Chris Tummings

Chris Tummings has been acting for the past 26 years and has played wide range of roles in theatre, television and film as well as being a stand-up comedian for a number of years.

"School was where I first discovered an interest in music and drama, many people still remember me as the guy who used to play Paul Desmond's 'Take Five' to death on the saxophone in the school music room." At the age of 17 Tummings joined the Anna Scher Theatre and later the Old Vic Youth Theatre where he was inspired to make acting his profession. After leaving school he attended Kingsway College Princeton where he studied speech and drama. Tummings made his professional debut in 1979 starring in the Mustapha Matura play 'Welcome Home Jacko'.

That same year, Tummings, along with Charlie Hanson, Mustapha Matura, Trevor Laird, Victor Romero Evans founded the Black Theatre Co-op (BTC), a small scale theatre company that produced a large number of plays throughout the 1980s and toured England and Europe the US and South Korea to critical acclaim. BTC was also responsible for the hit Channel 4 sitcom ‘No Problem’, in which Tummings played Toshiba the streetwise motor mouthed DJ. He also co-wrote and co-starred in 'Get Up Stand Up' with Malcolm Frederick and Angie Le Mar. BTC collaborated with London Weekend Television to produce the highly popular sit-com No Problem, which ran for 4 years.

Later he became a regular feature in the award winning sitcom Desmond's, and went on to feature in a number of films; Burning An Illusion, a British Film Institute film about a black woman's political awakening to social injustice and racial discrimination in 1980s London, where I played a victim of police brutality; Runners alongside Edward Fox in which I played the part of a streetwise youth and Water, a comedy starring Michael Caine in which I was one half of a double act with Billy Connolly.

Towards the end of the '80's, Tummings lived periodically in Miami where he set up the theatre company, London Connection, with Jeremy Oster. Together they produced Welcome Home Jacko, at the Scratch Theatre, which he also directed to rave reviews in the local press. In addition to his commitment to acting, he found the time to sing with a local soul-reggae band called 'Broken Sound.'

On arrival back to the UK, "I entered the stand-up circuit in order to re-establish myself in this country."This led to his co-writing and starring in Get Up, Stand Up, a comedy sketch and stand-up show commissioned by Channel 4 television which ran for 4 years followed by 2 years in the West End musical The Buddy Holly Story.

He has also appeared in Doctors, Holby City, The Bill, 'The Big Life,' the first black British musical in the West End, which won rave reviews, and the play 'Fabulation' By Lynn Nottage at the Tricycle Theatre.