Lenny Henry! :-O
US viewers might not know the name, but Lenny Henry is one of the biggest comedians in the UK. I’ve been living in the US for 23 years, so it’s not a name I’ve seen very often in the last two decades, but he was rarely off UK screens in the 80s and 90s (and probably beyond, I guess).
He was also married to the at-least as famous comedian Dawn French, who co-created the Absolutely Fabulous characters with Jennifer Saunders.
I’d missed that he was going to be in the LotR series too.