Oliver Jone, professionally known as Oliver Stark, is a British actor and activist. Born in London, England on June 27, 1991. In his early years, he did not think of becoming an actor at all. He grew up in a family of academics. His older brother also work in that field, but when Oliver turned 18, he decided not to study economics, but to take lessons at the North London Performing Arts Centre. His parents supported his decision and so Oliver began to pursue acting. He says: "I studied drama and theatre when I was younger, but I never thought it was gonna be my career. When I got to the age of 18, I still didn’t really know what I was doing. I was meant to go off to university to study economics and then decided I didn’t want to do that. So I started working in various jobs, none of which were acting-related. Then I appeared in a friend of mine’s short film and liked it and it kind of rekindled this love for acting that I had when I was at school.". He continues: "If I had to say specifically I would have to give a lot of credit to an old teacher of mine, the late Mr. Mackellar. He sadly passed away last year. But he was someone who really made me believe in this career as a possibility and gave me the confidence to give it a go.".
Like most actors, his career began in theatre. In 2009 he made his stage debut in Scenes from Family Life as Jack. The following year he made his film debut in Break In as Jeremy. He then performed in theatricals such as Dirty Promises where he played the lead role of Drew at Theatre Royal Stratford. In the play Polling Booth as Richard. He also appeared in Adam Morley's play Seconds, which won the Writers Avenue Best New Play 2010/11 award, featured Stark in his first leading role as Samuel, and lastly The Fifth Dimension Theatre Company’s Fatal Excuses, where critics hailed his performance as "phenomenal" and "breathtaking," as Eden.
At the same time, he made his big screen debut. He was cast as the villain "Pack Leader" in the horror thriller Community, which was New Town thriller's second feature film. A month later, he appeared on TV as Kyle 'K' DeNane in the popular British medical drama series Casualty. By the end of 2012, he had also appeared in short films such as Always There, Something Blue, Blud!, and 12. In 2013 he made an audition for the role of Noah Sandborn in The Boy Next Door, but Ryan Guzman was ultimately chosen for the role. In 2014, he continued to fill his filmography with short films and TV appearances. After all, that was his plan. Stark told Anthem, "So I just started appearing in more and more student short films, built them into a demo reel, and started shooting it out to agents." In the middle of the year he landed the role of Dylan in the film MindGamers (DxM at that time). He appeared in the TV shows Luther, Big Bad World, and Dracula. He also had small roles in the films Trap For Cinderella, Montana and The Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box, and added another title under his short film list - Broken Britain.
But despite all that, Stark's plan was decidedly different, he says: "I first came to Los Angeles in January 2014 and I initially came for two months with a head full of dreams, and I didn't really have the best time, to be honest with you. I wasn't very busy and I didn't do very well in the auditions, so I came home very discouraged after that." By the end of the year, things were starting to fall into place professionally. Oliver received the good news that he had been cast as Ryder in the series Into the Badlands. He shared: "The second time I went to LA was a much bigger deal for me because I had to rebuild all the confidence I’d lost and it was on that trip that I booked Into The Badlands.". The beginning of 2015 he began with a small role in the series Venus Vs. Mars. For most of the year he filmed the first season of Into The Badlands and the movie Hard Tide. Towards the end of the year he starred in two more short films - Spirit and Exmas. In 2016, he became a vegan, and his hiatus from short films began, as Into the Badlands received a second season and he landed another role in 2016's Underworld: Blood Wars. That would be his last movie appearance, as the following year his world changed completely.
In 2017 he tried auditioning for a role in S.W.A.T., he shared that in the Anirudh Pisharody livestream, but Alexander Russell took that part. So, in the summer of 2017 he signs for an acting class. This is what he shares in his essay: "Your teacher, who’s also a casting director, unlocks something for you. She shows you, for the first time, how it’s your unique self that the work requires and deserves. She helps you see that you’ve been going into auditions and trying to give them what you think they want, rather than giving them who you are.". One month later, while watching The Hollywood Reporter Roundtables featuring Ryan Murphy, an audition comes in for a new TV show called 9-1-1. He went the next day and auditioned, and the rest is history. He was picked to play as Evan Buckley. Stark instantly became a fan favorite as viewers watched Buck explore the high-pressure experiences of first responders thrust into frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. In the years that followed, the success of 9-1-1 would fill most of his professional life. In 2020, he took part in a voiceover role for End Live-Shackle Slaughter. In 2021, he appeared in an episode of the 9-1-1 spinoff Lone Star, and later that year, he starred in the short film She Said Yes.
To this day, he still plays the beloved firefighter Buck.
