Born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire to a Polish father and an Irish mother, Valentine Pelka is an alumnus of LAMDA (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) where in addition to his stage training he received stage combat training under the direction of John Waller. Mr. Pelka's sister, Kazia Pelka, is also a fine actress in her own right, a graduate of LAMDA, and a leading character in UK T.V. Series such as Coronation Street, Brookside, Heartbeat as nurse Maggie Bolton, and, most recently, Family Affairs. While at the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, Mr. Pelka played leading roles in Romeo and Juliet and A Woman Killed With Kindness as well as performing a one-man show, Maud, based on the Tennyson poem of the same name. A familiar figure on British television and the stage, he has appeared in If Tomorrow Comes, Hold the Dream and Good King Wenceslas, Ultimate Force, The Bill, South of the Border, and Casualty.  

His film credits include John-Paul II with Albert Finney,  Sakharov with Jason Robards and Glenda Jackson, Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote with Sir Alec Guiness and Leo McKern, Nanou, the award-winning Rowing With the Wind opposite Hugh Grant, King David with Richard Gere, First Knight with Sean Connery, What Rats Won't Do with Parker Posey, Sabotaje!, The Last of the Blond Bombshells, Roman Polanski's triple Oscar-winning The Pianist, and Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane. 

Other notable TV appearances include, Peak Practice, Mortimer's Law, Cadfael, Campion, Robin of Sherwood, Crossbow, Highlander, the BBC/A&E production of Ivanhoe and the syndicated series Queen of Swords shot entirely on location in Spain, in which he played the pivotal role of Colonel Luis Montoya.  

Recent theatre appearances have included roles as John Lennon in And in the End (The Death and Life of John Lennon) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August 2004) and as Sigmund in Arthur Miller's The Archbishop's Ceiling at the Southwark Playhouse.