Tim Roth

Tim Roth is an English actor, director and producer, born on 14 May 1961 in London. Known for his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) and an Oscar-nominated turn in Rob Roy, he has worked across independent cinema, blockbusters and television.

Tim Roth, born Timothy Simon Roth, is an English actor, director and producer known for his intense, versatile performances across independent and mainstream cinema. Born on 14 May 1961 in Dulwich, London, he emerged from British television and film in the 1980s and became internationally known through his collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino and an Academy Award-nominated turn in Rob Roy. Over four decades he has moved fluidly between arthouse dramas, blockbusters and acclaimed television. This page covers the Tim Roth biography, his age, family, films, wife and career.

The Tim Roth family had an artistic and politically conscious background. His father, Ernie Roth, was a Fleet Street journalist and painter born in Brooklyn, who changed the family surname from 'Smith' to 'Roth' in the 1940s as an act of anti-Nazi solidarity. His mother, Ann, was a painter and teacher. Roth has spoken publicly about surviving childhood abuse by his paternal grandfather, which he first disclosed around the 1999 release of his directorial debut.

Tim Roth attended schools including Strand School in Tulse Hill and later studied sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts in London before turning to acting. He came up alongside a generation of British actors sometimes dubbed the 'Brit Pack', which included Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Daniel Day-Lewis.

The Tim Roth career began on British television in the early 1980s with acclaimed roles in Made in Britain and Meantime (both 1983). His film debut in The Hit (1984) earned him an Evening Standard Award and a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.

He became internationally recognised through his long collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, appearing in Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Four Rooms (1995) and later The Hateful Eight (2015). His role as Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy (1995) won him a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Roth has featured in major studio films including Planet of the Apes (2001), The Incredible Hulk (2008) — as Emil Blonsky, a role he reprised in the Marvel series She-Hulk (2022) and Shang-Chi (2021). On television he led the series Lie to Me (2009–11) as Cal Lightman and appeared in Twin Peaks (2017) and Tin Star. He also directed the drama The War Zone (1999).

Details about the Tim Roth wife and family are frequently searched. He married Nikki Butler in 1993. He has three sons: Jack Roth, an actor born in 1984, and two sons with Nikki Butler — Timothy Hunter (named after writer Hunter S. Thompson) and Cormac (named after author Cormac McCarthy). His son Cormac, a musician, died in October 2022 at the age of 25 after an illness. The family has lived in Pasadena, California.

The Tim Roth net worth is reported by third-party outlets in the range of tens of millions of US dollars, earned across a four-decade career spanning independent films, major Hollywood productions, television series and directing — figures that are public estimates rather than confirmed numbers. His steady work in both prestige and franchise projects has kept him among the more consistently employed character actors of his generation.