How Every Doctor Who Got Cast

1. Ncuti Gatwa

Doctor Who William Hartnell Ncuti Gatwa
BBC Studios

Ncuti Gatwa was already becoming a huge star when he auditioned for the role of the Fifteenth Doctor.

Rising to fame playing Eric Effiong in Netflix's Sex Education, Gatwa had also snagged a small role in 2023's blockbuster hit Barbie.

Barbie Ryan Gosling
Warner Bros. Pictures

This led to him making a cameo during the I'm Just Ken performance at the 2024 Oscars, in what is surely one of the most iconic moments for a Doctor actor.

Casting director Andy Pryor told Digital Spy that Gatwa "blew everyone away" during his audition. Pryor also revealed that the auditions took place over a couple of days, and that there were other actors they would happily have cast.

Elsewhere, Russell T Davies revealed to the Radio Times that Ncuti Gatwa was the last actor to audition for the role, and that the showrunner had already cast someone else in his head:

"I thought someone else was a guaranteed hit and then in [Ncuti] came, and that person will never know."

Cue decades of speculation over who RTD would've cast if Ncuti Gatwa had turned left and never auditioned for Doctor Who!

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Contributor

Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.