Jake Wood

In January 2019, it was announced that he would be running the London Marathon with some of his EastEnders co-stars for a Dementia campaign in honour of Barbara Windsor.

In January 2018, Wood started hosting a new boxing podcast, Pound for Pound, with Spencer Oliver.

In May 2015, Wood announced that he would be taking a year long break from EastEnders. Wood said "I have been at EastEnders for nine years and I feel the time is right to give Max a break. It won't be for too long as I shall be back next year to see Max face another chapter of drama."

Wood took part in the 12th series of Strictly Come Dancing. He was partnered with Janette Manrara, reaching the semi-final.

In March 2008, he took paternity leave and re-appeared on screen on 23 June 2008. For his work in EastEnders, he has won awards at the British Soap Awards and Inside Soap Awards.

Wood is a fan of Arsenal and took part in the 2007 Great North Run. He lives with his wife, Alison, whom he married in 2001, and their two children, Buster and Amber.

Wood originally portrayed the character Jackson in Eastenders in March 1990. Jackson was a minor character in EastEnders who met Diane Butcher while she was sleeping rough on the streets of London. Wood was later to play the regular character Max Branning from June 2006 to date.

He has since appeared in several television series including May to December, Minder, Only Fools and Horses, Nightingales, Murder in Mind, Press Gang, London's Burning, Sean's Show, Inspector Morse Driven to Distraction 1989, One Foot in the Grave, Red Dwarf, A Touch of Frost, The Bill, Le Café des Rêves, Sea of Souls Doc Martin, The Thin Blue Line and has appeared in the films Vera Drake (2004), The Aryan Couple (2004), The Illusionist (2006) opposite Edward Norton, and Dad Savage (1998) with Patrick Stewart.

Wood starred in the 1989 Yellow Pages TV Advert, entitled "Party Party" and, until 2015, was the voice of the GEICO gecko advertisements on American television. Wood also featured alongside Cobent CTO and ex-Metal Hammer journalist Tony Dillon as part of a team presenting Click, a computer games magazine on VHS video in the early 1990s.

In 1989, Wood appeared in Only Fools and Horses as an assistant for Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst), in the episode The Jolly Boys' Outing.

His first acting role was in the 1984 television series The Gentle Touch.

Jake Dylan Wood (born 12 July 1972) is an English actor, best known for his roles as Max Branning in EastEnders, as Rodney Trotter's assistant in Only Fools and Horses, and as Kill Crazy in Red Dwarf. Wood was on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing as celebrity dance partner to professional dancer Janette Manrara. In the United States, he is known as the voice of the GEICO gecko.