with Bruno said to be "terrified" on the opening night), Bruno really grew into the role and received great reviews for his professional stage debut. The play was almost a sell out, with 93% of all tickets sold, and Bruno and the rest of the cast were well received by the audiences each night, with people particularly commenting on the chemistry between Bruno and his Juliet, Scarlett Johnson.
After finishing in Romeo & Juliet, Bruno added another skill to his CV by reading the book Horace out on digital radio station BBC7!
He also added yet another skill to his CV by taking part in a rehearsed play reading of Night Sky at the prestigious Old Vic Theatre in October 2005, teaming up once again with Doctor Who's Christopher Eccleston. Bruno played the part of Ali and achieved more critical acclaim.
After this, he filmed the part of Jason Parker in hit BBC drama Dalziel & Pascoe, which was aired on BBC1 in April 2006.
He has also continued to develop his acting career on the stage by playing the part of Nathan in Life Imitates Art at the Camden People's Theatre. His most challenging role to date, this has been his most "adult" role as well, with an over 18 audience only. With this new play, he also proved his versatility as an actor once more- Nathan was a cockney barman and aspiring actor and, again, a different kind of role to others Bruno has performed.
After finishing in Life Imitates Art, there was no time for Bruno to rest as he went straight into rehearsals for another play- A Taste Of Honey, a highly critically acclaimed play that spent 3 months touring the UK. Bruno played the part of Geoffrey, a gay art student. With Geoffrey being another gay character, Bruno admits that he was unsure whether to accept the role or not but everyone kept telling him to do it, and so he eventually did. A Taste Of Honey proved to be a fairly high profile production and Bruno received rave reviews for his sensitive and understated performance as Geoffrey.
With Bruno's career flourishing, things were also going well in his private life, with girlfriend Victoria giving birth to their son Freddie in May 2007.
Shortly after Freddie's birth, rumours suggested that Bruno would soon be seen reprising his role as Todd in Corrie. These rumours were never officially confirmed, but were proved to be fact in September 2007 when pictures were published of Bruno filming with his co stars on location. Bruno returned for 14 episodes and these were shown on TV during October and November.
For a while, it looked like Bruno would be returning to Corrie full-time again as executive producer Keiran Roberts confirmed that he had instructed writers to come up with storylines for Todd. Bruno's on screen brother Ryan Thomas was also said to have started a petition on set to get Bruno back permanently.
However, perhaps Keiran and Ryan were a little premature in trying to get Bruno back as it soon seemed that he was keen to return to what he has become more known for since leaving Corrie - theatre. First he was cast as The Prince in a new musical titled Sleeping Beauty, which was due to be premiered in Dublin. However, numerous problems meant that the show was cancelled before it had even got going.
Bruno had soon lined up his next role though as it was announced that he would be playing the part of Jimmy in the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, which would be touring throughout the UK from July 2008 until May 2009. This would see Bruno making his musical theatre debut as it is something he has never done professionally before.
Flashdance opened to rave reviews in Plymouth and continued to see rave reviews, both for the show and also for Bruno's performance, throughout its almost year long run.
With Flashdance now finished, however, Bruno has turned more to his family background in music and is currently working on musical projects with his band, although he is due to return to acting in the summer when he joins the tour of Calendar Girls.
Whether it's in acting or singing though, it certainly seems that the incredibly talented Bruno has a very bright future ahead of him.
© Bruno Langley Fans - April 2010
<< back
Current Projects
Calendar Girls
Genre: Musical Theatre
Character: Lawrence the photographer
Status: Bruno will be joining the tour from July to October in venues throughout Wales, Scotland and Liverpool
Aladdin
Genre: Pantomime
Status: Bruno will be performing in Buxton's annual pantomime of Aladdin throughout the Christmas period this year. Click here to book tickets.
Bruno is also currently working on musical projects. Click here to visit his official MySpace Music page and listen to some of his music! You can also find out more about Bruno and his band by clicking here.
Recent Projects
Intimate Strangers
Genre: Play
Status: Bruno participated in an industry reading of Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence's new play, directed by Greta Scacchi and produced by Andrew Jenkins.
gallery | info | website
Flashdance The Musical
Genre: Musical Theatre
Character: Jimmy Kaminsky
Status: Toured throughout the UK from July 2008 to May 2009.
gallery | info | website
Genre: Play
Status: Bruno participated in an industry reading of Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence's new play, directed by Greta Scacchi and produced by Andrew Jenkins.
Flashdance The Musical
Genre: Musical Theatre
Character: Jimmy Kaminsky
Status: Toured throughout the UK from July 2008 to May 2009.
gallery | info | website
Coronation Street
Genre: TV
Character: Todd Grimshaw
Status: Bruno reprised his role as Todd in October and November 2007
gallery | info | website