Six Celebrities Who Have Actually Confirmed They Paint or Play Warhammer

I have kept this hobby quiet from people in my life before, worried what they would think if they knew. It turns out I am in unbelievably good company, because Robin Williams did exactly the same thing. I have been into the wider nerd world basically my entire life, Tolkien, D&D, World of Warcraft, reading Warhammer books and disappearing into the lore, but I did not actually pick up a paintbrush myself until lockdown. It always felt like something I liked privately, not something you admitted out loud.

So here are six genuine A-listers who have properly admitted, on record, to painting or playing Warhammer, with the actual interview, post or photo behind every single one. I gave myself one rule for this list: actual proof, something they said themselves, not just an internet rumour that someone's mate heard once in a pub. If I could not back it up, they are not on the list, and I will also get to a few of the names that get thrown around online with nothing behind them.

Henry Cavill calls Warhammer one of his "dirty secret hobbies"

Henry Cavill has made it completely acceptable to admit you own a painting lamp. He has called Warhammer one of his dirty secret hobbies in his own words, and during lockdown he posted his own painted miniatures on Instagram, complete with proper hobby posts about technique. This was not his team strategically placing a Space Marine next to him on the Graham Norton Show either, where Norton actually mixed Warhammer up with World of Warcraft, probably the same conversation most of us have had with a relative at Christmas.

Cavill has confirmed he paints and plays battles at his own house, and Tom Holland has apparently asked if he could come over. His favourite faction is the Adeptus Custodes, the Emperor's elite golden bodyguards, though he did also mention ditching the Blood Angels at some point, and has referenced the Salamanders too. He is now executive producing Amazon's live action Warhammer 40,000 show, so the dirty secret hobby has effectively become part of his actual job.

Ansel Elgort has won three Golden Demons for his painting

This one genuinely intrigued me, because Ansel Elgort has not just owned a few miniatures, he has won three Golden Demons, Games Workshop's biggest painting competition, where people spend months on a single model just blending a cloak or painting an eyeball with a brush that is basically three hairs wide. He talked about the painting competitions himself on Conan back in 2014, joking about getting dates around his painting time.

The competition record backs it up too: gold for a Space Wolves bust in 2009, and bronze for a Dwarf Castle Guard in 2008. He is not someone who just had Warhammer as a kid, he is properly into it, medal and all.

Gerard Way has posted about the Horus Heresy for years

Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, might be the most relatable name on this list because he has been posting about Warhammer himself for years. In 2014 he wrote that he was "just a grown-ass man trying to read a Warhammer 40K novel about the rise of Horus and his attempted overthrow of the Emperor of Mankind," a reference to the Horus Heresy, the civil war that most of 40K's lore hangs off.

A year later he wrote, "Every time I get a stretch of 3 months off touring, I always think I'll play Warhammer 40K and then I paint like three guys and never get to." I could not find him naming a specific faction, though he is clearly into the Horus Heresy and the Chaos versus Loyalist lore, and he owns the Warhammer 40K Conquest card game. This year he gave an onstage tribute to Warhammer artist John Blanche at a My Chemical Romance show, which suggests he is properly into the art and history of the hobby, even if he is still only painting three models at a time.

Ed Sheeran built Space Marines in his tour dressing room

Ed Sheeran's is a brilliant one because it is so ordinary. In 2015, on tour, he posted a photo from his dressing room building Space Marines and wrote, "Dressing room Warhammer making sesh. I feel nine again." One of the biggest musicians on the planet, backstage on a massive tour, clipping Space Marines off the sprue.

We do not even know which chapter he was building, but based on the post he was still on the sprue, still in what I'd call the hopeful bit of the hobby, which I completely get.

Robin Williams owned several armies but confirmed he never actually played

The internet version of this story says Robin Williams played Warhammer, which is not quite right. In a 2013 Reddit AMA he said himself that he owned several Warhammer armies but never actually played, which is elite level hobby behaviour in its own way. Five years later his daughter, Zelda, posted photos of his collection, including an Eldar Phantom Titan, a Reaver Titan and two more Warhammer Titans, some of the biggest, most expensive models Games Workshop makes.

He was properly collecting, just apparently with no interest in rolling dice with any of it. I love that, because Warhammer does not have to mean playing every weekend. Sometimes you just like the models, and that is completely valid.

David Tennant played Warhammer Fantasy as a teenager

In 2019, doing press for the Warhammer Adventures audiobooks, David Tennant mentioned he had played Warhammer Fantasy as a teenager, the older medieval style game Games Workshop made before 40K took over. Years before Doctor Who, years before Broadchurch, he was already moving little fantasy men around a table. He never said which army, so I am not making one up, but Games Workshop had essentially hired someone who had already been part of the hobby decades before they needed him.

A bonus: Brian May sculpted an orc head at the Games Workshop studio

One bonus before the rumour pile is Brian May from Queen. This one is not self-confirmed by him, but a documented White Dwarf feature has him visiting Games Workshop's design studio with his son Jimmy, painting Citadel miniatures and then sculpting an orc head, which I think is pretty great trivia. Somewhere in Games Workshop history there is a tiny green head sculpted by the man who wrote We Will Rock You.

Jimmy was into 40K and Dark Future, Games Workshop's older car combat game, and Brian got pulled in the way plenty of dads do.

The rumour pile: names with nothing to back them up

Vin Diesel is definitely into D&D, but never Warhammer himself. Trey Parker is rumoured to have commissioned custom minis, though no interview backs that up. Names like Jordan Peele, Bill Bailey and Peter Capaldi keep repeatedly showing up on celebrity Warhammer lists online, but with nothing behind them, essentially one website copying another copying a Reddit post from 2012.

I did not include them for those reasons, not because they definitely do not play, I simply cannot prove it. I would rather give six names we actually know than twenty I am only guessing at.

None of the six waited until they knew everything, and none of them asked if they were too old. They painted it, collected it, read it, played it, or like Robin Williams, bought several armies and loads of Titans and never played a single game, which might be the purest form of the hobby there is.

Which celebrity on this list surprised you the most, and do you have proof of one I have missed?