
Ian Roberts is a South African actor, playwright and singer best known to television viewers for his roles in the drama series Arende and Snitch, and as the character Boet in a series of long-running advertisements for Castrol motor oil. Roberts was born in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape and raised on a citrus farm near the town. He attended St. Andrew's Preparatory School and St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown. After completing high school he performed his compulsory national service in the South African Army, which he completed in 1971. After a variety of different jobs and a course in photography at the Port Elizabeth Technical College from 1973 to 1975, Roberts enrolled at Rhodes University in 1976 for a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Speech, Drama and Social Anthropology. Ian Roberts has built up an extensive acting career in theatre, television and film. Roberts was married to South African actress Michele Botes, but the couple divorced in 1999. They have two children.

Mia and the White Lion
2018 · as John's Father

Tremors 5: Bloodlines
2015 · as Den Bravers

The Power of One
1992 · as Hoppie Gruenewald

Sweepers
1998 · as Yager

Tsotsi
2005 · as Captain Smit

Red Dust
2004 · as Piet Müller

I Dreamed of Africa
2000 · as Mike Donovan

Tarzan and the Lost City
1998 · as Captain Dooley

3 Needles
2005 · as Hallyday, the Plantation Owner

Cry, the Beloved Country
1995 · as Evans

Jane and the Lost City
1987 · as Carl

Cyborg Cop III
1995 · as Sheen

Mandela and de Klerk
1997 · as Kobie Coetsee

Inside
1996 · as Guard Moolman

A Kind of Madness
2025 · as Dan Hart

Bakgat!
2008 · as Basjan du Preez

The Fourth Reich
1990 · as Johannes van der Walt

The Windmill
2014 · as Doctor Rossouw