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Alexander Martin Clunes (born November 28th, 1961) is a BAFTA and SAG award-winning British actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in a British comedy Men Behaving Badly.

Clunes is the son and second child of the classical actor Alec Clunes who died of lung cancer when Martin was eight and a half years old; he has an older sister, Amanda. His mother Daphne, later a board member of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, once worked for Orson Wells. Clunes attended nursery with screenwriter Peter Morgan, and was educated at two independent secondary schools, the Royal Russell School in Croydon and The Arts and The Educational Schools, in Chiswick, London.
The late actor Jeremy Brett who portrayed Sherlock Holmes in the long-running ITV show The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, encouraged Clunes in his acting career. Martin Clunes` mother was Jeremy Brett`s first cousin.

Clunes served his first role in rep at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester, and his first television appearance came in the 1980s Doctor Who story Snakedance as the spoiled Lon. But a sporadic career led to him supplementing his income as a photo model for Gilbert and George, and he can be seen in their 1983 work World.
He got his first regular television role as one of the sons in the BBC sitcom No Place Like Home, and then starred in two series of the sitcom All at No. 20.
While Clunes was appearing on stage at the Hampstead Theatre, Harry Enfield came to see him which developed into a friendship where Clunes played characters in Enfield`s sketch shows. Enfield then recommended Clunes for the role of Gary in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, written for Enfield by Simon Nye, bringing Clunes his best-known role to date and for which he won a BAFTA television award in 1996.
Establishing himself. he has since appeared in films and television show such as An Evening with Gary Lineker, Staggered (starred and directed), Hunting Venus, The Booze Cruise, Saving Grace, and Jeeves and Wooster. In 1998, he was featured in Sweet Revenge and appeared as Richard Burbage in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love. Clunes has also acted frequently for the radio, including a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi.
Clunes is a friend of rock singer Gary Numan who appeared in his movie Hunting Venus. Afterwards Clunes made a guest appearance live on stage with Numan and played bass to the hit single "Cars".
In 2001, he played Captain Stickles in the BBC adaptation of R.D. Blackmore`s Lorna Doone.
In 2002 he played serial killer John George Haigh in A Is for Acid, and took the lead in ITV`s production of Goodbye Mr. Chips.
Clunes was one of the eponymous leads in the 2004 ITV romantic comedy-drama William and Mary, which ran for three series, with Julie Graham. Clunes has worked with Julie Grahan previously on Dirty Tricks (2000).
His leading role in the ITV comedy drama series Doc Martin from 2004 marked a successful change of direction for Clunes. In 2005, his portrayal of the ornery vascular surgeon turned cranky general practitioner won him a nomination for Most Popular Actor in the National Television Awards. The show is produced for ITV by Buffalo Pictures Ltd. the production company he runs in partnership with his wife, Philippa Braithwaite. At the media launce for the third series of Doc Martin in September 2007, Clunes announced that as ITV had not yet commissioned a fourth series, that he pl

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