Kaye made his theatre debut in 1980 at
Sadler's Wells Theatre in London as
Willy Wonka in a stage version of
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. More theatre roles followed throughout the 1980s and 1990s, e.g. at the
Royal National Theatre and the
Piccadilly Theatre (
The Rocky Horror Show). In 1990, he started his television career by guest starring in the crime shows
The Paradise Club and
The Bill. In 1992 he played the leading part Sam Sterne in ITV's crime show
Sam Saturday. Since then he has played almost 50 roles in television and, from 2004, in movies (
Layer Cake,
Control).) and unscrupulous Duke Ludovico it is mainly his portrayal of King Aelle - in
Vikings the deadly enemy and nemesis of the legendary hero of the show
Ragnar Lothbrok (
Travis Fimmel) - that has recently shaped Kaye's international profile. In his
Twitter bio he describes himself as "Villain for Hire". His performances in the second part of season 4 of
Vikings have been met with increased interest as his character King Aelle is of pivotal importance in the scenes of Ragnar's death and at the centre of attention during his own execution through the
blood eagle torture inflicted by Ragnar's sons in revenge for the death of their father. In an interview on his character King Aelle in September 2017, Kaye contested the assessment of this
antagonist as a villain - an assessment that had already been subject to disputes between parts of the audience. Earlier internationally known roles include Reuben Starkadder in the television film
Cold Comfort Farm (1995) and
Adonija in the German-Italian-French
co-production Solomon (1997). and, as a
voice artist, he has lent his voice to characters in several
video games like
Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior (2003) and
Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) From October 2017 to January 2018 he returned to the stage in the role of Tom Kettle in Jez Butterworth's play
The Ferryman at
Gielgud Theatre in
London's
West End. Kaye's more recent projects include
Amazon's unreleased but reviewed pilot for an unrealised adaptation of
Stephen King's
The Dark Tower book series, starting with a prequel about the main character's youth based on book 4
Wizard and Glass and
Navot Papushado's new
action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake. The former has started filming in
Split on 13 May 2019, the latter finished filming in August 2019 in Berlin and has been released in the US and several other countries in July 2021 and in the rest of the world in the following months. Kaye's own Comedy Ink short film
Acter has been released in April 2020. In 2021, he has returned to TV series projects by joining the cast of the
Father Brown spin-off
Sister Boniface Mysteries produced by
BBC Studios and released on 8 February 2022 on
BritBox in the US as well as the first British original
Disney+ series
Wedding Season. == Personal life and social engagement ==