Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor
The 2024 Recipient: Mark Gatiss
Awarded for	Best Actor in a Play
Location	England
Presented by	Society of London Theatre
First awarded	1985
Currently held by	Mark Gatiss for The Motive and the Cue (2024)
Website	officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/

The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in 1976, and renamed in 1984 in honour of English actor and director Laurence Olivier.

This award was introduced in 1985, as Actor of the Year, then retitled to its current name for the 1993 ceremony. Prior to this award, from 1976 to 1984 (and again in 1988), there was a pair of awards given each year for this general category, one for Actor of the Year in a New Play and the other for Actor of the Year in a Revival.