Joey began performing on stage while still in high school, in the title role of Tyne Theatre Stage School’s production of “Macbeth.” In 2009, he appeared on the Cambridge American Stage as Speed in “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” and at The Marlowe Society as Benvolio in “Romeo and Juliet.”
Batey was in high demand in 2010, playing Dylan in The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club’s production of “The Cure,” Face in The Marlowe Society’s production of “The Alchemist,” and Horatio in the British Shakespeare Association’s production of “Hamlet.” He also performed in the European Theatre Group’s production of “Hamlet,” playing the role of Laertes at the time, and in another Shakespeare play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” playing Bottom in the European Theatre Group’s production. Joey had a very good collaboration with the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC) in 2011, working in three theatre plays as Konstantin in “The Seagull,” Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet,” and Brother in “Pornography.”
Joey also appeared as Petruchio in “Taming of the Shrew,” produced by European Theatre Group, and as Fish in “Not About Angels,” produced by Ribbon Theatre, in the same year. Later, in the role of Frank, Joey may be seen in the CUADC production of “Merrily We Roll Along” (2012), directed by Joshua Stamp-Simon. He also played Mark Smeaton in The Marlowe Society’s “Comedy of Errors” (2013), the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “Wolf Hall / Bring Up The Bodies” (2014), and its Broadway adaptation “Wolf Hall. Parts I + II” (2015).
A career in television
Joey has appeared in TV films and series since 2013 when he had minor appearances in “Murder On The Front,” “The White Queen,” and “Whitechapel.”
He landed the role of Shelley in BBC’s “In The Dark” in 2016; the same year, he portrayed Gopher in “Mount Pleasant” and Pierre in “Knightfall.” In the “Strike” series, he also played Al Rokeby in the episode “The Silkworm.” Joey portrayed Bobby in “Stan Lee’s Lucky Man” (2017) and Callum Ballimore in “Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators” (both 2017). (2018). Joey portrayed Arnold Henderson in BBC’s “The War Of The Worlds.” In terms of film roles, Joey played Eager Chap in “The Riot Club” (2013) and Eddie in “Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool” (2016).
“The Amazing Devil,” a folk-rock band, has a successful music career.
Joey co-founded the folk and folk-rock band “The Amazing Devil” in 2015, and their album “Love Run” was published in 2016. The band’s next album, “The Horror And The Wild,” will be released in February 2020.
Madeleine Kate Hyland, an actress who works at The Factory Theatre, is also a member of the band.
“The Witcher’s” Jaskier
Joey made his Netflix debut in December 2019 with the highly anticipated “The Witcher,” based on the book by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski. Jaskier is the main character in the series, a minstrel, poet, writer, and bard who plays the lute and joins Geralt in many of his adventures, but does not fight. Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove is Jaskier’s full name. His character is well-known for his multiple affairs with numerous ladies, including Duchess Anna Henrietta, and Geralt frequently saved him when Jaskier was being pursued or harassed by the relatives (mainly brothers and husbands) of his lovers.
The Polish form of the minstrel’s name, Jaskier, which literally means “Buttercup” in English, was retained by Netflix, but the character was renamed Dandelion in the game series about Geralt’s adventures because the name “Buttercup” seemed too feminine for the game producers.
Joey stated that he had a good time working on the show and made friends with several of the other actors. Anya Chalotra, who played Yennefer, revealed that they were close friends before they met on the set of “The Witcher”: ‘Joey [Batey] is one of my closest friends…>. ‘He’s an absolute delight to work with and share the entire process with,’ she remarked during her SDCC roundtable chat (San Diego Comic-Con).
The song “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher” becomes a worldwide craze. The character Jaskier plays the song he improvised while following Geralt after their not-so-successful hunt for the devil of the fields in the second episode, “Four Marks,” of the first season of “The Witcher.” Jaskier declares that he would accompany Geralt wherever he goes and perform the song “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher” to celebrate his wins over the beasts. The song, written by pianist Sonya Belousova and composer Giona Ostinelli, quickly went viral, spawning a slew of memes based on the lyrics.
The joke, however, went too far: on December 26, the hackers threatened the courts of Saint Petersburg, Russia, with bombs mined in the buildings, including quotes from the Witcher song in their anonymous letters: ‘Make Malofey toss a coin to the witcher,’ they wrote in their message to Konstantin Malofeyev, the entrepreneur who allegedly owned the terrorists 120 Bitcoins.
More than 15 universities and colleges were evacuated that day due to bomb messages in their facilities. Joey reveals that he is sick of the tune that plagues him every day and that he can’t get it out of his head.
