British/Irish Actors To Keep An Eye On
by thatredpill | created - 15 Oct 2020 | updated - 1 month ago | Publicin no particular order
1. Eddie Marsan
Actor | Happy-Go-Lucky
Eddie Marsan was born in Stepney, East London, to a lorry driver father and a school employee mother, and raised in Bethnal Green. He served an apprenticeship as a printer before becoming an actor twenty years ago. During this time he has worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, ...
2. Daniel Mays
Actor | The Bank Job
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 ...
3. Timothy Spall
Actor | Mr. Turner
Timothy Leonard Spall is an award-winning classical character actor who was born on February 27, 1957, and raised in London. The son of blue-collar parents, Joseph L. Spall, a postal worker, and Sylvia R. (Leonard), a hairdresser, his interest in acting happened early and Spall auditioned and ...
4. David Tennant
Actor | Doctor Who
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 ...
5. Stephen Graham
Actor | This Is England
Stephen Graham was born August 3, 1973, in the small town of Kirkby, Lancashire, to a pediatric nurse mother and a social worker father. His paternal grandfather was Jamaican, and one of his grandmothers was Swedish. After years of small parts, he finally got his big break in an unexpected way, ...
6. James Norton
Actor | Little Women
James Norton was born in 1985 to two teachers and has a younger sister who is a doctor. Growing up in North Yorkshire he espoused acting at a very early age - playing Joseph in his primary school nativity play aged five - and, after leaving Ampleforth College he did work experience at the Stephen ...
7. Cillian Murphy
Actor | 28 Days Later...
Striking Irish actor Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, the oldest child of Brendan Murphy, who works for the Irish Department of Education, and a mother who is a teacher of French. He has three younger siblings. Murphy was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork. He went on to study law ...
8. Toby Jones
Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage and screen actors both in his native Great Britain and internationally, Toby Edward Heslewood Jones was born on September 7, 1966 in Hammersmith, London. His parents, Freddie Jones and Jennie Heslewood, are actors as well. Toby has two brothers: Rupert, ...
9. Paul Kaye
Actor | The Stranger
Paul Kaye was born on December 15, 1965 in Clapham, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Stranger (2020), Game of Thrones (2011) and Three Girls (2017). He has been married to Orly Katz since November 1989. They have two children.
10. Martin Compston
Actor | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Martin Compston grew up in Greenock, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire. He spent his teen years going to see soccer (football) team Celtic with his brother Barry and dreamed one day he would play for them. He attended St. Columba's High School in Gourock, Inverclyde, where he passed through his Standard ...
11. Callum Turner
Actor | The Only Living Boy in New York
Callum was born in London and grew up on a Chelsea estate - he is a huge Chelsea football fan - where, he claimed in a 2014 interview, "I learned more from films than I did through life itself." Six foot two tall, he decided to go into acting at age eighteen taking some courses and working as a ...
12. Aneurin Barnard
Actor | Dunkirk
Aneurin Barnard was born on May 8, 1987 in Ogwr, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, UK. He is an actor, known for Dunkirk (2017), The Goldfinch (2019) and Cilla (2014). He has been married to Lucy Faulks since 2017. They have one child.
13. Ben Whishaw
Actor | Skyfall
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 (...
14. Steven Mackintosh
Actor | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Steven Mackintosh was born on April 30, 1967 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Memphis Belle (1990). He has been married to Lisa Jacobs since 1989. They have two children.
15. Aidan Turner
Actor | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Aidan Turner was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. After graduating from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004, Aidan appeared in a number of stage productions, many with Ireland's national theatre, The Abbey. Such productions included The Plough & The Stars, Romeo & Juliet and A Cry from Heaven. In ...
16. Aidan Gillen
Actor | Game of Thrones
Aidan Gillen is an Irish actor. He is best known for portraying Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), CIA operative Bill Wilson in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series Queer as Folk (1999), John Boy in the RTÉ Television series ...
17. Adrian Lester
Actor | The Day After Tomorrow
Adrian Lester CBE was born on August 14, 1968 in Birmingham, England. He is a multi award winning actor and director, known for seven seasons of the hit TV show Hustle (2004), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Primary Colors (1998) and his extensive classical work in the theatre playing Othello, ...
18. Julian Rhind-Tutt
Actor | Notting Hill
Julian Alistair Rhind-Tutt is an English actor, best known for playing Dr "Mac" Macartney in the comedy television series Green Wing (2004-2006). Rhind-Tutt was born in West Drayton, Middlesex, the youngest of five; there was a 10-year gap between him and his two brothers and two sisters. He ...
19. Darren Boyd
Actor | Imagine Me & You
Darren Boyd was born on January 30, 1971 in Hastings, East Sussex, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Imagine Me & You (2005), Four Lions (2010) and Spy (2011). He has been married to Amanda Ashy since January 24, 2004.
20. Neil Maskell
Actor | Hijack
Neil Maskell was born in 1976. From the age of eleven he attended the Anna Scher acting school in Islington in his native London and later studied at the Miskin Theatre at the North West Kent College,subsequently returning there as a director. He began acting as a teenager,making his television ...
21. Freddie Fox
Actor | The Three Musketeers
Frederick Samson Robert Morice Fox is an English actor, director, and producer. His is known for the roles as singer Marilyn in the BBC's Boy George biopic Worried About the Boy (2010), James Leighton-Masters in The Riot Club (2014), Freddie Baxter in Channel 4 hit series Cucumber (2015) and Banana...
22. Jason Watkins
Actor | The Crown
Jason Watkins was born on October 28, 1966 in Albrighton, Shropshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Crown (2016), Des (2020) and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (2014). He has been married to Clara Francis since January 2014. They have three children. He was previously married...
23. Daniel Radcliffe
Actor | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born on July 23, 1989 in Fulham, London, England, to casting agent Marcia Gresham (née Jacobson) and literary agent Alan Radcliffe. His father is from a Northern Irish Protestant background, while his mother was born in South Africa, to a Jewish family (from Lithuania, ...
24. Luke Treadaway
Actor | Attack the Block
Luke trained at LAMDA and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.
Film credits include: "A Street Cat Named Bob," winner of the Best British Film Award, National Film Awards, 2017 (Shooting Script Films); "Ethel and Ernest" (Lupus Films); "The Rack Pack" (BBC/Zeppotron); "Unbroken" (Universal ...
25. Billy Howle
Actor | Outlaw King
Billy Howle was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to a schoolteacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons. His older brother, Sam, is a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds, Billy has said that he was not interested in further education, ...
26. Steven Mackintosh
Actor | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Steven Mackintosh was born on April 30, 1967 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Memphis Belle (1990). He has been married to Lisa Jacobs since 1989. They have two children.
27. Warren Brown
Actor | The Responder
Warren Brown is one of Britain's most illustrious actors and a former 2 x World Thai Boxing Champion. Following his performance in the BAFTA-winning, three-part event Occupation, appearing opposite Stephen Graham, Warren went on to star alongside Idris Elba as DS Ripley, the role for which he ...
28. Shaun Evans
Actor | Cashback
Shaun Evans was born on March 6, 1980 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Cashback (2006), Endeavour (2012) and Being Julia (2004).
29. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Actor | 12 Years a Slave
English actor, writer and director Chiwetel Ejiofor is renowned for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He is also known for playing Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things...
30. Joel Fry
Actor | Yesterday
Joel Fry was born in London in 1984 and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Since graduating he has worked consistently, staring in various Television, Film and Theatre productions in the United Kingdom and America. Joel is also a musician, playing a number of instruments but ...
31. Will Poulter
Actor | We're the Millers
Will Poulter is an English actor, recognized for his performances as Lee Carter in Son of Rambow (2007), Eustace Scrubb in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), and Kenny Rossmore in We're the Millers (2013). Will was born in Hammersmith, London, the son of Caroline (...
32. Stephen Campbell Moore
Actor | The Bank Job
Stephen Campbell Moore was born on November 30, 1979 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Bank Job (2008), Season of the Witch (2011) and Amazing Grace (2006). He has been married to Claire Foy since December 2014. They have one child.
33. Michael Gambon
Actor | Gosford Park
Sir Michael Gambon was born in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland, to Mary (Hoare), a seamstress, and Edward Gambon, an engineer. After joining the National Theatre, under the Artistic Directorship of Sir Laurence Olivier, Gambon went on to appear in a number of leading roles in plays written by Alan Ayckbourn...
34. Mark Addy
Actor | The Full Monty
Born in York, on leaving school he started work as a stage hand at York's Theatre Royal and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art .from 1982 to 1984 after which he joined such companies as Hull Truck Theatre and The Royal National Theatre. He achieved international fame in his film debut...
35. Peter Mullan
Actor | The Magdalene Sisters
He was interested in directing films at the age of 19 and he made several shorts. As he wasn't admitted to the National Film School, he decided to dedicate himself to acting, and made his debut in the theatre in 1988 before moving to cinema and television. Fame came with the parts he played in such...
36. David Morrissey
Actor | The Walking Dead
David Morrissey started acting at Everyman's Youth Theatre in Liverpool, where he was born and raised. He made an auspicious debut in One Summer (1983), a series about two Liverpool runaways. Following a degree at RADA, he worked with the theatre company Cheek By Jowl. He has also worked at theatre...
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