His performance on the show earned him a nomination at the Golden Globes and two consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, as well as three Screen Actors Guild Awards.
His mother was a nurse and his father was a urological surgeon. Bonneville is an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre. When he began acting, Bonneville chose Richard Bonneville, a variation of his middle names, as his stage name, because there was a well-known playwright named Hugh Williams. After appearing as Richard Bonneville for ten years, he changed Richard to Hugh.
In , he joined the National Theatre where he appeared in several plays, then the Royal Shakespeare Company in , where he played Laertes to Kenneth Branagh 's Hamlet β His early roles were usually good-natured bumbling characters like Bernie in Notting Hill and Mr Rushworth in Mansfield Park In Love Again , he played the poet Philip Larkin. In he played Hugh in Midsomer Murders in season 5, episode 3.
Bonneville also works extensively in radio. In early , he appeared in the comedy film Burke and Hare. From until , Bonneville was the narrator of the Channel 4 show The Hotel. Bonneville played Mr. Brown in the film Paddington and its sequel Paddington 2. He has appeared in the singing comedic role of Peter the Pillager, the Pirate King, in the ABC fairy tale-themed musical comedy extravaganza series Galavant during its and seasons.
In , Bonneville portrayed Lord Mountbatten in director Gurinder Chadha 's film Viceroy's House , which depicted the tumult and violence surrounding the Partition of India during the final days of British rule. Also that year, he narrated the documentary A Return to Grace: Luther's Life and Legacy and it was announced that Bonneville would play Roald Dahl in an upcoming biopic about the author.
