How many Harry Potter actors have also been in Bible movies?
The list is long, and includes such names as Ralph Fiennes, Emma Watson, Richard Harris, John Cleese, Gary Oldman, Julie Christie, and John Hurt.
Five weeks ago, I posted a list, complete with pictures, of actors who had worked in both the Star Wars universe and the Bible-movie genre.
I had been toying with that project for a while, and when it was finished, I found myself wondering what other cinematic universes I could look at. The Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies, known collectively as the “Wizarding World” franchise, quickly sprang to mind.
And so, here goes: a list of all the actors I’m aware of who have appeared in the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies and in Bible movies and TV shows.
A few quick points:
It was super, super helpful that the credits for the “Wizarding World” movies list all their actors in order of appearance. This really helped me figure out where I could find some of the more obscure characters.
Quite a few of these actors have appeared in animated Bible stories, particularly the Welsh-Russian co-productions Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996) and The Miracle Maker (1999), each of which had four Harry Potter actors.
As before, I limited my search to all the credited actors, and I did not investigate any of the actors who were listed at the IMDb as “uncredited”.
With regard to the definition of “Bible films”, my primary focus was films that take place in biblical-historical settings (so this includes comedies like Monty Python’s Life of Brian), as well as films and TV shows that clearly adapt biblical narratives even if they do so with modern trappings (à la The People’s Passion).
I generally ignored films about angels, demons, or figures like St Peter when those characters appeared only in heavenly or hellish settings, i.e. what you might call “mythological” settings rather than “historical” settings. Lucifer does make an appearance here, but that’s because the film in question is clearly depicting his role in a biblical story, i.e. the story of Adam and Eve’s temptation.
I also ignored movies about Christmas pageants and passion plays when those films seemed to be primarily about the modern-day people who put on those things. However, in the “honourable mentions” section of this page, I do include two TV shows where the real-life actors who play the fictitious actors are primarily or exclusively seen as the biblical characters that the fictitious actors are playing.
This was a fun list to compile, and I want to thank my friend Matt Page, who lives in the UK, for helping me to access some of the more obscure British productions.
And now, without further ado, the list, in movie-release order, with the actors listed under the Wizarding films in which they made their first appearances:
The movies
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone aka Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) played Ila in Noah (2014).
Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) played Lucius in Risen (2016).
Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore) played Cain in The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966), Abraham in The Bible Collection: Abraham (1993), and John in The Bible Collection: The Apocalypse (2002).
John Hurt (Ollivander) played Jesus in History of the World, Part I (1981).
David Bradley (Argus Filch) played the Old Rabbi in The Young Messiah (2016); he also played Druid Quane in Britannia (2018-2021), a series with a gospel-adjacent subplot.
John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick) played a lot of characters in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979); he also played St. Peter in The Unorganized Manager, Part One: Damnation (1996), in what I assume was a heavenly or otherwise non-biblical setting.
Terence Bayler (the Bloody Baron) played Gregory in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979).
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge) played Pontius Pilate in Son of Man (1969), the voice of Abraham in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996), and Pontius Pilate in The People’s Passion (1999).
Julian Glover (the voice of Aragog) played Esau in The Story of Jacob and Joseph (1974).
David Tysall (the Count in the painting) played John the Baptist in The Revolutionary (1995).
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) played Pontius Pilate in The Bible Collection: Jesus (1999).
Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) played King Hanun in The Bible Collection: Samson and Delilah (1996); he also narrated Hail, Caesar! (2016), which is a movie about the making of a Bible movie.
David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) voiced Judas Iscariot in The Miracle Maker (1999).
Julie Christie (Madame Rosmerta) voiced Rachel in The Miracle Maker (1999).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) voiced Rameses II in The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Jesus in The Miracle Maker (1999); he also played Laurence Laurentz in Hail, Caesar! (2016), a movie about the making of a Bible movie.
Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter) voiced Mary Magdalene in The Miracle Maker (1999); she also plays at least one character in Good Omens (2019-2023), a present-day series about angels and demons that has a few flashbacks to biblical events.
David Sterne (Ministry Wizard; he’s the balding, hatless one with the wand near the right edge of the frame) played Abimael in The Nativity (2010).
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Timothy Bateson (the voice of Kreacher) played a Priest in The Bible Collection: Joseph (1995; he’s the shorter man with the staff in the photo below).
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Anna Shaffer (Romilda Vane) played Mary Magdalene in Finding Jesus: Faith. Fact. Forgery. (2015).
Joerg Stadler (the Male Inferi) played Christ in the short film Ecce Homo (2004), but I could not find any images from the latter film.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)
David O’Hara (Albert Runcorn) played John the Baptist in The Bible Collection: Jesus (1999).
Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) voiced Belshazzar in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996).
Matyelok Gibbs (Auntie Muriel Weasley) played Leah in A.D. Anno Domini (1985).
Granville Saxton (one of the Death Eaters in this scene, probably the out-of-focus one next to Voldemort) played a Sorcerer in The Emissary: A Biblical Epic (1997).
Jon Campling (Death Eater) played Balthasar in The Jesus Mysteries (2014).
Carolyn Pickles (Charity Burbage) voiced a Woman in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996).
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
Ciarán Hinds (Aberforth Dumbledore) voiced Lucifer in Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996) and played Herod in The Nativity Story (2006) and the Father in Last Days in the Desert (2015).
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Jon Voight (Henry Shaw Sr) played Noah in Noah’s Ark (1999).
Dan Hedaya (the voice of Red) played Yaocav, i.e. James the brother of Jesus, in The Passover Plot (1976); he also played Father Frank in four episodes of The Book of Daniel (2006), a TV series about an Episcopal priest who has visions of Jesus.
Cristian Solimeno (Executioner 3, on the right side of the picture) played Jonathan in The Bible (2013).
Miquel Brown (Executioner 2) played the Housekeeper in Solomon & Sheba (1995).
Matthew Sim (Photographer 1, on the left side of the picture) played Prisoner #1 in In the Beginning (2000) and a Soothsayer in The Ten Commandments (2006).
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Fiona Glascott (Minerva McGonagall) played Claudia in Judas (2004).
Hugh Quarshie (Mustafa Kama) played Nikaule’s Father in Solomon & Sheba (1995).
Cornell John (Arnold Guzman) played Balthazar in Jesus: His Life (2019).
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Richard Coyle (Aberforth Dumbledore) played Caiaphas in A.D. The Bible Continues (2015).
Honourable mentions
Harry Potter actors who have played allegorical Bible characters
Domhnall Gleeson, who played Bill Weasley in the two Deathly Hallows movies, played a sort of allegorical version of Cain in mother! (2017).
Harry Potter actors who have played actors playing Bible characters
Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 2) played Wallace, an actor who plays Mary, a Magus, and various other characters in a two-man interpretation of The Messiah (1984).
Paul Birchard (the Hobo in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) played Jesus in a movie playing at the bar in an episode of Rab C. Nesbitt (1994).
Harry Potter actors I could not identify
Ashley Artus and Paschal Frier played Death Eaters in Goblet of Fire, but their faces are hidden behind masks. Artus played Man in Crowd #1 in The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John (2003) and Sichem in The Ten Commandments (2006), while Friel played Egyptian Officer Amon in The Ten Commandments (2006).
Harry Potter actors who have appeared in Bible-adjacent films
Over a dozen actors from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies have appeared in movies and TV shows that feature biblical characters or have some sort of tenuous connection to the Bible but are not adaptations of biblical stories, per se.
Saint Peter at the pearly gates.
As noted above, John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick in Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets) seems to have played this heavenly version of St Peter in The Unorganized Manager, Part One: Damnation (1996).
Leslie Phillips (the voice of the Sorting Hat in Philosopher’s Stone and two other films) played St Peter in an episode of Days Like These (1999).
The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999) takes place primarily in the modern era but has flashbacks to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Kelly Macdonald (Helena Ravenclaw in Deathly Hallows Part 2) played Susan.
Dogma (1999) takes place in the modern era and is about fallen angels trying to get back into heaven; its cast of characters includes Rufus, “the thirteenth apostle”.
Alan Rickman (Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films) played Metatron.
The Da Vinci Code (2006) takes place in the modern era but has a few flashbacks to the time of Jesus and his disciples.
Harry Taylor (the Station Guard in Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets) played a British Police Captain.
Hugh Mitchell (Colin Creevey in Chamber of Secrets) played Young Silas.
David Bertrand (the French Minister in The Secrets of Dumbledore) played a French Newscaster.
Holy Night! (2011) is an animated film about Christmas toys and decorations come to life, including figurines based on Mary, Joseph, and other characters.
Tom Clarke-Hill (Photographer 2 in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) voiced a Blacksmith, Elf Boy, and Jingle.
Britannia (2017-2021) takes place during the Roman occupation of Britain in the AD 40s; in Season 2, it introduced a subplot tied to the death of Jesus.
As noted above, David Bradley (Argus Filch in Philosopher’s Stone and six other films) played Druid Quane in this series.
Zoe Wanamaker (Madame Hooch in Philosopher’s Stone) played Queen Antedia.
Tolga Safer (Karkaroff’s Aide in Goblet of Fire) played Aziz.
Keith Chanter (Corvus Lestrange Sr in The Crimes of Grindelwald) played Eye.
Good Omens (2019-2023), about an angel and a demon, takes place primarily in the modern era but includes a few flashbacks to the biblical era.
As noted above, Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows Part 1) plays Madame Tracy in this series.
David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr in Goblet of Fire) plays the demon Crowley.
Ned Dennehy (Scared Man in Deathly Hallows Part 1) played Duke of Hell Hastur.
Tim Bentinck (Witness in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) played a Radio Newsreader.
And, I think that about covers it. Did I miss any actors? If so, please let me know!