William Walter Douglas Howle^[1] (born 9 November 1989) is a British actor. His films include On Chesil Beach, The Seagull, and Outlaw King. On television, he is known for his roles in the E4 drama Glue, the BBC miniseries The Serpent, MotherFatherSon, and the BritBox thriller series The Beast Must Die.

Howle was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. His mother Allison was a school teacher and his father Tim was a music professor and composer.^[2] He was born the second of four boys, with three brothers, Sam (older), George and Alfie (younger).

Due to his father's profession the family moved 12 times when Howle was a child, before settling in Scarborough. It was there that he became involved in the local music scene. At 18, he left home to study drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, before embarking on his career.

Howle made his debut as James Warwick on the E4 television series Glue. He co-starred in the 2017 film The Sense of an Ending (as the younger version of Jim Broadbent's lead character) and the miniseries The Witness for the Prosecution in the pivotal role of the defendant in a murder case, Leonard Vole.^[3]

Howle appeared in the war film Dunkirk,^[4] and starred alongside Saoirse Ronan in the film, On Chesil Beach, an adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel. He appears in the film adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and in the Netflix film Outlaw King.

Howle was the face of Prada S/S16, shot by Craig McDean.^[5]

In 2019, Howle starred alongside Richard Gere and Helen McCrory in the BBC Drama series MotherFatherSon, which was written by Tom Rob Smith and he and Jodie Comer made cameo appearances in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as Rey's parents Dathan and Miramir

In 2021 he starred in the BBC series The Serpent^[6] as Herman Knippenberg, and on BritBox's The Beast Must Die as Nigel.

In February 2022, Howle starred in Chloe as Elliott, appearing in all six episodes.^[7] He also appeared in Under the Banner of Heaven as Allen Lafferty who struggled his faith after his wife Brenda (Daisy Edger-Jones)'s murder.^[8] In the latter part of 2022, Howle played the title role in John Haidar’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was performed at the Bristol Old Vic.^[9][10]

Howle will play a 1970s' boxer in Kid Snow.^[11][12] and Netflix limited series The Perfect Couple as Benji Webauray who is the son of the rich family and long-delayed Sweet Dreams will set to filming on October 2024