Trivia: Between 2000 and 2005, starred as Nick Harper in long-running BBC sitcom My Family. In 2002, won the Best Comedy Newcomer British Comedy Award for his role in My Family. In 2003, starred as Colin Frissell in the blockbuster romantic comedy Love, Actually. In 2008, appeared in the first UK run of Neil LaBute's play Fat Pig. Between 2014 and 2017, starred as DI Humphrey Goodman in the comedy-drama series Death in Paradise.

Trivia: Filmed Spark, his first short, while studying business marketing at California State University.Directed, wrote and composed the score for Dependency (2005), his AFI thesis film.Shortly after graduating from AFI, was hired to write Kennedy High.Won Best Directorial Debut of a Feature Film at the Beverly Hills Film and New Media Festival for his film 5 Star Day (2010).His film Battle Scars (2015) won the Founders' Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the GI Film Festival.

Trivia: Moved from Trinidad to Newcastle, England with his family following his father's death in 1958. Began working at the Flora Robson Playhouse in Newcastle at age 17. Was cast as Philip Smith in The Banana Box in 1973, which was staged in London and Newcastle; he later reprised the role in the television series adaptation, Rising Damp. Starred in the National Theatre's staging of Kwame Kwei-Armah's Statement of Regret at the Cottesloe Theatre in London in 2007. Was paired with professional dancer Lilia Kopylova as a contestant on the sixth season of Strictly Come Dancing, in 2008. Awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2008. Made his directorial debut with the staging of Rum and Coco Cola at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2010. Directed a stage revival of Rising Damp in 2013 at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2013.

Trivia: Met her partner, David L. Williams, while they were both acting at Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. First professional job was as an understudy to Toyah Willcox in a stage production of Amadeus. Stint on Friends was shorter than intended due to a pregnancy; her final scene was filmed with her in bed under a sheet to hide her belly. Recruited old school friends to appear in Beyond the Pole (2009), which she produced with her husband. Aspires to an eco-friendly lifestyle, often dressing her family in secondhand clothing instead of buying new garments.

Trivia: Studied quantum physics at Cambridge University, England. Started studying for his PhD but abandoned it to follow a career in comedy. Spent four years doing gigs in pubs with friend Alexander Armstrong. Performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival for the first time with Armstrong in 1994. Released a book about physics called It's Not Rocket Science.

Trivia: Made his television debut as DC Aplin in Prime Suspect: The Lost Child.Performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995. Won the Ian Charleson award in 1997, for his performance as Konstantin in The Seagull. Played real-life figure Alistair Campbell in the 2006 film adaptation of The Queen. In 2017, starred as Jim Atwood in the third series of ITV crime drama Broadchurch.

Trivia: A respected character actress who is also part of one of Britain's most celebrated show business families, Sophie Thompson has brought life to a bevy of characters on the stage, screen, and television. The daughter of actors Eric Thompson and Phillyda Law, and the younger sister of actress Emma Thompson, Sophie Thompson was born in London in 1962. She began acting at a very young age and had already done TV work by the time she attended the Old Vic Theatre School. Following two seasons with the Old Vic, the actress transferred her talents to the West End for a number of prestigious Shakespearean productions, including Judi Dench's Much Ado About Nothing and Derek Jacobi's Hamlet, as well as countless contemporary works by the likes of Tennessee Williams and Tom Stoppard. Over the course of her stage career, Thompson has earned many honors, most notably two Olivier nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Alan Ayckbourne's Wildest Dreams and Company, and a Clarence Derwent Award for her performance in the former.Onscreen, Thompson has appeared to memorable effect in a variety of films, often stealing the light from her more prominent co-stars. Although she made her film debut in 1982 with an uncredited role as a prostitute in The Missionary, it was not until the 1990s that she began to gain any sort of recognition amongst filmgoers. Thompson did hilarious work in the 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral, playing a bride whose very vocal and energetic wedding night antics cause no end of discomfort for a hapless Hugh Grant. She also provided priceless support in a pair of Jane Austen adaptations, first in Roger Michell's acclaimed 1995 film adaptation of Persuasion, in which she played Mrs. Musgrove, the heroine's disagreeable hypochondriac sister and then in Douglas McGrath's Emma (1996), which saw her play the socially inept Miss Bates. The latter film allowed Thompson to act alongside her mother, who, in no great stretch of casting, portrayed Mrs. Bates, her onscreen mother. Although she has repeatedly demonstrated her comedic ability in a number of films, Thompson is equally well-suited to drama, as she memorably demonstrated in Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), a drama about five close-knit Irish sisters that cast her as a simple-minded and ultimately tragic young woman.