Philip Quast

Philip Mark Quast was born in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia as one of three children to parents living on a farm. He is an actor and singer best known for his work in theatre. He graduated the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1979 and went on to work for the State Theatre Company of South Australia, appearing in a number of stage productions, including "As You Like It", "Pygmalion", and "The Threepenny Opera". 1981 marked his first appearance on Play School (1966), a children's show to which he would later return throughout the years. In 1987 he auditioned for the original Australian production of "Les Misérables", hoping to get a place in the chorus, but getting cast in one of the main roles - as inspector Javert - instead. This role was his breakthrough and in 1989 he played Javert in the London production. He later returned to the role for the filmed concert version of the musical, Les Misérables in Concert (1995). In 1991 he played the main role in the original London production of "Sunday in the Park with George", for which he won the Laurence Olivier Award. Throughout the 1990s he played a number of theatre roles, both in London and in Australia, including a number of Shakespeare plays such as "Coriolanus", "Love's Labour's Lost", "Troilus and Cressida", and "Mackbeth" as well as musicals such as "Into the Woods", "A Christmas Carol", and "The Secret Garden". In 1998 he won his second Laurence Olivier Award for the role in "The Fix". In the same year he appeared in Hey, Mr. Producer! The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh (1998), a concert honoring theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. In the 2000s Quast focused mostly on musical theatre, winning his third Lawrence Olivier Award in 2002 for "South Pacific ". He went on to appear in musicals such as "Evita", "Sweeney Todd", and "La Cage aux Folles", and returned to the role of Javert. Over the years he played in a number of movies and TV series, but his most notable movie performance came in 2011 when he appeared as Saddam Hussein in The Devil's Double (2011). He's been married to Carol Quast since 1981, they have three sons, Harry, Toby, and Edwin. He's a teacher at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.