Peter Capaldi, Richard E Grant and Mel Giedroyc have called for more government support for creative workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They – along with David Tennant, Simon Russell Beale, Gemma Atkinson, Cush Jumbo, Alan Cumming and Alison Steadman – are among 14,000 signatories of a petition.
Actors’ union Equity is calling on the Government to do more for the self-employed and freelance.
Its general secretary Christine Payne said: “The UK’s creative workers need and deserve an income guarantee.
“Theatres and live entertainment venues have gone dark and film and TV productions across the country have shut down.
“We don’t know for how long these and many other workplaces will be closed or how many will ever re-open again.”
Equity president Maureen Beattie said: “I know the deep danger the UK’s government are putting the self-employed in if they do not give them the same financial support they are giving the employed.”
Boris Johnson’s Government has come under sustained pressure to provide financial help for self-employed workers, who face a dramatic loss of income if forced to take time off for sickness or quarantine.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that struggling self-employed people will have to wait for the Government to come up with a “deliverable and fair” coronavirus support package.