Background
Speer was born in Harrogate in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at the local Harrogate Grammar School.
Speer was born in Harrogate in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and educated at the local Harrogate Grammar School.
He studied acting at the Arts Educational School, Tring Park.
Speer began his acting career appearing in the television series McCallum (television series)The Bill and Heartbeat. He played a minor role in the film Bhaji on the Beach before his first notable appearance as Guy in the film The Full Monty. Following this film"s worldwide success he went on to appear in Swing (1999), Deathwatch and The Interpreter (playing Nicole Kidman"s brother).
However, most of his work has been on television, including sitcoms Men Behaving Badly, dramas Clocking Office, The Last Detective, Boudica (2003), and The Rotters" Club (2005), as well as the 2005 British Broadcasting Corporation adaptation of Dickens" Bleak House.
In 2006, he appeared in the postal worker drama Sorted. In 2008, he starred alongside Martine McCutcheon in Echo Beach.
In 2011 he played a repairman whose repairs "come to life" in the supernatural drama Haven, based on a Stephen King story. Speer also provides narration for ITV1 series, Cops with Cameras, Channel 5"s The Bachelor and the British Broadcasting Corporation series Seaside Rescue.
He appears as John Foster in the penultimate and final episodes of the fourth series of Skins.
In 2002 he starred as Sergeant David Tate in the film Deathwatch, a 2002 European horror film directed by Michael J. Bassett. Hugo Speer also narrated a factual programme on Discovery HD called Gold Divers. In 2013, he featured on radio in the popular police drama "Stone".
From 2013 to 2014 he starred as Inspector Valentine in the new version of Father Brown on British Broadcasting Corporation television in the first series and the first episode of the second series.
Starting in 2014, Speer stars as Captain Treville in The Musketeers.