Grant was a member of the Space Theatre Company in Cape Town before moving to London in 1982.
He later stated, "I grew up in Swaziland when it was mired in a 1960s sensibility.
The kind of English spoken where I grew up was a period English sound and when I came to England people said, 'how strange'.
Charles Sturridge, who directed Brideshead Revisited for TV, said, 'you speak English like someone from the 1950s'."

Grant's first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in the cult classic Withnail and I (1987).
Following this film, Grant started appearing in Hollywood films, quickly establishing himself as a powerful character actor in a wide array of films, from blockbuster studio movies to small independent projects.
Over the past 20 years, Grant has had strong supporting roles in the films Henry & June, L.A. Story, The Player, The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, Spice World, Gosford Park, Bright Young Things, and Penelope.

While filming L.A. Story with Steve Martin, the pair communicated by fax in what became for both a hilarious dialogue.
Martin wrote: "I kept these faxes, which grew to a stack more than 2 inches thick, because they entertained me, and because I thought they were valuable aesthetic chunks from a screeching mind, a stream-of-consciousness faucet spewing sentences – sometimes a mile long – none of it rewritten, and bearing just the right amount of acid and alkaline."

In 1995, Grant starred as the titular character in Peter Capaldi's short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.
The film won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
In 1996, he portrayed a hilarious Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn's film of Twelfth Night.
He released a single and accompanying video "To Be Or Not To Be" with Orpheus in 1997.

In 2003 Grant costarred in Posh Nosh, a spoof of cooking shows on BBC.
 
Grant has twice portrayed the Doctor from Doctor Who, both outside the main continuity.
In the comedy sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, he portrayed a version of the Tenth Doctor, referred to as the Quite Handsome Doctor.
He also voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.
The latter had intended to be the official Ninth Doctor prior to the revival of the TV series.

Grant made his first official Doctor Who appearance in the 2012 Christmas special, titled "The Snowmen", in which he plays the villain, Walter Simeon.
During the episode Simeon is erased from his body and it is taken over by the Great Intelligence, voiced in that episode by Ian McKellen until the takeover.
The Great Intelligence is one of the Second Doctor's most infamous villains and, was last seen in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear.
Grant reprises the role in "The Bells of Saint John" and in the series 7 finale, "The Name of the Doctor".

On 1 December 2006, Grant turned real-life investigator when, with the help of the BBC's Newsnight, he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure.

Grant appeared as "The Voice" in 2+2+2 at American Nights at The King's Head Theatre, from 3 to 29 July 2007, and in 2008 co-starred in the London-based comedy Filth and Wisdom.
On 22 November 2007, he gave a keynote speech at North London Collegiate School in north London as part of their Performing Arts Centre Opening Festival, and presented the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.

In 2008, he made his musical theatre debut with Opera Australia, playing the role of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, a role he reprised in 2017 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
In 2009, he played Alain Reille in Yasmina Reza's one-act play God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal, Bath: and subsequently at Cheltenham, Canterbury, Richmond, Brighton and Milton Keynes.

In 2010 he made an appearance in a music video, when short lived Bristol band The Chemists hired him to appear in their video for "This City"; the band split the same year.
This appearance also followed up his previous involvement with the band the year before, in which he spoke the lyrics to "This
Grant was a member of the Space Theatre Company in Cape Town before moving to London in 1982. He later stated, "I grew up in Swaziland when it was mired in a 1960s sensibility. The kind of English spoken where I grew up was a period English sound and when I came to England people said, 'how strange'. Charles Sturridge, who directed Brideshead Revisited for TV, said, 'you speak English like someone from the 1950s'."
Grant's first film role was the perpetually inebriated title character in the cult classic Withnail and I (1987). Following this film, Grant started appearing in Hollywood films, quickly establishing himself as a powerful character actor in a wide array of films, from blockbuster studio movies to small independent projects. Over the past 20 years, Grant has had strong supporting roles in the films Henry & June, L.A. Story, The Player, The Age of Innocence, The Portrait of a Lady, Spice World, Gosford Park, Bright Young Things, and Penelope.
While filming L.A. Story with Steve Martin, the pair communicated by fax in what became for both a hilarious dialogue. Martin wrote: "I kept these faxes, which grew to a stack more than 2 inches thick, because they entertained me, and because I thought they were valuable aesthetic chunks from a screeching mind, a stream-of-consciousness faucet spewing sentences – sometimes a mile long – none of it rewritten, and bearing just the right amount of acid and alkaline."
In 1995, Grant starred as the titular character in Peter Capaldi's short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life. The film won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. In 1996, he portrayed a hilarious Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn's film of Twelfth Night. He released a single and accompanying video "To Be Or Not To Be" with Orpheus in 1997.
In 2003 Grant costarred in Posh Nosh, a spoof of cooking shows on BBC.  
Grant has twice portrayed the Doctor from Doctor Who, both outside the main continuity. In the comedy sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, he portrayed a version of the Tenth Doctor, referred to as the Quite Handsome Doctor. He also voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka. The latter had intended to be the official Ninth Doctor prior to the revival of the TV series.
Grant made his first official Doctor Who appearance in the 2012 Christmas special, titled "The Snowmen", in which he plays the villain, Walter Simeon. During the episode Simeon is erased from his body and it is taken over by the Great Intelligence, voiced in that episode by Ian McKellen until the takeover. The Great Intelligence is one of the Second Doctor's most infamous villains and, was last seen in The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. Grant reprises the role in "The Bells of Saint John" and in the series 7 finale, "The Name of the Doctor".
On 1 December 2006, Grant turned real-life investigator when, with the help of the BBC's Newsnight, he exposed a $98 million scam to sell a bogus AIDS cure.
Grant appeared as "The Voice" in 2+2+2 at American Nights at The King's Head Theatre, from 3 to 29 July 2007, and in 2008 co-starred in the London-based comedy Filth and Wisdom. On 22 November 2007, he gave a keynote speech at North London Collegiate School in north London as part of their Performing Arts Centre Opening Festival, and presented the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards.
In 2008, he made his musical theatre debut with Opera Australia, playing the role of Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, a role he reprised in 2017 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 2009, he played Alain Reille in Yasmina Reza's one-act play God of Carnage at the Theatre Royal, Bath: and subsequently at Cheltenham, Canterbury, Richmond, Brighton and Milton Keynes.
In 2010 he made an appearance in a music video, when short lived Bristol band The Chemists hired him to appear in their video for "This City"; the band split the same year. This appearance also followed up his previous involvement with the band the year before, in which he spoke the lyrics to "This 
Richard E. Grant