Theatre Kinnear performed in
Phyllida Lloyd's production of
Mary Stuart, and in
Trevor Nunn's
Hamlet, in which he played Laertes. Later in 2010, he played the title role in
Hamlet at the National Theatre. The two portrayals won him the best actor award in the
Evening Standard Drama Awards for 2010. Kinnear appeared in
The Last of the Haussmans by
Stephen Beresford at the National Theatre during the summer of 2012. It was broadcast to cinemas around the world on 11 October 2012 through the
National Theatre Live programme. He starred as
Iago opposite
Adrian Lester in the title role of
Othello in 2013 at the National Theatre throughout the summer of 2013. Both actors won the Best Actor award in the
Evening Standard Theatre Awards for their roles; It ran at the
Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago beginning 2 April 2015. In October 2017, he appeared in the
title role of
Young Marx, the premiere production at the
Bridge Theatre. He returned to the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre to star in the title role in
Macbeth with
Anne-Marie Duff from February 2018. In February 2017, he made his directing debut with ''The Winter's Tale'', a new opera written by
Ryan Wigglesworth and based on Shakespeare's play, for
English National Opera.
Film Kinnear portrayed
Bill Tanner in the
Daniel Craig–era
James Bond film series after taking over from
Michael Kitchen. He is the fourth person to play the character. He has appeared in
Quantum of Solace (2008),
Skyfall (2012),
Spectre (2015) and
No Time to Die (2021). As well as the films, Kinnear also lends his voice and likeness to the Bond video games;
GoldenEye 007 (2010),
James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010) and
007 Legends (2012). In 2014, he played the fictional character, Detective Nock, in
The Imitation Game based loosely on the biography
Alan Turing:The Enigma by
Andrew Hodges. In January 2017, he portrayed Ellmann in the
Netflix film
iBoy. He played Henry Hunt in
Mike Leigh's 2018 film
Peterloo. In 2022, he played Geoffrey, as well as most of the other male roles, in
Alex Garland's
A24 horror film
Men . In 2023 Kinnear starred as Burnley wannabe banker
Dave Fishwick in the film
Bank of Dave, released on
Netflix in January 2023, reprising his role in the sequel
Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger in January 2025. He followed this in 2008, with his portrayal of
Denis Thatcher in a BBC dramatisation of
Margaret Thatcher's political career,
The Long Walk to Finchley, He appeared in the lead role of Prime Minister Michael Callow in "
The National Anthem", the first episode of the
anthology series Black Mirror. In July 2012, Kinnear appeared as
Bolingbroke in
Richard II, a
BBC Two adaptation of the
play of the same name, with
Ben Whishaw as
King Richard and
Patrick Stewart as
John of Gaunt. In 2013 Kinnear starred as Michael in the
BBC sitcom
Count Arthur Strong, In 2017 he appeared in the British miniseries
Guerrilla as a Chief Inspector in the Special Branches. and as Robert Lessing from the early days of English medicine in the
BBC Two comedy series
Quacks. and the desperate financial advisor Stephen Lyons in the futuristic series
Years and Years. and was Edward Williams in the
BBC's
The Mezzotint. Since 2023 he plays the fictional character of British Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge in the Netflix series
The Diplomat alongside Keri Russell. In 2024, Kinnear played the fictional character of
Tom Bombadil in the
Amazon Prime Video series
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Radio In 2010 he played Jürgen Rahl in the BBC Radio drama
Slipstream as a disaffected German pilot who joins a mission to steal an alien spacecraft harboured by the Nazis. ==Personal life==