Doctor Who has a long history of including huge celebrity guests, both before their breakout success and after. Doctor Who began airing in the UK on the BBC back in 1963. At that time, the show steadily grew in popularity, and it managed to attract the attention of many of the biggest stars of that era to appear on the show. Even the actors who played the titular Doctor frequently had a successful career by the time they were cast in the show, which helped to raise the prestige of the series overall.
However, since the revival in 2005, Doctor Who has established itself as a show that attracts some of the biggest actors in the industry. In addition, the show stands out for having cast a great number of actors years before their careers took off, and becoming one of their earliest acting credits. With such a prestigious pedigree, it’s no wonder the show remains the longest running sci-fi show on TV.
10Carey Mulligan
Starting out strong with the wonderful Carey Mulligan. In recent years, Mulligan has had a strong showing in several films, such as Promising Young Woman, and Maestro, but her acting career first began back in 2005. Mulligan has delivered incredible performances in almost every role she appears in, and she continues to grow in terms of her opportunities and stardom.
While I can see the parallels, I really don’t think that Rogue is a replacement for River Song. Yes, they are both romantic interests of the Doctor with the ability to travel the universe like them, but that’s it at the moment. Unless it’s revealed that Rogue already knows the Doctor, I can’t understand how he could be the same as River. River was the Ponds’ child and the Doctor’s wife, and their interwoven timelines were unique. Right now, Rogue seems to be more of a replacement for Jack than River.
However, right back at the start of her career, Mulligan had a unique opportunity to star in an episode of Doctor Who. While most characters end up taking a back seat to the impressive and boisterous Doctor, Mulligan was cast as the lead in an episode which saw the Doctor cast in a smaller supporting role. As Sally Sparrow, in the iconic episode that introduced the Weeping Angels, Mulligan did a great job starring in “Blink.”
9Bill Nighy
Another legendary British actor, Bill Nighy, is an institution in British films and long ago made the transition to Hollywood, where he has had numerous large roles. Nighy played one of the central figures in the iconic Christmas film, Love Actually. He played the father in About Time, and he is none other than Davy Jones, under some heavy prosthetics and CGI, in The Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies.
Despite having been in the industry for many decades, Nighy made his Doctor Who debut in 2010 when he appeared in the episode, “Vincent and the Doctor.” This touching Matt Smith episode saw the Doctor and Amy travel back in time to meet the late and great Vincent van Gogh who never saw success in life, but whose work has gone on to inspire many. In this episode, Nighy plays Dr. Black, the museum curator who deeply admires and appreciates the work of van Gogh, and who has a prominent role in this episode.
8Daniel Kaluuya
Like Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya has found great success in the last decade. His starring role in films like Nope and Get Out, both directed by Jordan Peele, helped to establish him as a force in the industry, and he has gone on to play significant roles in major Hollywood blockbusters, such as W’Kabi in Black Panther in the MCU. Kaluuya continues to build his notoriety, and tackle varied projects that showcase his immense talents.
However, Kaluuya had humble beginnings in acting back in 2006. Many of his earliest roles were minor parts, and while he had several lines in the 2009 Doctor Who episode, “Planet of the Dead,” his big break was yet to come. Despite this, his performance as Barclay, a nervous young man in the episode, was indicative of the talent that was brimming over and waiting to be given a chance to shine in the following years.
7Maisie Williams
Maisie Williams found success in her acting career at an extremely young age. In fact, her debut acting role in Game of Thrones as Arya Stark ended up taking her from the start of her career in 2011 all the way up to 2019. In this time, she also branched out and explored various other roles, and today she continues to have a healthy acting career as one of the most recognizable young actors in the industry.
Unusually, Williams was cast in a recurring role for Doctor Who, which saw her appear in a total of four episodes throughout 2015. Initially, she played a young viking girl called Ashildr who tragically dies. However, the Doctor deems her worthy of saving and uses an alien technology to restore her to life, with the side effect of making her immortal. As a result, he meets her several more times in her long life, where she eventually adopts the name Me.
6Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield is a British actor who has made a name for himself playing American characters with an incredibly convincing accent. Gafield has starred as Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man films, he played Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, and Jonathan Larson in tick, tick… BOOM! He continues to land leading parts, and star in both film and TV.
The Twelfth Doctor’s full debut separates itself from the other modern equivalents, but the show’s classic era didn’t follow the same pattern.
However, long before his career took off, Garfield appeared prominently in a two part Doctor Who adventure alongside David Tennant. “Daleks in Mahattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks” gave Garfield an opportunity to exercise his American accent in 2007, before many of his largest roles came about. After that, it wasn’t long before his career took off, but it is incredible to see his growth from such a humble supporting role to a leading man.
5Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen has had an incredible and extensive career in acting for the screen that stretches back to 1964. For most modern audiences, he is best known for playing Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series of films, and Magneto in the Fox X-Men films. His body of work is incredibly varied, and he continues to deliver fun and engaging performances in whatever role he takes on.
The same can be said for his brief role on Doctor Who, which came about in 2012, and is one of the most commonly missed celebrity cameos from the show’s history. The reason for this is that McKellan’s face is never seen, as he lends his voice to the Great Intelligence in the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Snowmen.” The character is one that has appeared several times in classic episodes, and it’s a wonderful, if not minor, role and one that fit with McKellen perfectly after years of trying to cast the actor in the classic series.
4Michael Gambon
Another famous movie wizard, Michael Gambon, was the man who played Dumbledore in the majority of the Harry Potter films after Richard Harris passed away. Gambon also has an impressive list of projects in his lengthy acting career, and he continued performing and lending his voice to video games up until his death in 2023. And his role in Doctor Who, surprisingly, also came in a Christmas special in 2010.
Doctor Who has changed drastically in the more than 60 years its been going, with some of these changes outlined in the dialogue of different Doctors.
Gambon played the role of the central antagonist, Kazran Sardick in “A Christmas Carol,” in a role that saw him essentially play a character that closely resembles Ebeneezer Scrooge from the Charles Dickens novel. Kazran controls the air on his planet, and as a bitter and greedy old man, he chooses to horde it and earn a profit from it while the less fortunate get hungry, sick, and cold. However, the Doctor is able to provide him with some new memories as a Ghost of Christmas Past in an effort to change his heart.
3Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming also has an extensive screen acting career that stretches back to 1984. The actor excels in comedy roles, and he found success early in his career and has been able to find steady work ever since. Some of his biggest roles include his playing Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Nightcrawler in X-Men 2, and Loki in Son of the Mask. Today, most of his roles are in a supporting capacity, but he is a familiar face and easily recognizable whenever he appears.
In 2018, he appeared in Doctor Who for the episode “The Witchfinders” opposite Jodie Whittaker. He played King James, a zealous ruler who strived to rid the British countryside of any women who he deemed to have witchy attributes, one of whom ended up being the Doctor herself. This was a brilliant role that saw Cumming shine and impart his usual fun to an otherwise serious and intense episode.
2Olivia Colman
Olivia Colman is an Oscar winning actress who got her break in acting by appearing in small British TV shows in the 2000s. Since then, Colman has slowly climbed to become one of the most revered actors in Hollywood, with an Oscar for her role in The Favorite, and two further nominations since then. Colman’s career only appears to be on the rise as she continues to land huge parts and deliver outstanding performances.
Doctor Who’s introduction of John Hurt’s War Doctor was weirdly good, but I feel like the show had better ways to account for Eccleston’s absence.
While earlier in her career, when Colman was still best known for small TV and comedy parts, she appeared in Matt Smith’s premiere episode as the Doctor, “The Eleventh Hour.” Colman played a mother who appeared to be possessed by an alien and had her image stolen while she was in a coma in hospital. Colman does a great job in this minor part, but her work since that fateful 2010 episode has certainly done a lot more to propel her career onwards and upwards.
1Timothy Dalton
Finally, we have Timothy Dalton, one of the extremely short list of actors who has ever tackled the role of the sexy and suave agent James Bond. Dalton found great success early in his career, and in later life, he has embraced roles that frequently cast him as the villain. From playing Alexei Volkoff in Chuck, to the Chief in Doom Patrol, Dalton continues to create captivating characters and explore his range as a refined and talented actor with decades of experience under his belt.
It is fitting then, that Dalton should also have been cast in Doctor Who as one of the greatest rivals the Doctor has ever had the displeasure of fighting against, Rassilon. The Lord President of Gallifrey, and the man who was responsible for sharing the gift of regeneration to his species, the Time Lords, Rassilon, is one of the most powerful and impressive villains ever to appear in Doctor Who. And it was a perfect fit for Dalton, who played the part in a two-part episode which ultimately resulted in David Tennant regenerating into Matt Smith in Doctor Who.
