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Actor Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England, to Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne (Lash), a novelist, and Mark Fiennes, a photographer. He is the eldest of six children. Four of his siblings are also in the arts: Martha Fiennes, a director; Magnus Fiennes, a musician; Sophie Fiennes, a producer; and Joseph Fiennes, an actor. He is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin.
A noted Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. Fiennes first worked on screen in 1990 and then made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992), opposite Juliette Binoche. 1993 was his "breakout year". He had a major role in the controversial Peter Greenaway film The Baby of Mâcon (1993), with Julia Ormond, which was poorly received. Later that year he became known internationally for portraying the amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993). For this he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. He did not win, but did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for the role, as well as Best Supporting Actor honors from numerous critics groups, including the National Society of Film Critics, and the New York, Chicago, Boston, and London Film Critics associations. His portrayal as Göth also earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 50 Film Villains. To look suitable to represent Goeth, Fiennes gained weight, but he managed to shed it afterwards. In 1994, he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show (1994). In 1996, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Count Almásy the World War II epic romance, and another Best Picture winner, Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), in which he starred with Kristin Scott Thomas. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, as well as two Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations, one for Best Actor and another shared with the film's ensemble cast.
Since then, Fiennes has been in a number of notable films, including Strange Days (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), the animated The Prince of Egypt (1998), István Szabó's Sunshine (1999), Neil Jordan-directed films The End of the Affair (1999) and The Good Thief (2002), Red Dragon (2002), Maid in Manhattan (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), In Bruges (2008), The Reader (2008), co-starring Kate Winslet, Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar®-winning The Hurt Locker (2008), Clash of the Titans (2010), Mike Newell's screen adaptation of Charles Dickens'Great Expectations (2012), with Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine, and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).
He is also known for his roles in major film franchises such as the Harry Potter film series (2005-2011), in which he played the evil Lord Voldemort. His nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin played Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). Ralph also appears in the James Bond series, in which he has played M, starting with the 2012 film Skyfall (2012).
In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy political thriller Coriolanus (2011), in which he also played the title character, opposite Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. Fiennes has won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway.
In 2015, Fiennes played a music producer in Luca Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash (2015), starring opposite Tilda Swinton and Matthias Schoenaerts, and in 2016, Fiennes starred in Joel and Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar! (2016).
Since 1999, Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK.- Actress
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Anne-Marie Duff is an English actress, born on 8 October 1970 in Southall, London. Her parents, Brendan and Mary (née Doherty), are from Donegal, Ireland. Her father worked as a painter and decorator and her mother worked in a shoe shop.
She first came to the attention of the British public for her role as Margaret in The Magdalene Sisters (2002) and as Fiona Gallagher in the successful TV series Shameless (2004), where she met her future husband, James McAvoy. She went on to play Queen Elizabeth I opposite Tom Hardy's Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in the four-part miniseries The Virgin Queen (2005).
In Nowhere Boy (2009), Duff played John Lennon's mother, Julia, a role for which she won British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She played Violet Miller in Suffragette (2015), a working-class woman who introduces Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) to the fight for women's rights in east London. "Violet is extraordinary, she's a firebrand - a tornado that comes into Maud's life and changes it forever. I found her thrilling," says Duff. In 2017, she will appear as Hyzenthlay in a new BBC animated miniseries of Watership Down.
Duff has also taken on many theatre roles, including Joan of Arc in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" in 2007 and Alma Rattenbury in Terence Rattigan's "Cause Célèbre" at The Old Vic, London in 2011.
She has been married to McAvoy since 11 November 2006. They have one child, a son named Brendan after Duff's father. On 13 May 2016, Duff and McAvoy announced their decision to divorce.- Actor
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Writer, actor, comedian, doer of good works, excellent good friend to the famous and not, Fry lives in his London SW1 flat and his Norfolk house when not traveling. Famous for his public declaration of celibacy in the "Tatler" back in the 1980s, Emma Thompson has characterised her friend as "90 percent gay, 10 percent other."
Stephen Fry was born in Hampstead, London, to Marianne Eve (Newman) and Alan Fry, a physicist and inventor. His maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jewish immigrants, while his father's family was of English background. He grew up in Norfolk and attended Uppingham School and Stout's Hill. After his notorious three months in Pucklechurch prison for credit card fraud, he attended Queens College, Cambridge in 1979, finishing with a 2:1 in English in 1981/2. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Cherubs drinking club, and Footlights with Thompson, Tony Slattery, Martin Bergman, and Hugh Laurie (to whom he was introduced by E.T.). His prolific writing partnership with Laurie began in 1981 with resulting Footlights revues for (among others) Mayweek, Edinburgh Festival, and a three month tour of Australia. In 1984, Fry was engaged to do the rewrite of the Noel Gay musical "Me and My Girl," which made him a millionaire before the age of 30. It also earned him a nomination for a Tony award in 1987. (Sidenote: It was upon SF's suggestion that Emma Thompson landed a leading role in the London cast of this show.) Throughout the 1980s, Fry did a huge amount of television and radio work, as well as writing for newspapers (e.g. a weekly column in the "Daily Telegraph") and magazines (e.g. articles for "Arena"). He is probably best known for his television roles in Blackadder II (1986) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990).
His support of the Terence Higgins Trust through events such as the first "Hysteria" benefit, as well as numerous other charity efforts, are probably those works of which he is most proud. Fry's acting career has not been limited to films and television. He had successful runs in Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On," Simon Gray's "The Common Pursuit" with John Sessions, Rik Mayall, John Gordon Sinclair, and others. Michael Frayn's "Look Look" and Gray's "Cell Mates" were less successful for both Fry and their playwrights, the latter not helped by his walking out of the play after only a couple of weeks. Fry has published four novels as well as a collection of his radio and journalistic miscellanea. He has recorded audiotapes of his novels (an unabridged version of "The Liar" was released in 1995), as well as many other works for both adults and children.- Actress
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Shaw was already an accomplished theater actress when director Jim Sheridan awarded her a role in his film, My Left Foot (1989). The film is a telling of Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irishman disgruntled with his confinement to a body horribly crippled by cerebral palsy but who found incredible success as an artist and writer. Shaw portrayed Eileen Cole, the doctor largely responsible for Christy's education and physical rehabilitation. Since, Shaw has received several accolades for her film and television performances.- Actor
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James Laurenson was born on the north Island of New Zealand, the son of an amateur actor. James studied at Canterbury University College in Christchurch where he made his theatrical debut in the title role of Hamlet under the direction of Dame Ngaio Marsh (best known as the author of popular mystery novels). In 1965, he moved to England and worked for a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Having established his credentials as a Shakespearean actor, Laurenson rejoined the RSC in the seventies, his many roles including Charles the Dauphin in Henry VI, Cassio in Othello and Orlando in As You Like it. For the National Theatre, he appeared in Macbeth (as Macduff) and Hamlet (Ghost/ Player King). A more recent performance saw him as Vladimir in Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal in Bath.
Laurenson found it difficult at first to break into screen acting. Not until 1968 did he make his television debut as a priest in the long-running soap Coronation Street (1960). He next played the youngest of the pirates (Dick Johnson) in an early BBC adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1968). He acted in several filmed BBC Shakespeare plays in-between a few small supporting parts on the big screen. In 1972, Laurenson made his breakthrough in the title role of Boney (1972) (Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Boney' Bonaparte), a half-Aboriginal police officer with superior tracking skills. The series benefited greatly from being filmed at rugged outback locations. Though the casting of a non-Aboriginal was (and has remained) controversial, Boney was a huge hit in both Australia and the U.K. (though not in America). It also proved popular in Germany. So much so, that record producer and songwriter Frank Farian named the disco group Boney M. after the character.
Hoping to avoid typecasting, Laurenson decided not to extend his contract for a third season and returned to England. In the course of the next five decades, he went on to become a familiar face as guest star in numerous TV shows, on more than a few occasions in the guise of morally ambiguous, pompous or villainous individuals. A small sample of his credits includes episodes of Space: 1999 (1975), Remington Steele (1982), Van der Valk (1972), Sharpe (1993), Silent Witness (1996), Dalziel and Pascoe (1996) and Hustle (2004). More recently, he played the Earl of Shrewsbury in Wolf Hall (2015), Oxford Professor George Amory in Endeavour (2012), Father Brown (2013)'s friend Professor Hilary Ambrose and Royal Physician Doctor John Weir in The Crown (2016).
For many years a resident of the Somerset market town of Frome, James Laurenson passed away on April 18 2024 at the age of 84.- Actor
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Mark Rylance was born in Ashford, Kent, the son of Anne (née Skinner) and David Waters, both English teachers. His grandmother was Irish. His parents moved to Connecticut in 1962 and Wisconsin in 1969, where his father taught English at the University School of Milwaukee. Rylance attended this school. He starred in most of the school's plays with the theatre's director, Dale Gutzman, including the lead in a 1976 production of Hamlet. He played Romeo in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet.
Mark was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, from 1995 to 2005. Rylance made his professional debut at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1980. He went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Actor for Much Ado About Nothing in 1994 and Jerusalem in 2010, and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Boeing Boeing in 2008 and Jerusalem in 2011. He won a third Tony Award in 2014 for Twelfth Night. On television, he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as David Kelly in the 2005 Channel 4 drama The Government Inspector and was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA TV Award for playing Thomas Cromwell in the 2015 BBC Two miniseries Wolf Hall.
In 2007, Rylance performed in Boeing-Boeing in London. In 2008, he reprise the role on Broadway and won Drama Desk and Tony Awards for his performance. In 2009, Rylance won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award Best Actor, 2009 for his role of Johnny Byron in Jerusalem written by Jez Butterworth at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 2010, Rylance starred in a revival of David Hirson's verse play La Bête. The play ran first at London's Comedy Theatre before transferring to the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, on 23 September 2010. Also in 2010, he won another Olivier award for best actor in the role of Johnny Byron in Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre in London. In 2011, he won his second Tony Award for playing the same role in the Broadway production. He played Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall (2015), BBC Two's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. For his performance, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Rylance was featured as the castaway on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs on 15 February 2015.
Rylance co-starred in the biographical drama Bridge of Spies, released in October 2015, directed by Spielberg, and starring Tom Hanks, Amy Ryan and Alan Alda. The film is about the 1960 U-2 Incident and the arrest and conviction of Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel and the exchange of Abel for U-2 pilot Gary Powers. Rylance plays Abel and has received unanimous universal acclaim for his performance with many critics claiming it as the best performance of 2015. The St. Louis Post-Depatch quoted, "As the deeply principled Donovan, Hanks deftly balances earnestness and humor. And Rylance's spirited performance is almost certain to yield an Oscar nomination." David Edelstein from New York cited 'It's Rylance who keeps Bridge of Spies standing. He gives a teeny, witty, fabulously non-emotive performance, every line musical and slightly ironic - the irony being his forthright refusal to deceive in a world founded on lies." Rylance won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and New York Film Critics Circle Award in the Best Supporting Actor categories, as well as receiving Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, among other wins and nominations.- Actor
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Jude Law is an English actor. Law has been nominated for two Academy Awards and continues to build a prolific body of work that spans from early successes such as Gattaca (1997) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) to more recent turns as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), as Hugo's father in Hugo (2011) and in the titular role in Dom Hemingway (2013).
David Jude Law was born on December 29, 1972 in Lewisham, London, England, to Margaret Anne (Heyworth) and Peter Robert Law, both of whom taught at comprehensive schools; his father later became a headmaster. Law has said that he was named after both the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude.
In 1992, Jude began his stage career. He starred in many plays throughout London, and was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award of "Outstanding Newcomer" After doing the play "Indiscretions" in London, he moved and did it again on Broadway. This time, he was alongside Kathleen Turner. He then received a Tony Nomination for "Outstanding Supporting Actor". He was then rewarded the Theatre World Award. After Broadway, Jude started on the big screen, in many independent films. His first big-named movie was Gattaca (1997), with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. He also had a good role in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Jude's latest rise to fame has been because of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), in which he plays Matt Damon's obsession. The film did very well at the box office, and critics loved Jude's acting.
Following the success of Gattaca (1997) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Law's feature film career continued to gain momentum throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s with roles in such films as Enemy at the Gates (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), I Heart Huckabees (2004), The Aviator (2004) and many others. Law is one of three actors, along with Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp, to take over acting responsibilities in the Terry Gilliam project The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) following Heath Ledger's death.
Law is a partner in the production company "Natural Nylon". His partners include Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor and his ex-wife Sadie Frost.
Law has been active in many charitable activities and supports several different foundations and causes, doing work for organizations including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Make Poverty History, Breast Cancer Care and others. Law is also a peace advocate, and in 2011, participated in street protests against the rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
Law married Sadie Frost in 1997 and the couple had two sons (Rafferty and Rudy) and a daughter (Iris) before divorcing in 2003. Law and Alfie (2004) co-star Sienna Miller were engaged to be married in 2005 and separated in 2006 (they would later rekindle their relationship in 2009, splitting once again in 2011). Law and American model Samantha Burke had a brief relationship in 2008 that resulted in the birth of Law's fourth child, daughter Sophia. Law's fifth child, with an ex-girlfriend, Catherine Harding, was born in 2015.- Eminent English actor Oliver Ford Davies began his career in academia. The son of a teacher, he studied at Merton College, Oxford University, where he became president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and performed on stage with the experimental Theatre Club at the age of twenty. After graduating with a PhD, he then lectured in history for two years at Edinburgh University, eventually coming to realize that he would rather spend his working life as an actor. This was, at least in part, inspired by witnessing Paul Scofield's commanding performance in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of King Lear in 1962.
Davies made his professional theatrical debut at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1967 and has since acted on diverse stages throughout England. He spent several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, beginning in 1975 with a role as Mountjoy in Henry V. The classical stage has seen him in productions of Henry IV, The Hollow Crown, As You Like It, Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. Davies has regarded being cast as the lead in David Hare's Racing Devil at the National Theatre as his career breakthrough. This performance garnered him an Olivier Best Actor Award in 1990. Davies also headlined as King Lear at the Almeida in Islington, London, in 2001.
Since his first television appearance in 1968, Davies has often been typecast as clerics, doctors and academics, usually characters somewhat older than his years. He had a recurring role as barrister Peter Foxcott in Kavanagh QC (1995) and enjoyed guest spots on popular detective shows like Van der Valk (1972), Maigret (1992), Wycliffe (1993), Pie in the Sky (1994), Poirot (1989), Foyle's War (2002) and Father Brown (2013). He has also played portrait painter John Hunter Thompson in The Brontës of Haworth (1973), the infirm Mr. Wickfield, lawyer and employer of Uriah Heep, in BBC's David Copperfield (1999) and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the film Johnny English (2003). Since the 90s, Davies has become more familiar to international audiences for his role as Queen Amidala's councillor Sio Bibble in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and as Cressen, the maester of Dragonstone and servant of Stannis Baratheon in HBO's blockbuster series Game of Thrones (2011).
Davies published his memoir, "An Actor's Life in 12 Productions", in 2022. For his services to drama, he was awarded an OBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List. - Actor
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Widely considered as one of the greatest stage and screen actors of his generation both in his native Scotland and internationally, David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald, who was a Presbyterian minister. He is of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent. When he was about 3 or 4 years old, he decided to become an actor, inspired by his love of Doctor Who (1963).
He was brought up in Bathgate, West Lothian and Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland and was a huge fan of the band The Proclaimers. He attended Paisley Grammar school and while there he wrote about how he wanted to become a professional actor and play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963).
He made his first television appearance (which was also his first professional acting job) when he was 16, after his father sent some photos of him to a casting director at Scottish television. He also attended a youth theatre group at weekends run by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now renamed the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). When he was 16 he auditioned for and won a place at the academy; the youngest student to ever do so, and started as a full time drama student when he was 17.
He worked regularly in theatre and TV after leaving drama school, and his first big break came in 1994 when he was cast in a lead role in the Scottish drama Takin' Over the Asylum (1994). He then moved to London where his career thrived. Among other significant factors of his prolific artistic course, he spent several years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and became famous from his lead roles in TV dramas Blackpool (2004) and Casanova (2005).
In 2005, his childhood wish came true. David was cast to play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who (2005) alongside Billie Piper, after Christopher Eccleston decided to leave. Playing the Doctor made him a household name and a sex symbol, being voted "Sexiest Man in the Universe" by readers of The Pink Paper and 16th Sexiest Man in the World by a Cosmopolitan survey. Since leaving the series in 2010 his career has continued to rise, with lead roles in films, TV series and theatre.- After securing a place to study English Literature at Trinity College Oxford, Olly became actively involved in the university's dramatic society. Upon graduating he was awarded a scholarship to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and studied there for two years. Upon graduating from LAMDA, Ollly met Gregory Doran - the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) - and was offered the title role in Shakespeare's "lost play" Cardenio. Doran directed and Olly performed the role to critical acclaim, cited as a "dashing professional debut" for Olly by Mark Shenton writing for The Stage, noted for "a beguiling Cardenio" by Mark Taylor at the Independent and being telegraphed as a "talented young man on the path to future stardom" by Simon Tavener at London's leading theatre website WhatsOnStage. While at the RSC, Olly also worked with acclaimed British playwright Antony Neilson. Other theatre roles followed, including The City Madam at the RSC and I Am A Camera, to name a few. Most recently Olly reunited with Neilson for his original play Narrative in a part specifically written for Olly by Neilson and performed at the Royal Court.
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Birgitte Hjort Sorensen is a Danish actress. She has been nominated for three Robert Awards and one Bodil Award. Born in Hillerød and raised in Birkerød, Sørensen aspired to an acting career after watching the West End production of the musical Chicago while at school. She graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts. Her acting debut was in a minor role in the television series The Eagle in 2005. She followed this by playing Roxie Hart in a Copenhagen production of Chicago, and later on the West End. Sorensen's breakthrough role was as journalist Katrine Fønsmark in the television political drama Borgen (2010-2013, 2022).- Peter De Jersey is known for The Bank Job (2008), Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned (2015) and National Theatre Live: The Threepenny Opera (2016).
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Mark Gatiss is an accomplished author, actor and playwright. Originally from Sedgefield, County Durham, he graduated from Bretton Hall Drama College with a BA (honors) in Theatre Arts.
He was one-quarter of the award-winning comedy team The League of Gentlemen (1999), and became heavily involved in the post-television Doctor Who (1963) scene, having written a variety of novels and audio plays, together with a string of short supernatural/science-fiction films (most of which he appeared in). He also co-wrote three sketches for BBC2's "Doctor Who Night" in November 1999.
When Doctor Who (2005) was re-imagined by Russell T. Davies and returned to television, Gatiss became part of the writing team. He had another major success as the co-creator of Sherlock (2010) for the BBC with Steven Moffat and also stars in the series as Mycroft Holmes. He has co-written plays for the Edinburgh Festival and appeared in a number of theatre and radio shows.- Actor
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Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He continued to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.
Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the Hamilton Hodell agency in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001). Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated (2007). His breakthrough role came when he portrayed the nemesis Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor (2011). He reprised the character in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). On television, he appeared on the BBC series The Hollow Crown (2012), in the adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry V". In theatre, he has been in the productions of "Cymbeline" (2007) and "Ivanov" (2008). In December 2013, he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of "Coriolanus" which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in "Cymbeline" while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in "Othello".- Actress
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Sheridan Smith was born on 25 June 1981 and grew up in Epworth. While Sheridan was growing up, her parents, Colin and Marilyn, performed as a Country and Western duo called The Daltons and it wasn't long before Sheridan got into it. She was dancing from the age of 4 and singing with her parents when she was about 7. At 14 she made her professional debut in the production of Annie, playing the lead role. She then went on to star in many big stage roles such as: The Go-Between, Little Red Riding Hood in the 1998 Donmar Warehouse production of Into The Woods, Talullah in National Youth Theatre's production of Bugsy Malone, Doll the Moll in Tin Pan Ali, Mrs Hardcastle in The Kissing Dance or She Stoops To Conquer, Pendragon and Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.
Sheridan appeared on Blue Peter, Newsround, Children in Need, Olivier Awards and Theatreland with the NYMT (National Youth Music Theatre) of which she was a member.
Sheridan's first TV appearance came in 1999 when she played Matilda in ITV's Dark Ages (1999). Since then Sheridan has made many guest appearances, including roles in Wives and Daughters, Anchor Me, Peaches, Hawk, Heartbeat, Doctors, Where the Heart Is (1997), Holby City, Blood Strangers, Fat Friends, The Royal, Mile High and The Bill.
She is perhaps best known for her roles in The Royle Family (1998) from 1999-2000 were she played Emma, Anthony Royle's (Ralf Little) girlfriend, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001), again playing Ralf's girlfriend, and Rudi in three series of Gavin & Stacey (2007).
Sheridan lives in London with flatmate Jason. Her brother Damien is a member of the band Indie Manned.- Actor
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Brendan Coyle was born in Corby, Northamptonshire to an Irish father and Scottish mother; his parents moved to Corby from County Tyrone, Ireland. Brendan holds Irish citizenship and has previously lived in Dublin and London. However, according to a video clip from the site for "Rockface" he resides in Norfolk.
Brendan is also the great nephew of footballing (i.e. soccer) legend Sir Matt Busby of Manchester United fame.
Brendan trained at drama school in Dublin, founded in the late 1960s as the Focus Theatre, was co-founded by his aunt Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy. Brendan started there in 1981 and then received a scholarship to Mountview Theatre School in England in 1983. He has directed at least two plays at Mountview since graduating from there.
Brendan has done a number of stage, television, and movie productions, including the play "The Weir" for which he won an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance award for his part as the bartender, Brendan. He continues to work on stage, in film and on television.- Actor
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Proclaimed by many critics as one of the best young actors of his generation, Benjamin John Whishaw was born in Clifton, Bedfordshire, to Linda (Hope), who works in cosmetics, and Jose Whishaw, who works in information technology. He has a twin brother, James. He is of French, German, Russian (father) and English (mother) descent.
Ben attended Samuel Whitbread Community College where his interest in theatre grew and he became a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. During his time there he rose to prominence in many productions, most notably If This Is a Man, based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of Nazi World War II prisoner of war camp. The play was taken to the Edinburgh Festival in 1995 where it garnered five-star reviews and great critical acclaim with Ben Whishaw getting rave reviews for his portrayal of Levi.
Ben then enrolled in, RADA from where he graduated in 2004 and soon landed the role of Hamlet in Trevor Nunn's 2004 production making him one of the youngest actors to portray Hamlet on-stage. Hamlet opened to rave reviews with many critics hailing Ben as the next Laurence Olivier and applauding his portrayal of Hamlet with leading critics haling the birth of a star. Whishaw's film and TV credits include Layer Cake (2004) and Christopher Morris 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley (2005), in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named "Most Promising Newcomer" at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards (for My Brother Tom (2001)) and, in 2005, nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Stephen Woolley biopic Stoned (2005). Whishaw played in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) as Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly getting raves once again for his stunning portrayal. Whishaw appeared in 2007's I'm Not There (2007) as one of the Bob Dylan reincarnations and in 2008 in Criminal Justice (2008) a TV series. He appears in the forthcoming films The Tempest (2010) and Bright Star (2009).- Actor
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Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint was born in Harlow, Essex, England, the elder son of Joanne (Parsons) and Nigel Grint, who dealt in memorabilia. The first of 5 children, Rupert has one brother and three sisters.
Rupert grew up in Hertfordshire, the English county directly to the north of London, conveniently placed for commuting to Leavesden Film Studios. Before successfully auditioning for the Harry Potter films, Rupert attended Richard Hale Secondary School in Hertford: here he took an active interest in school plays, being cast as Rumplestilskin in the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. He was also a regular attendee at weekend drama classes at Top Hat Stage School, also in Hertford.
Time at school was limited, as Rupert was needed on set for the Harry Potter films, where all of the child actors were tutored for four hours a day on set, to keep up with legal requirements. During the summer of 2004, he took his GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams and completed his formal education.- Actor
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Daniel Alan Mays (born 31 March 1978) is an English actor.
Born the third of four boys, Mays was brought up in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, by his electrician father and bank cashier mother. He attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before going on to win a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
After graduating from RADA in 2000, Mays soon started appearing in a number of supporting roles ranging from a bit part in the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 2000 to playing a pilot in Jerry Bruckheimer's big-budget Pearl Harbor (2001). He was cast in the Mike Leigh film All or Nothing (2002) as Jason, a thug who abused his girlfriend, and also appeared in Leigh's next project, Vera Drake (2004), in which he played Sid, the protagonist's son. His performances for Leigh resulted in further offers of work.
One of Mays's most notable early roles was in the improvised BBC drama Rehab. Directed by acclaimed film maker Antonia Bird, Rehab was a drama about life inside a drug rehabilitation facility. He starred as Adam, a young heroin addict released from prison and sent directly to rehab. For his performance Mays was awarded the Best Actor award at the Palmare-Reims Television Festival in 2003.
Mays has continued to work regularly, and has appeared in a variety of productions, which have included a part in Johnny Vaughan's sitcom, Top Buzzer (2004); the lead role of Carter Krantz in BBC Three's Funland (2005); as well as film appearances in Atonement (2007), White Girl (2008) and The Bank Job (2008).
May starred in a television film Half Broken Things (2007) alongside Penelope Wilton.
Mays starred in Channel 4's Friday-night comedy-of-errors sitcom Plus One, in which he played Rob Black, the perennial victim of Sod's law whose girlfriend has dumped him to marry "Duncan from Blue". He played the role of Michael Myshkin in Channel 4's adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding trilogy. He also appears in the third and final series of Ashes to Ashes on BBC1 as Discipline and Complaints Officer, DCI Jim Keats (who is actually the devil disguised as a police officer).
In addition to his TV and film work, Mays has also starred in six stage plays at London's Royal Court Theatre. The productions have included Ladybird, Motortown, The Winterling and Scarborough. Simon Stephens wrote the lead role of Danny in Motortown with Mays in mind. He went on to win critical acclaim for his performance, but the hard-hitting play was too much for some audience members and walkouts were not uncommon.
Projects in 2009 included Hippie Hippie Shake (as '60s alternative figurehead David Widgery, alongside Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller); a role opposite Anna Friel in the third series of Jimmy McGovern's The Street; a "mark" in the BBC drama serial Hustle; as well as an appearance in the independent British film Shifty, co-starring Riz Ahmed, for which he received a nomination for best supporting actor at the British Independent Film Awards.
Mays starred as Eddie O'Grady in the 2010 film Made in Dagenham. In the same year, he played DCI Jim Keats in the third series of "Ashes to Ashes", in which he portrayed a character that was the antagonist of Philip Glenister's Gene Hunt.
Mays appears in the BBC sci-fi series Outcasts, which started on 7 February 2011, as PAS Officer Cass Cromwell, and in the ninth episode of the 6th series of Doctor Who, titled "Night Terrors," broadcast on BBC One on 3 September 2011.
He had roles in No One Gets Off in This Town and a supporting role in the Steven Spielberg film The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. However the latest part he has played was a criminal on a curfew after serving a 10-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend when he was 19 in the programme Public Enemies, which aired on BBC One in early January 2012. He played Ronnie Biggs in a 5-part drama called Mrs Biggs alongside Sheridan Smith.
For much of the latter half of 2013, Mays performed on stage. Performing in Nick Payne's The Same Deep Water As Me at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Nigel Lindsay and in the first major revival of Jez Butterworth's debut play, Mojo at the Harold Pinter Theatre. He starred alongside Ben Whishaw, Brendan Coyle, Rupert Grint and Colin Morgan.
Mays starred in Series 3 of BBC drama Line of Duty as Sergeant Danny Waldron, an armed response officer whose troubled and abusive childhood comes under investigation following his death in episode one as part of wider investigation of police corruption throughout the serial.
From 29 March - 14 May 2016 Mays played the part of Aston in Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker directed by Matthew Warchus at The Old Vic Theatre in London opposite Timothy Spall and George MacKay.
Mays portrayed Tivik in the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
On 11 April 2017 Daniel Mays was nominated for a BAFTA Television Award for Supporting Actor for his role in Line of Duty series 3.- Actress
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Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.
Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived with her younger sister and her mother. Her parents encouraged their children to explore their creative abilities. Gemma's sister, Hannah, liked to sing, whereas Gemma chose acting. During her teenage years, she was part of the Masquerade and Miskin theater companies, appearing in productions of The Massacre of Civitella and Guiding Star. In 2004, she won an award for Best Supporting Actress, which helped her to win a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Whilst studying at RADA, she landed her first professional role in Capturing Mary (2007), directed by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Maggie Smith. Gemma graduated from RADA in 2007 and won her first film role in St. Trinian's (2007). Her breakthrough role came in 2008, when she appeared in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008). In 2009, she was the winner of Empire's Best Newcomer Award.- Sam Troughton was born on 21 March 1977. He is an actor, known for Alien vs. Predator (2004), The Ritual (2017) and Mank (2020).
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David Dawson was born on 7 September 1982 in Widnes, Cheshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for My Policeman (2022), All the Old Knives (2022) and The Last Kingdom (2015).- Tom Brooke was born in 1978 in Berkshire, England, UK. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and lives in London. He is best known for his roles as the angel Fiore in AMC/Amazon Prime's 'Preacher', Bill Wiggins in the BBC's 'Sherlock' and Thick Kevin in Richard Curtis' film 'Pirate Radio', starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
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Deborah Findlay was born in Surrey and studied English at Leeds University. She worked in Leeds with a theatre group touring plays, music, community theatre and cabaret before coming to London to work at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She was in the original production of 'Top Girls' by Caryl Churchill (OBIE Award) and seasons at the RSC and National Theatre where she received an Olivier Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for 'Stanley'. She has an extensive career in theatre and was nominated for a Tony for the play 'The Children'. She had another Olivier nomination for 'The Cut'. She played in New York on Broadway and in the West End in London including prestigious theatre the Donmar with the play 'The Vortex'.- Actor
- Writer
Damien Molony is an actor of stage, TV and film, best known for his television roles as Hal in BBC 'Being Human', DC Albert Flight in BBC 'Ripper Street', DS Jack Weston in 'Suspects' and Jon in 'GameFace'. He grew up in Johnstown Bridge in Kildare, Ireland, where he was born on February 21 1984 but now lives in London, UK. From 2003 to 2007 he attended Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained a degree in Business and Political Science and began his acting career in 2007 touring Ireland with the Balally Players in 'Riders to the Sea', for which he was nominated as best actor in the One Act Drama Festival. In 2008 he also appeared with the Kildare Youth Theatre in their production 'A Vampire Story.'
Damien attended Drama Centre London 2008-2011, graduating with a BA in acting. While at drama school he performed in several theatre productions and played the male lead in award winning film short 'When The Hurlburly's Done'.
After being spotted in his drama showcase, he was offered the part of Giovanni in John Ford play ''Tis Pity She's a Whore', which ran 7 - 28 May 2011 at the Yorkshire Playhouse. While appearing in the play, he auditioned for and landed his first leading television role in BBC supernatural drama 'Being Human'. Molony appeared in every episode of series 4 in 2012 and series 5 in 2013 as Hal Yorke, an over 500 year old vampire.
In 2012, Damien played the lead in National Theatre production 'Travelling Light', performing as two characters, Motl Mendl and Nate, in a 5 month tour across the UK and a worldwide cinema broadcast with National Theatre Live.
His stage career has gone from strength to strength ever since, appearing in one high profile theatre production after another, including Jason/Workman/Ray in Ander's Lustgarten's politically charged 'If You Don't Let Us Dream We, Won't Let You Sleep' at The Royal Court Theatre, London, 15 February - 9 March 2013 and as Dan O'Brien and multiple roles alongside William Gaminara in 'The Body Of An American' at the Gate Theatre, London 6 January - 8 February and the Royal & Derngate 27 February - 8 March 2014.
Damien returned to the National Theatre in 2015 when he played Spike in Tom Stoppard play 'The Hard Problem' from 28 January - 17 May 2015. The play was also broadcast live to cinemas across the world by NT Live.
Damien's television slate grew when he joined the cast of Victorian BBC drama 'Ripper Street' in Series 2, as Irish Detective Constable Albert Flight. He appeared in 7 of 8 episodes, airing 4 November - 16 December 2013 on BBC One UK and 22 February - 12 April 2014 on BBC America, US. The drama is set in Whitechapel London, in the period immediately following the Jack the Ripper murders.
Molony then landed the role of Detective Sergeant Jack Weston in Channel 5's innovative crime procedural 'Suspects'. Weston is described as having 'killer instinct', 'easy charm' and 'emotional intelligence'. The drama is shot in a documentary style, using fly-on-the-wall filming techniques and the actors improvise the dialogue based on a detailed plot description. Series 1 comprised five episodes, airing 12 February - 12 March 2014, series 2 comprised four episodes, airing 20 - 28 August 2014, Series 3 comprised four episodes, airing 13 -21 January 2015, series 4 comprised four episodes airing 25 November - 16 December 2015. The fifth series aired 2 - 31 August 2016 on Channel 5 UK, featuring a new cast line up, a development to the show's format and Damien's character Jack Weston central to the story line. All five series of 'Suspects' have also reached US audiences via Acorn TV.
Damien's first appearance on Irish TV came in new drama 'Clean Break', playing Danny Dempsey on Irish channel RTÉ One, Autumn 2015.
In the same year he also filmed a TV pilot for Jenji Kohan period drama 'The Devil You Know' playing Robert Putnam, alongside Eddie Izzard. The story is set in 17th century New England and focuses on the Salem witch trials. The pilot is yet to air.
Molony made his big screen debut playing Ross in dark comedy feature film 'Kill Your Friends' alongside Nicolas Hoult. The film toured the international film festival circuit and had a UK release in 2015.
In January 2016 Damien appeared in a new TV role as Anthony in Phoebe Waller- Bridge penned 'Crashing'. The first series of the quirky comedy sitcom was well received by UK and international audiences when it landed on Netflix across the world later in the year.
His second feature film, the dark thriller 'Tiger Raid', world premiered at Tribeca International Film festival 17 April 2016, with a UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 25 June and a UK release 17 October. Damien plays the character Paddy and appears as co-lead alongside Brian Gleeson and Sofia Boutella.
For the latter half of 2016 Damien made a big return to the stage in Sean Mathias's award-winning, record-breaking production of Harold Pinter play 'No Mans Land' . He appeared as the character Foster, alongside Sir Ian McKellen (Spooner), Sir Patrick Stewart (Hirst) and Owen Teale (Briggs). The play toured the UK (Sheffield Lyceum Theatre 3- 13 August, Newcastle Theatre Royal 15 - 20 August, Brighton Theatre Royal 22 - 27 August, Cardiff New Theatre 29 August - 3 September) before a run at Wyndham's Theatre London 8 September - 17 December . A worldwide live cinema broadcast 15 December saw Damien in his third National Theatre Live performance, with encore screenings continuing in 2017.
'The Current War', a biographical historical film about the 'war of currents' between electrical pioneers Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), world premiered at Toronto International Film Festival September 2017, with Molony appearing as the character Bourke Cockran. After a long delay due to the Weinstein scandal, the film was eventually released worldwide in the second half of 2019.
Damien was also back on stage in September 2017 in 'King Lear' at Chichester Festival Theatre, appearing with Ian McKellen (in the titular role) for the second time.
In his next TV role, Damien starred alongside Roisin Conaty in her new comedy series 'GameFace', airing on UK TV 12 October to 9 November 2017, shortly followed by releases on international VoD platforms in the US, Australia and new Zealand. The show was renewed for a second series in 2018, airing in the UK on Channel 4 from 17 July 2019.
2018 saw Molony in four major BBC Radio productions, as Giovanni in a BBC Radio 3 adaption of John Ford play ''Tis Pity She's A Whore' , as Tristan Frey in BBC Radio 3's production of award winning play 'The Effect' by Lucy Prebble, as Judas in a week long BBC Radio 4 Easter drama 'Judas' by Lucy Gannon and as Hardy Walsh in BBC Radio 4 serial World War 1 drama 'Home Front'.
In October 2018 Damien starred in his first ever web series 'Right Now', Rob Cawsey's new comedy based on Grindr hook-ups.
Also in 2018, Molony joined the cast of new Sky comedy drama 'Brassic', as the character Dylan, alongside Michelle Keegan and Joe Gilgun. The first series of the comedy, co-created and written by Danny Brocklehurst and Gilgun premiered 22 August 2019 in the UK, series 2 was announced on the same day.
In 2019 Damien also starred in two short films; the animated stop motion 'The Fabric Of You', voicing the character Michael, alongside Ian Glenn as Isaac, which premiered at Edinburgh Film Festival, and 'Keep Breathing', inspired by the 'Me Too' movement, alongside Emmeline Hartley. Both films had a worldwide release online in 2021.
The same year Damien was announced as cast in the second series of BBC / Sister legal drama 'The Split' as new character Tyler Donaghue. The series aired in the UK 11 May 2020 on BBC One and 15 May 2020 in The US on SundanceTV.
Also in May 2020 Damien appeared in the second series of 'Brassic' in the UK, with series 3 announced before the premiere. Filming for 'Brassic' 3 was delayed due to the pandemic, and is due for a release in the UK on 6 October 2021, with a longer 8 episode series.
A month later, 'The Split' series 3 was announced as the final series of the legal drama, with Damien confirmed to reprise his role as Tyler Donaghue. Production began in June 2021.
July 2021 brought news of Damien being cast in Channel 4 drama anthology series 'On The Edge', he will appear in the third series in a film called 'Cradled', described as a "gut-wrenching horror".- Actor
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Simon Russell Beale is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed talents in British theatre.
He spent his early years abroad as his father was Surgeon General to the British Army (his mother is also a doctor), but aged 8 was relocated to England and became a pupil at St Paul's Cathedral School. He then attended Clifton College in Bristol on a choral scholarship before studying English at the University of Cambridge (also on a music scholarship). He began a course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, initially as a singer, later switching to acting, but left unsatisfied. He was spotted in a student play at the Edinburgh Festival, which led to starting a professional acting career.
He was first noticed in comic roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he forged collaborations with Sam Mendes whom he has continued to work with. Since 1995 he has been a regular player at the National Theatre.
Beale is an associate of the National Theatre and the Almeida Theatre in London, and an associate artist at the RSC.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Olivia Vinall was born in 1988 in Brussels, Belgium. She is an actress, known for The Woman in White (2018), Where Hands Touch (2018) and Queens of Mystery (2019).- Actor
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McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to James, a bus driver, and Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a nurse. He was raised on a housing estate in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his maternal grandparents (James, a butcher, and Mary), after his parents divorced when James was 11. He went to St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started 'a little school band with a couple of mates'.
McAvoy toyed with the idea of the Catholic priesthood as a child but, when he was 16, a visit to the school by actor David Hayman sparked an interest in acting. Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room (1995) but despite enjoying the experience McAvoy didn't seriously consider acting as a career, although he did continue to act as a member of PACE Youth Theatre. He applied instead to the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).
He took the place at the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and, when he graduated in 2000, he moved to London. He had already made a couple of TV appearances by this time and continued to get a steady stream of TV and movie work until he came to attention of the British public in 2004 playing car thief Steve McBride in the successful UK TV series Shameless (2004) and then to the rest of the world in 2005 as Mr Tumnus, the faun, in Disney's adaptation of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). In The Last King of Scotland (2006) McAvoy portrayed a Scottish doctor who becomes the personal physician to dictator Idi Amin, played by Forest Whitaker. McAvoy's career breakthrough came in Atonement (2007), Joe Wright's 2007 adaption of Ian McEwan's novel.
Since then, McAvoy has taken on theatre roles, starring in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (directed by Jamie Lloyd), which launched the first Trafalgar Transformed season in London's West End and earned him an Olivier award nomination for Best Actor. In January 2015, McAvoy returned to the Trafalgar Studios stage to play Jack Gurney, the delusional 14th Earl of Gurney who believes he is Jesus, in the first revival of Peter Barnes's satire 'The Ruling Class', a role for which he was subsequently awarded the London Evening Standard Theatre Award's Best Actor.
On screen, McAvoy has appeared as corrupt cop Bruce Robertson in Filth (2013), a part for which he received a Scottish BAFTA for Best Actor, a British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, a London Critics Circle Film Award for British Actor of the Year and an Empire Award for Best Actor. More recently, he reprised his role as Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). He began his depiction of Kevin Wendell Crumb, also known as The Horde, a man with an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder in M. Night Shyamalan's thriller Split (2016) and continued it in the sequel, Glass (2019). Also in 2019, he played Bill Denbrough in It Chapter Two (2019), the horror sequel to It (2017).
McAvoy and Jamie Lloyd look set to continue their collaboration in December 2019, with a production of 'Cyrano de Bergerac' at the Playhouse Theatre in the West End, London. The project has been on the cards as long ago as 2017, when McAvoy posted a picture of him reading the script and wearing a false nose.