In 2023, Doctor Who will celebrate its 60th anniversary with flair, with David Tennant reprising his role as The Doctor before Ncuti Gatwa takes over. Russell T. Davies will serve as the showrunner once again. Even the logo has changed. 

The BBC has unveiled a brand-new photo of David Tennant dressed as the fourteenth Doctor in a recognisable yet slightly altered suit. Compared to his Tenth Doctor days, the suit and jacket are a touch more sophisticated, however, this time, he has only done one button up.

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Who is David Tennant?

David Tennant is a Scottish actor, best known for his portrayal of the Tenth Doctor in the show Doctor Who. He was born David John McDonald in Bathgate, West Lothian, on April 18, 1971, to Helen and Alexander McDonald, a clergyman who served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In Ralston, Renfrewshire, where his father served as the local minister, he grew up alongside his brother Blair and sister Karen.

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William and Agnes Blair, two of his maternal great-grandparents, were Northern Irish Protestants from County Londonderry who signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912. William belonged to the Orange Order as well. While playing for Derry City FC, Tennant’s maternal grandpa, player Archie McLeod, met Nellie, the daughter of William and Agnes. McLeod came from a family of tenant farmers who lived on the Isle of Mull.

Tennant told his parents he wanted to be an actor when he was three because he loved Doctor Who, but they pushed him to pursue more traditional jobs. He later said that his pursuit of an acting profession was “absurdly single-minded.” He spent years watching practically every episode of Doctor Who, and he once chatted with Tom Baker, who plays the Fourth Doctor, during a book signing in Glasgow.

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He attended Ralston Primary School and Paisley Grammar School, where he also participated in school plays as an actor. When she watched him play when he was 10 years old, actress Edith MacArthur recognised his talent and told his parents that she thought he would succeed as a stage actor.

Tennant attended classes on Saturdays at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, which was the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland at the time. He was one of the Academy’s youngest students when he was 16 and studied there between the ages of 17 and 20 after passing an audition when he was 16.

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He adopted the stage name Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys frontman David McDonald after learning that there was another David McDonald who was already represented by the actor’s union Equity. To comply with the requirements of the American Screen Actors Guild, he later had to legally change his last name.

Because he feels that “relationships are hard enough with the people you’re having them with, let alone talking about them in public,” Tennant rarely discusses his personal life in interviews. He has said that he occasionally attends church and that he thinks religion “must have” influenced the way he is.

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Tennant is the son-in-law of Sandra Dickinson and Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison thanks to his marriage to actor Georgia Tennant (nee Moffett). During the 2008 production of the Doctor Who episode The Doctor’s Daughter, in which she played the genetically modified daughter of David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, the couple first got acquainted. They married on December 30, 2011, and now they reside in London’s Chiswick neighbourhood. They have five children together, including Ty Tennant, who Tennant adopted from Moffett’s previous relationship.

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In the science fiction television series Doctor Who, Tennant played the tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010 and again in 2013. He would then play the fourteenth Doctor from 2022 to 2023. Other notable performances include Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Peter Vincent in the horror remake Fright Night (2011), DI Alec Hardy in the ITV crime drama series Broadchurch (2013-2017), Kilgrave in the Netflix superhero series Jessica Jones (2015-2019), and Crowley in the Amazon Prime fantasy series Good Omens (2019–present).

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In a 2008 production of Hamlet by the Royal Shakespeare Company that was later recorded for television, Tennant played the title role. Additionally, he has performed as a voice actor in the How to Train Your Dragon movies (2010–2019), Ferdinand (2017), Final Space (2018–2021), gen:LOCK (2019–present), The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (2011), and DuckTales as Scrooge McDuck (2017–2021). The National Television Award for Special Recognition was given to him in 2015. He played Phileas Fogg in the 2021 television series Around the World in 80 Days.