Owen Teale was born on 20 May 1961 in North Cornelly, near Bridgend in South Wales, the son of Roy and Louise Teale. He attended Cynffig Comprehensive School in nearby Kenfig Hill, where a teacher named Mr Davis first awakened his interest in acting, and went on to train at the Guildford School of Acting.
He made his television debut in 1984 in The Mimosa Boys and appeared in Doctor Who the following year, before landing the role of Will Scarlet in the 1991 film Robin Hood alongside Patrick Bergin. Stage work brought him his greatest early honour: in 1997 he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Torvald opposite Janet McTeer in a Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House.
Teale built a long and varied career as a character actor across film and television, including roles in Ballykissangel, Spooks, Torchwood, Midsomer Murders and the BBC drama Line of Duty, in which he played Chief Constable Philip Osborne. He is perhaps best known internationally for playing Ser Alliser Thorne in HBO's Game of Thrones between 2011 and 2016, and later starred as Peter Knox in Sky's A Discovery of Witches from 2018 to 2022. His film work includes King Arthur, Tolkien and the Welsh-set Dream Horse, in which he starred opposite Toni Collette and Damian Lewis.
Teale has kept close ties to his home area over the years and was made an honorary member of the Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club, near where he grew up. He continues to work regularly across television, film and the stage.