Gordon was born in Highgate, London to Edward and Iris Warnecke. His father came from Germany and his mother from Guyana, South America. Both of them settled in England when they were quite young before they met each other. Gordon attended a comprehensive school in North London and after went on to study acting at the De Leon Drama School in Richmond. When he left he joined M6 Theatre Company where he obtained his Equity acting card and then performed for various theatre companies before getting his break-through film role in the award-winning film My Beautiful Laundrette, written by Hanif Kuerishi and directed by Stephen Frears, playing Omar, the co-lead with Daniel Day-Lewis. He has since worked extensively in Film, Television and Theatre. Film credits include Franco Zeffirelli’s Young Toscanini, Exitz and the Canadian feature film, Venus, directed by Eisha Marjara. Television credits include A Fatal Inversion, Dr Who, EastEnders, Only Fools And Horses and Holby City. In theatre, he has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Julius Caesar, The Jew Of Malta and Three Sisters), Borderline with the Nuffield Theatre, Blood at the Royal Court Theatre, the award-winning Monkey Bars (Unicorn Theatre) and last year a stage adaptation by Hanif Kuerishi of his film script My Beautiful Laundrette which toured. This time round he played Papa, the father of Omar who he played in the original film. He is soon to be seen in the feature film Goldfish. He is divorced and has one son and lives with his partner, Hilary, in Hertfordshire. When Gordon is not acting he writes and directs his own short films and co-runs a small film company, 2Step Media that makes films to promote businesses online as well as educational videos. He is a die-hard Arsenal football supporter.