Bruno Langley

Early life

Langley was born to Australian parents in Somerset, but grew up in Buxton, Derbyshire. He attended Harpur Hill Primary School and Buxton Community School. He trained at the North Cheshire Theatre School in Heaton Moor. Along with his sisters he was a member of a number of junior string orchestras in which he played the cello.

Film and television

From 2001 to 2004, Langley played the character of Todd Grimshaw in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. As the first openly gay character on the show, Langley developed a large gay following.

He had also appeared in Coronation Street on 4 August 2000 as Darren, then boyfriend of Candice. He also had a semi-regular role from 2001 to 2002 in Linda Green as Philip, a.k.a. Fizz, Green, the eponymous lead character's younger brother.

While on leave from Coronation Street, he has played roles such as the part of Adam Mitchell in the 2005 series of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, appearing in two episodes, "Dalek" and "The Long Game", and provided an audio commentary for the DVD of these episodes. He also filmed a small role in the feature film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, released in June 2005, as well an episode of Dalziel and Pascoe and the little-seen film Halal Harry in 2006, and read Horace for BBC Radio 7.

He returned to Coronation Street for a twelve episode guest stint in 2007.

In April 2011 Langley returned to Coronation Street for a one episode appearance.

In June 2013 it was announced that Langley was returning to Coronation Street as a regular character. Todd Grimshaw returned in the episodes screened on Monday, 4 November.

Theatre

In the summer of 2005, Langley made his stage debut in an acclaimed run of Romeo and Juliet opposite fellow ex-soap actress Scarlett Alice Johnson at Stafford Castle. Taking on the role of Romeo, The British Theatre Guide described Langley as, 'immediately comfortable with the verse, finding no difficulty in being the lovesick youngster before he's gripped with passion for Juliet. Later he convincingly shows a tantrum-like immaturity at his banishment.'

On 30 October 2005, he appeared on stage at the Old Vic in London in the one-night-only play Night Sky with Christopher Eccleston, Navin Chowdhry, David Warner, Saffron Burrows and David Baddiel.

In the spring of 2006, Langley appeared in Life Imitates Art at the Camden People's Theatre, Camden. Also in 2006 he was seen in a production of A Taste of Honey, taking on the role of repressed gay art student, Geoffrey. In his role as Geoffrey, Langley was described as, 'quietly impressive, poignantly conveying Geoffrey’s unending loyalty with ease.' The production toured the UK extensively and played a short run at the Richmond Theatre.

Beginning in May 2008, he appeared in the premiere stage run of the new musical Sleeping Beauty starring opposite fellow Coronation Street alumna Lucy Evans at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin.

Langley also appeared in the stage show Flashdance the Musical. with Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, Bernie Nolan and Noel Sullivan. Langley received positive reviews for his role as Jimmy Kaminsky, with What's On Stage stating, 'Bruno Langley also fares well as Jimmy, particularly when he has the chance to showcase his fine voice in the second act.' and Lindsay Corr stating in the Edinburgh Guide that, 'Bruno Langley as Jimmy shows acting doesn’t have to take a back seat in musical theatre, as he twitches about the stage in his grey hoodie and delivers his number, ‘You Can’t Keep Me Down’, with understated aplomb.'

In 2010-11 he joined the tour of Calendar Girls, in the role of the young photographer, Lawrence. In reviewing the Liverpool Empire Theatre production of the show, Liverpool Sound and Vision said Langley, 'gave outstanding moments of beautiful comic timing as young photographer Lawrence that it’s no wonder he was asked back to reprise his role from last year.'

In November 2012 he began playing Giles Ralston in the 60th anniversary tour of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie.

Music

Langley played the cello until the age of 16 when he decided to pursue a career as an actor. In addition, he plays the piano. In 2010 he formed a band, Bruno Langley and the Wonderland Band. In a 2011 interview with Dianne Bourne of the Manchester Evening News, he stated, "I’ve been acting on and off ever since the age of 17, but always in between jobs I’d sit at the piano and write songs, and sing different songs. A year and a half ago I got a band together, we had a few rehearsals, I had fun doing it and it's gone from there really." The band performs songs from the 1950s as well as taking modern tracks and arranging them into jazz, blues and swing styles. Langley has stated he does the arrangements himself.

As a musician, Langley performed at Manchester Pride in 2011.

Personal life

Langley dated Victoria Roscoe, a beautician, from 200–-12. Roscoe gave birth to their son, Freddie, in May 2007. In November 2013, Langley revealed he and Roscoe had ended their relationship but were sharing the upbringing of their son.