Background
Greif was born in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England, in a building originally belonging to Anne Boleyn as a gift from King Henry VIII.
Greif was born in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England, in a building originally belonging to Anne Boleyn as a gift from King Henry VIII.
He briefly attended the Regent Street Polytechnic before entering a variety of jobs including trouble shooter at a television and radiogram manufacturer and as a negotiator in a boutique West End estate agency before applying for drama school.
Among his productions were Danton"s Death, A Woman Killed with Kindness, The Merchant of Venice (with Olivier), Long Days Journey into Night (again with Olivier), The School for Scandal, Richard II, The Front Page and Macbeth. Later he was invited to join the National again on the South Bank under Peter Hall in the revival Death of a Salesman directed by Michael Rudman with Warren Mitchell winning himself another Best Actor Nomination in the Olivier Awards. He was back again at the invitation of Nicholas Hytner to join his inaugural season appearing in "His Girl Friday", "Edmund" and the Christmas show "His Dark Materials" directed by Hytner.
He was with Elaine Stritch in The Gingerbread Lady, Denholm Elliott in "The Paranormalist", Frank Langella in Abracadaver, Albert Finney in Ronald Harwood’s Reflected Glory, Felicity Kendal and Frances de la Tour in Fallen Angels, Joseph Fiennes in George Dillon and Lesley Manville in Six Degrees of Separation.
Greif has been in many films including Lasse Hallström’s Casanova, Shoot on Sight, Eichmann, Spartan, The Upside of Anger, Boogie Woogie and Fakers. His many television appearances include Only When I Laugh, Spooks, Mistresses, He Kills Coppers, Silent Witness, the last story of Waking the Dead and New Tricks.
He reprised his Blake"s 7 role of Travis in two new audio stories for Big Finish Productions. He voiced Raymond Maarloeve in the video game The Witcher.
He was educated at Sloane Grammar School, where he was school champion at athletics and swimming and represented the school and the county at athletics at the White City Stadium amongst others He is an Honours graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he won numerous awards including Best Actor and Most Promising Actor, and is now an Associate Member and serves on the audition panel. He was invited back to appear with them at Queen"s Theatre in the West End in the Italian Comedy Saturday, Sunday, Monday directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Laurence Olivier where he won a Best Actor nomination in the Critics" Circle Theatre Award.
He was a member of the National Theatre Company both at the Old Vic in Olivier’s company and on the South Bank for Peter Hall’s company.
