[1] His role as dwarf king and leader Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson's film trilogy adaptation of The Hobbit[2] brought him international recognition.

After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Armitage initially sought theatre work and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

After twelve years away and having earned that name recognition, Armitage returned to the stage in 2014, taking his first leading role in a major production.

He played John Proctor in the successful and critically acclaimed production of The Crucible at The Old Vic,[7][8] and earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor.

In 2022, he ventured into video games for the first time, providing the voice of the Daemon Prince Be'lakor in Total War: Warhammer III.

By the age of 14, having secured a grant from the Leicestershire Authority, he successfully persuaded his mother to allow him to transfer to Pattison College in Coventry, an independent school specialising in the performing arts, so that he could focus on drama and dance.

[11][12][13] Armitage has expressed gratitude for the lessons and opportunities Pattison College provided, saying "It... instilled me with a discipline that has stood me in good stead – never to be late, to know your lines and to be professional.

"[14] By the time he finished school, he had achieved A Levels in music and English,[15] and acting experience in local amateur and professional productions such as Showboat, Half a Sixpence, Orpheus and the Underworld (as Bacchus), and The Hobbit (as an elf) at the New Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham.

[14] After completing the programme at Pattison College in 1988, Armitage joined the Nachtcircus in Budapest for six months to obtain his Equity Card, a requirement at the time for entertainment professionals to work in the UK.

[16][17] Returning to the UK, he pursued a career in musical theatre – working as an assistant choreographer to Kenn Oldfield and performing in various productions, including the ensembles of 42nd Street, My One and Only, Nine, Annie Get Your Gun and as Admetus and Macavity in Cats.

[18] Armitage was also pursuing acting in dramatic theatre productions, including The Real Thing, Six Degrees of Separation and Death of a Salesman.

"[21] After completing LAMDA's three-year programme, he returned to the stage as a supporting player with the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of Macbeth and The Duchess of Malfi, as well as Hamlet and Four Alice Bakers with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre while taking a series of small roles in television and films.

[15][26] In 2004, Armitage landed his first leading role as textile mill owner John Thornton in the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South.

"[29] In 2005, he played Peter MacDuff in Macbeth in the BBC's ShakespeaRe-Told series and appeared as a recovering gambling addict in one episode of Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

[34] He starred in The Impressionists, playing the young Claude Monet,[35] and as Dr Alec Track in ITV's The Golden Hour, a medical series based on the London Air Ambulance.

On 8 April 2007, he played biker Ricky Deeming in the detective drama George Gently with Martin Shaw and Lee Ingleby.

[5] Filmed in South Africa, Armitage found the main challenge of the role was to show how the character resolved being a trained killer with having a family and home life.

[54] In March 2014, Armitage began the eight-week shoot of an adaptation of Bernard Hare's memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew in Leeds, UK.

[55][56][57] He played "Chop" (the author's nickname), an ex-social worker, drunk and drug addict in Britain's lowerclass who befriends the hardened young delinquent Urban.

[64] In a September 2014 interview, Armitage revealed he would film his cameo role of King Oleron in Alice Through the Looking Glass in London after The Crucible closed.

[67][68] DeLaurentiis Company tweeted on 13 January 2015 that Armitage was cast as Francis Dolarhyde in the TV production of Hannibal,[69] written and co-produced by Bryan Fuller.

[73] Armitage appeared in the last six episodes of season 3,[74][75] earning high praise, wide acclaim[76][77][78] and several award nominations, including two wins.

[79][80][81] After wrapping on Hannibal in late April 2015, Armitage joined his fellow Pilgrimage castmates[82] who had already begun filming in Connemara, Ireland two weeks prior.

[83] He plays Sir Raymond De Merville, a 13th-century French Norman who is intent on foiling a group of monks escorting a sacred relic from Ireland to Rome.

[89] It is an action drama about a hardened mine expert named Ray (Armitage) and his pregnant partner (Naomie Harris) who are kidnapped in South Sudan.

[89][90] In a June 2015 interview,[91] Armitage mentioned his next projects included an Edith Wharton film and a true Irish tragic drama.

His character, a cerebral analyst from Langley, is a newly anointed undercover CIA officer tasked with finding a mole in Berlin.

[100] Armitage plays the leading role of Adam Price in Netflix's 2020 mystery thriller miniseries, The Stranger, which is based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same title.

He has recorded many audiobooks: six based on BBC's Robin Hood, Bernard Cornwell's The Lords of the North, three Georgette Heyer novels for Naxos AudioBooks (Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle, Venetia, and The Convenient Marriage), David Copperfield by Charles Dickens for Audible Studios and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel.

He has also provided the voice-over for many TV and radio advertisements, and stars as lead character Trevor Belmont in the Netflix animated series Castlevania.