Alexander Ferns is a Scottish actor and television personality, best known for his EastEnders role as Trevor Morgan, who was described as "Britain's most-hated soap villain" when he played the role between 2000 and 2002. He is also known for his role as Rick Harper in BBC Scotlandsoap opera, River City, between 2017 and 2018.
Career
Ferns made an appearance in The Ghost and the Darkness before various television roles, including Trevor Morgan in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 2000 to 2002. In 2005, Ferns played Lieutenant Gordon in the highly acclaimed trilingual film Joyeux Noël, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, Golden Globe Awards and the BAFTAs. In 2003, Ferns appeared as Draco Malfoy in a Harry Potter sketch for Comic Relief. In 2004, he played Commander Martin Brooke, the lead role, in the short-lived ITV series Making Waves. In the same year he appeared in Man Dancin', a Festival Film & TV production, which won a number of awards on the festival circuit, including Outstanding Original Screenplay at the Sacramento Film Festival. He has also appeared on Coronation Street. He has also appeared in the 2006 movieShadow Man, as Schmitt, also starring Steven Seagal. His theatrical work includes the role of the "tapeworm" in I.D., a play about Dimitri Tsafendas and his assassination of South African Prime MinisterHendrik Verwoerd, the 2008 national tour of Agatha Christie's murder mystery And Then There Were None, and Little Shop of Horrors as the Dentist. In 2011 he took the role of Scottish gangster Jimmy Boyle in the play about his life, The Hardman, during a Scottish tour to positive reviews. He also made a brief appearance in the Smirnoff Vodka advert in 2009. Ferns took part in TV series Celebrity Coach Trip, partnered with friend Ricky Groves. He starred as Luther in the 2011 London revival and subsequent UK tour of South Pacific. In 2013, he starred as Lee in True West at Glasgow's Citizen's Theatre. In 2014, he starred in 24: Live Another Day In 2016, he starred in ITV's Vera - series 6 episode 4 He also appeared in BBC's Wallander Series 4: 1. The White Lioness as Axel Hedeman He played the leader of Tula coal miners Andrei Glukhov in the HBO 2019 miniseriesChernobyl. For this performance, he received a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in a Television.
Personal life
Born in Lennoxtown, Scotland, he lived in South Africa for 17 years and studied drama at the University of Cape Town before returning to the United Kingdom in 1991. Ferns has been married to South African-born actress Jennifer Woodburne since 1996. They currently live in London with their two sons, Cameron and Mackenzie. He won the final of Kitchen Burnout in May 2010. Ferns is a Christian.
