Ben Hardy: Ex-Eastenders actor's age, height and playing Roger Taylor in Bohemian Rhapsody

17 October 2018, 16:45 | Updated: 17 October 2018, 17:41

Ben Hardy became a soap favourite when he joined EastEnders as Peter Beale.

Since leaving the soap, he has become a genuine Hollywood star, and will next appear as drummer Roger Taylor in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Here are all the important facts about Ben Hardy that every fan should know:

1. Who is Ben Hardy?

   Real name Ben Jones, Ben Hardy is a British actor, best known for playing Peter Beale in EastEnders from 2013 to 2015.

   He made his film debut as Archangel in the superhero film X-Men: Apocalypse a year later, and will next star as Roger Taylor in Bohemian Rhapsody.

2. Ben Hardy age: How old is he?

   Ben Hardy was born on January 2, 1991. He celebrated his 27th birthday in 2018.

   He born in Bournemouth, Dorset, and grew up in Sherborne.

3. Ben Hardy height: How tall is he?

   Ben Hardy is around 1.78m (5ft 8in) tall.

4. Ben Hardy girlfriend: Is he dating anyone?

   

   Ben Hardy has been dating his long-term girlfriend, Katriona Perret for several years.

   He told OK! in 2017 that he can see them tying the knot soon: "I think marriage one day for sure. But I’m in no rush."

5. Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor: When did he join Bohemian Rhapsody?

   On August 21, 2017, it was announced that Ben had joined the cast of the Freddie Mercury biopic, alongside Rami Malek as Freddie, Gwilym Lee as Brian May and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon.

   He admitted that he "lied" to get the role after learning that his X-Men director Bryan Singer was helming the film.

   “He had reservations based upon the fact that he wanted the person who played Roger Taylor to be able to play the drums, because you can cheat the other instruments with camera angles, but in the wide shots you can see if the drum is out of sync,” Hardy said.

   “So I told him I could play the drums — which I could not at the time. I wanted the job really bad. Who does not want to play a rock ‘n’ roll star? So I told him a little white lie/big lie, that I could play the drums. So he was like, ‘Great, can you put this song on film for me to show to the producers?’"

   Hardy then had “a massive panic” and quickly hired a music teacher, playing for 10 hours a day.

   “There was not enough time — I bought the cheapest drum kit I could find and found a drum teacher locally and was like, ‘Look, here’s the deal: I need to learn to play this song as soon as possible, what can you do?’”