Ray Fearon was born in London and trained at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, where he played the title role in Othello and Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost. He was awarded the Carlton Hobbs Radio Award and the George Benson Award for his portrayal of Othello at the National Theatre while still at Rose Bruford. Ray Fearon is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Fearon was the first black actor to play Othello on the main RSC stage, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.  His non-Shakespearean classical credits include Charles Surface in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal at the Liverpool Everyman in 1992. Fearon also played Pierre in Ian McDiarmid's production of Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd at the Almeida Theatre in 1995. He played Brachiano in Gale Edwards's production of John Webster's The White Devil in 1996 and the Marquis of Posa in Schiller's Don Carlos in 1999 for the RSC. He played Othello in scenes from the play directed by Gregory Doran in the 2004 Michael Wood documentary In Search of Shakespeare.  Fearon won the Best Actor at the Manchester Evening News Awards for his performance in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in 2010 and Best Actor in a Visiting Production at the 2012  Manchester Theatre Awards for his performance of Mark Antony in Julius Caesar.