Actor Bio

GERALD CHARLES DICKENS – A GIFTED STORY TELLER

Gerald Dickens is a great great grandson of the author Charles Dickens. He has worked as an actor, director and producer for many years.

Born in 1963 and growing up in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, his first experience of the stage was playing the part of a rooster in the school Nativity Play, aged eight. He continued his love of performing at both his senior school and with a local theatre workshop in his home town

In 1993 he created his first one-man show, a theatrical performance of A Christmas Carol inspired by Charles’ own energetic readings of the 1860’s.

A fascination with the life and works of his subject led him to write and direct further one-man shows, including Mr Dickens is Coming!, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations. He has also adapted many of his ancestor’s own public readings such as The Signalman and Doctor Marigold.

In 2014 Gerald was engaged to play Charles Dickens in a brand new play, To Begin With, which premiered in Minneapolis and ran with great success.

During his years of touring, Gerald has been lucky to follow in the footsteps of his great great grandfather and has even performed on some of the same stages such as The Tremont Theatre in Boston, The Mechanics Hall in Worcester, St George’s Hall in Liverpool and even in Dickens’ own homes at Gad’s Hill Place and 48 Doughty Street.

He regularly performs in major theatres and arts centres as well as at hotels and stately homes and has appeared at several arts and literary festivals in the UK.  He has been entertaining cruise ship passengers worldwide since 2007.

He served a term as President of the International Dickens Fellowship, and gave the prestigious 2011 birthday lecture in Dickens’s birthplace city of Portsmouth.

Gerald enjoys introducing the works of Charles Dickens to children and young adults, and has taken workshops and performances into schools, colleges and universities, both in the UK and the USA.

He has recorded his one-man dramatization of A Christmas Carol and it has been regularly broadcast on radio. His television work has included numerous appearances on features and documentaries for BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in the UK.

When touring, Gerald writes a daily blog which has attracted a global audience of followers and it can be found at geralddickens.wordpress.com