William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe (born 1986) is an English actor and filmmaker. After writing for comedy shows and appearing in the medical drama Casualty (2009–2010), he made his feature directorial debut with Black Pond (2011), for which he received a BAFTA nomination. He created, wrote, directed, and starred in the Channel 4 comedy-drama Flowers (2016–2018) and starred in the BBC Two series Defending the Guilty (2018–2019). His appearance in Giri/Haji (2019) earned him a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.
Sharpe went on to direct the film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and the Sky Atlantic miniseries Landscapers (both 2021). He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his appearance in the second season of The White Lotus (2022).
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Early life and education
Sharpe was born William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe on 22 September 1986 in London to a British father and a Japanese mother. Raised in Tokyo, his family moved back to England and settled in Surrey when Sharpe was eight years old. The oldest of three siblings, Sharpe is the brother of the television and film composer Arthur Sharpe.
Educated at Winchester College, Sharpe later studied Classics at the University of Cambridge where he was the president of the Cambridge Footlights.
Career
Sharpe graduated in 2008 and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) for their 2008/2009 season. He spent a year at the RSC, appearing in such plays as The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, in which he played a young Isaac Newton. He played the character of Yuki Reid in the BBC medical drama Casualty. In 2009, he directed and co-wrote, with his friend Tom Kingsley, the short film Cockroach. The pair's first feature-length film, Black Pond, earned them a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
Sharpe is known for writing, directing, and starring in the dark comedy-drama Flowers, which premiered on Channel 4 in 2016. Starring Olivia Colman, Julian Barratt, Daniel Rigby and Sophia Di Martino, Flowers is a black comedy that tackles mental health, and follows the four eccentric members of the Flowers family as they navigate their lives and their inner demons. The first series won a BAFTA Television Award for best scripted comedy, and the second series aired in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim.
In 2020, Sharpe won a BAFTA Television Award for his supporting role as Rodney Yamaguchi in BBC drama Giri/Haji—a role The Independent called 'one of the most riotously funny turns since Richard E Grant stepped out as Withnail.' Sharpe directed and co-wrote the 2021 biographical comedy-drama film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the artist Louis Wain. In 2022, Sharpe joined the cast of the HBO series The White Lotus in its second season, set in Sicily, as Ethan Spiller, a newly wealthy tech entrepreneur on vacation. This role earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
In 2023, Sharpe was announced as the director of the film adaptation of Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner's memoir, Crying in H Mart. In 2025, Zauner said that Sharpe had stepped down from the project. In 2024, Sharpe had a supporting role in the comedy-drama film A Real Pain, alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin. That same year, he starred in Emmanuelle. Sharpe also began hosting the paranormal podcast Extrasensory. In 2025, he was cast in a lead role in the romantic comedy series Too Much as well as the British series Amadeus. He will also appear in one episode of the upcoming series Prodigies.
Personal life
Sharpe has type two bipolar disorder. He is married to actress Sophia Di Martino, with whom he has been in a relationship since 2009. They have two children, born in 2019 and 2021.