Paul grew up in Manor House, North London, attending Clissold Park Secondary School, Hackney, from the age of 11.
[1] A year later, he took the background role of convict Betts in the cinematic re-make of the controversial borstal film Scum.
[4] He spent much of the 1980s on stage, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and played a major role in Going Out,[1] which is about a group of teenagers in the Portsmouth area.
Set in a supermarket, this was the final television work undertaken by the distinguished British actor Leonard Rossiter prior to his sudden death.
In June 2015, Paul started appearing in Coronation Street as the brewery worker Dan Jones,[6] a love interest for Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard).
In 2018, in an episode of ITV's Endeavour titled Quartet, he played Joe Dozier, a tobacconist/drinker/wife-beater who was part of an embedded spy ring in Oxford.