David Chabeaux

David Chabeaux was born David William Bell on March 17th, 1976 into a working-class family in Spondon, Derby, England. He is known for playing Kev in three episodes of Sky Atlantic's Bulletproof (2018), Alan in Channel 4's Episode #1.4813 (2017), comic book anti-hero John Constantine in John Constantine: Hellblazer - The Soul Play (2014), and British Ambassador Yardley in GOLD (2018). David's father, Brian Bell, was a printer at Bemrose Print Works in Derby and his mother, Shirley Bell (née Ward) worked as a secretary. David's paternal ancestors are the Chabeaux family of Alsace-Lorraine, France, who fled to Liverpool in 1870 after the region was incorporated into the German Empire after the Franco-German War. David adopted the Chabeaux family name in 2014. His maternal grandfather was the pioneering musician and bandleader Maurice 'Moz' Ward who inspired a thousands-strong band movement in England from the 1950s -'90s and led his own Showband, The Derby Serenaders (a band which David was an active member in from a very young age) to great international success. David's cousin is footballer Peter Ward, the legendary Brighton and Hove Albion FC and England centre forward. David attended St Werburgh's Infant and Primary Schools and then Spondon School (later named West Park), acquiring a reputation as a gifted singer, musician, and actor. By age 13, he was already a multi-instrumentalist and could play 9 different instruments to a high standard. The Derby Evening Telegraph wrote of his performance as Pharaoh in the 1991 West Park School production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat; "David's creation of a Pharaoh that is cool, funny, threatening and powerful all in one was really extraordinary". He was seen by and encouraged to audition for, The Central Junior Television Workshop in Nottingham, but declined in order to continue performing with The Derby Serenaders instead. Despite this success though, secondary school was a "brutal time" for David, singled out by the local bullies because of his love of music and drama. FROM 1993-'95 He studied A-Level Music at South East Derbyshire College, Ilkeston but found the narrow focus on classical music stifling and spent most of his two years playing truant or hiding in the rehearsal rooms with two other music students, Martin Coleman and Ian Short, with whom he formed his first band, Sargeant. Their first EP, 1994's 'Aspic' led UK music journalist Mark Sheldon to herald Sergeant as "the next REM", but their big break never came and they disbanded in 1995. Following the split, David answered an advert in the local paper for a band looking for a new frontman, auditioning in a garden shed and becoming the lead singer and joint songwriter in '90's cult pop-punk band Bullyhead. After releasing and intensively touring two critically acclaimed EP's (1998's 'Wünderkinds' and 1999's 'Sweet Vandal') around the UK to a massively loyal and notoriously manic fan base, Bullyhead disbanded and in 2001 David went back to his boyhood love of swing and big band music and spent over decade as a professional Big Band singer, performing with some of the UK's leading orchestras and players, as well as composing music for film. In 2012 he was asked to create the score for the short film The Raven. Whilst on set, he was asked to read through some scenes and ended up being cast in the lead role of Guy Devere. Fascinated by his first experience of film acting, David decided he'd rather be acting than scoring music and began acting professionally in 2013. In 2014, he was cast as John Constantine in the acclaimed short film John Constantine: Hellblazer - The Soul Play (2014). He then made his TV debut playing the small but powerful role of sexual deviant Alan in the 20th December 2017 episode of Channel 4's Episode #1.4813 (2017), then played Kevin in three episodes of Sky Atlantic show Bulletproof (2018) season 1, opposite Noel Clarke. He made his film debut playing British Ambassador Yardley in 2018's Bollywood feature GOLD (2018), written and directed by Reema Kagti and starring Akshay Kumar. He then played Mike in 2019's Snowflakes alongside Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Cherrelle Skeete. In 2020 he was cast in the lead role of Sniffer in the multi-award-winning short film Socks and Robbers.