After that he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study acting at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin, Germany.
[1] Burrell began his professional career at the Neues Theater [de] in Halle (Saale).
Among other movies, Burrell acted in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer (2010),[2] and Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac (2013).
[3] He was in the spy thriller Jack Strong by Władysław Pasikowski,[4] and was a narrator in the documentary Warsaw Uprising by Jan Komasa.
[7] In the fall of 2018 Burrell performed the role of Fred Madison in Yuval Sharon's production of Lost Highway at the Oper Frankfurt.