Trivia: British actor Daniel Craig grew up in Liverpool before moving to London and studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He made his film debut in The Power of One, directed by John G. Avildsen. A few made-for-TV movies followed before his role of Master Kane in the Disney adventure A Kid in King Arthur's Court. Returning to the U.K., he starred in the miniseries Our Friends in the North, the four-part series Moll Flanders, and the TV mystery The Ice House. In 1997 he worked with German director Peter Sehr on Obsession where he met his future girlfriend, German actress/VJ Heike Makatsch. His first leading role in the U.K. came in 1998 with his portrayal of George Dyer, the intimate friend of painter Francis Bacon (played by Derek Jacobi) in John Maybury's Love Is the Devil. Other leading roles followed in the U.K. films Love & Rage, The Trench, Some Voices, and Hotel Splendide. In Hollywood, he had smaller roles in I Dreamed of Africa, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Road to Perdition. In 2002, he played the German physicist Werner Heisenberg in the BBC historical drama Copenhagen. His first mainstream leading role came in 2003 as Ted Hughes, the partner of Sylvia Plath (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) in Christine Jeffs' Sylvia. In 2004, he can be seen in the U.K. films Layer Cake and Enduring Love.

Trivia: Possessing a chameleon-like ability to disappear into his characters, which frequently renders him unrecognizable save for his piercing eyes, it's no wonder that Javier Bardem chose to pursue a career as an actor given his family's long history in show business. Always hesitant to play the same type of character twice, the very foundation of Bardem's career is his remarkable ability to so immerse himself in character that audiences never even see the actor. Each role is a transformation that occurs both mentally and physically, and Bardem's hesitance to embrace celebrity culture and make a conscious effort to break into the American market has only served to make him more alluring to stateside filmmakers. Born the youngest member of a family of actors in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, in 1969, Bardem's first role came at the age of six with the film El Picaro (aka The Scoundrel). Bardem was a shy boy who immediately took to acting, and numerous television roles as well as a stint touring with an independent theater company found the young rugby enthusiast increasingly dedicated to the stage. An interest in painting led Bardem to study at Madrid's Escuela de Artes y Officios, but following a series of odd jobs and the realization that he would never develop the skills to become a great artist, he eventually drifted back into acting. Moving into the 1990s, Bardem's collaborations with such filmmakers as Pedro Almodóvar (High Heels [1991] and Live Flesh [1997]) and J.J. Bigas Luna (Jamón Jamón [1992] and Huevos de Oro [1994]) found his popularity as a Spanish screen star growing. Goya-nominated for his performances in both Jamón Jamón and Huevos de Oro, Bardem took home the award for his roles in Dias Contados (1994) and Boca a Boca (1995), and it was becoming increasingly clear that a formidable international talent was emerging. Though some may have regarded Bardem as little more than a beefcake sex symbol due to his steamy early roles, a turning point came with the release of 2000's Before Night Falls. A thoughtful look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, Bardem took over the role after Benicio Del Toro abandoned the it, and his physical transformation stunned audiences worldwide. Arenas was an ultimately tragic figure who eventually committed suicide while living in poverty in New York City, and Bardem prepared tirelessly for the role by changing his diet, immersing himself in Arenas' works, and traveling to Cuba to speak with those who knew the writer personally and to learn the Cuban dialect. In addition to drawing the actor international accolades, the role also found Bardem making history as the first Spanish actor ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. Though the offers came flooding in following the success of Before Night Falls, Bardem remained steadfast in his resistance to the Hollywood system. Turning down roles in such blockbusters as The World is Not Enough, it became increasingly obvious that Bardem was indeed sincere in his intentions to remain thoughtful about his career choices. Following his role in actor John Malkovich's directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs (2002), Bardem's role as an unemployed dockworker in Fernando León de Aranoa's Mondays in the Sun (also 2002) again found the actor drawing praise. Though the film ultimately didn't take home the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, it did net Bardem another Best Lead Actor Goya in addition to being voted Best Film at the awards.In 2004 Bardem joined forces with director Alejandro Amenabar for the euthenasia drama The Sea Inside , earning solid reviews for his work as a man fighting to die with dignity. He bolstered his status as an international leading man with Milos Foreman's Goya's Ghosts in 2006, but the following year would bring Bardem the most substantial praise of his career to that point with his work in the Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men. His portrayal of the remorseless, amoral killer earned him nearly unanimous praise and several year end accolades including the Best Supporting Actor prize from the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards.He followed up the career defining work playing Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh's biopic Che, and was a red-blooded Spanish lover in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In 2010 he earned rave reviews for his work in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful. In 2012 he joined an ever-growing list of actors who have played the bad guy in a James Bond film when he appeared in that capacity in Skyfall.

Trivia: One of Britain's most respected and popular actresses, Judi Dench can claim a decades-old career encompassing the stage, screen, and television. A five-time winner of the British Academy Award, she was granted an Order of the British Empire in 1970 and made a Dame of the British Empire in 1988.Born in York, England, on December 9, 1934, Dench made her stage debut as a snail in a junior school production. After attending art school, she studied acting at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. In 1957, she made her professional stage debut as Ophelia in the Old Vic's Liverpool production of Hamlet. A prolific stage career followed, with seasons spent performing with the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Dench broke into film in 1964 with a supporting role in The Third Secret. The following year, she won her first BAFTA, a Most Promising Newcomer honor for her work in Four in the Morning. Although she continued to work in film, Dench earned most of her recognition and acclaim for her stage work. Occasionally, she brought her stage roles to the screen in such film adaptations as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968) and Macbeth (1978), in which she was Lady Macbeth to Ian McKellen's tormented king. It was not until the mid-'80s that Dench began to make her name known to an international film audience. In 1986, she had a memorable turn as a meddlesome romance author in A Room with a View, earning a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for her tart portrayal. Two years later, she won the same award for her work in another period drama, A Handful of Dust.After her supporting role as Mistress Quickly in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed 1989 adaptation of Henry V, Dench exchanged the past for the present with her thoroughly modern role as M in GoldenEye (1995), the first of the Pierce Brosnan series of James Bond films. She portrayed the character for the subsequent Brosnan 007 films, lending flinty elegance to what had traditionally been a male role. The part of M had the advantage of introducing Dench to an audience unfamiliar with her work, and in 1997 she earned further international recognition, as well as an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe award, for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown.While her screen career had taken on an increasingly high-profile nature, Dench continued to act on both television and the stage. In the former medium, she endeared herself to viewers with her work in such series as A Fine Romance (in which she starred opposite real-life husband Michael Williams) and As Time Goes By. On the stage, Dench made history in 1996, becoming the first performer to win two Olivier Awards for two different roles in the same year. In 1998, Dench won an Oscar, garnering Best Supporting Actress honors for her eight-minute appearance as Queen Elizabeth in the acclaimed Shakespeare in Love. Her win resulted in the kind of media adulation usually afforded to actresses one-third her age. Dench continued to reap both acclaim and new fans with her work in Tea with Mussolini and another Bond film, The World is Not Enough. For her role as a talented British writer struggling with Alzheimer's disease in Iris (2001), Dench earned her third Oscar nomination. Sadly, that same year Dench's husband died of lung cancer at the age of 66.The prophetic artist continued to act in several films a year, wowing audiences with contemporary dramas like 2001's The Shipping News and period pieces like 2002's Oscar Wilde comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. She reprised the role of M again that same year for Brosnan's last Bond film Die Another Day, before appearing in projects in 2004 and 2005 such as The Chronicles of Riddick, Pride & Prejudice, and an Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated performance as a wealthy widow who shocks 1930s audiences by backing a burlesque show in Mrs. Henderson Presents. In 2006, she followed the Bond franchise into a new era, maintaining her hold on the role of M as Brosnan retired from playing the title character and Daniel Craig took over. Casino Royale was the first Bond movie to be based on an original Ian Fleming 007 novel in 30 years, and it was a great success. In 2008, Dench rejoined the Bond franchise for Quantum of Solace.Dench shared the screen with Cate Blanchett for the critical smash Notes on a Scandal (2006). The film's emotional themes ran the gamut from possession and desire to loathing and disgust, and Dench rose to the challenge with her usual strength and grace, earning her a sixth Oscar nomination and seventh Golden Globe nomination.Dench joined the cast of 2011's Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, as well as taking on the pivotal role of Mrs. Fairfax in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Jane Eyre. The actress also joined Leonardo DiCaprio to play the intimidating mother of J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar (2011). In 2012, Dench starred alongside fellow film great Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a compassionate comedy-drama following a group of senior citizens' experience with a unique retirement program in India.

Trivia: Spiky-haired actress Naomie Harris was raised by her single mother in London. After studying political science at Cambridge, she enrolled at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for professional stage training. In the '90s, she made a few appearances on U.K. television series, including reoccurring roles on Runaway Bay and The Tomorrow People. She gained more recognition for her role in the miniseries White Teeth as Clara, the Jamaican daughter of a fanatical Jehovah's witness mother. Adapted from the book by Zadie Smith, White Teeth was shown in the U.S. on PBS Masterpiece Theater in 2002. She made her international breakthrough the same year in Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later. For the role of urban survivor Selena opposite attractive lead Cillian Murphy, Harris trained in kickboxing and learned how to properly wield a machete. Quickly becoming noticed for her talent and skill, she also appeared in Fritz Baumann's German drama Anansi as an immigrant from Ghana. Back on television, she played a radical activist for the New Labour party in the two-part BBC1 drama The Project. Harris' feature films for 2004 include the live-action remake Thunderbirds and the thriller Trauma, starring Colin Firth.Though her star was steadily rising in Hollywood, it wasn't until 2006 that Harris would really make a splash on stateside screens; and after supporting roles in Brett Ratner's After the Sunset and Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Harris took to the high seas for her role as Tia Dalma in the eagerly anticipated summer sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Though her role in the first sequel to the hugely successful 2003 original was something of a minor affair, Harris' loyal fans could rest assured that they would be seeing plenty more of her in the final installment of the series that was set to hit screens in 2007. Just a few short months after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest sailed into the multiplexes, Harris would trade her Jamaican accent for a Bronx inflection when she took the role of a tough New York cop in director Michael Mann's Miami Vice - a slick, big screen adaptation of the show that made pink t-shirts and white blazers all the rage in the 1980s.

Trivia: With his electrifying gaze, elegant comportment, and lips that look as if they could breathe life into concrete, Ralph Fiennes has caused many a jaded filmgoer to reaffirm the existence of British sex appeal. Since 1993, when he first impressed international audiences in the decidedly unglamorous role of Nazi sadist Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, Fiennes has delivered performances marked by dignified passion and relentless intensity.The oldest of six children, Fiennes was born in Suffolk on December 22, 1962. His father was a self-taught photographer and his mother a novelist who wrote under the pen name Jennifer Lash, professions which virtually ensured a unique upbringing. Fiennes' family moved a number of times while he was growing up, and the children were encouraged in their creative pursuits. Thus, it is less than surprising that four out of the six Fiennes siblings went on to work in the entertainment business, with Ralph and his brother Joseph becoming actors, his two sisters a director and a producer, and another brother a musician. Originally wanting to be a painter, Fiennes enrolled at the Chelsea College of Art and Design before transferring to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting. Following graduation, he joined the Royal National Theatre in 1987, and he became part of the Royal Shakespeare Company a year later. While a member of the company, he performed a wide range of the classics, playing everyone from Romeo to King Lear's Edmund. Fiennes first became known to a wider audience in 1991, when he starred as the title character in the acclaimed British television production of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. The next year, he gained additional exposure, making his film debut as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Starring opposite Juliette Binoche, Fiennes glowered his way across the screen with suitable aplomb, something that he would do again to devastating effect the next year in Schindler's List. As the psychotic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, Fiennes blended quiet yet absolute menace with surprising charisma (even more surprising given that he had gained over 30 pounds for his role) to such great effect that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award for his portrayal. Fiennes' work in the film incited a flurry of interest in the actor, whose intensity and odd name (its correct pronunciation is "Rafe Fines") made him the subject of many a magazine article.Interest in Fiennes only increased the following year, when, back to his normal weight and sporting an American accent, he played the more sympathetic (but tragically flawed) Charles Van Doren in Robert Redford's Quiz Show. Critics loved him in the role, and he further consolidated his acclaim two years later in Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, which won Fiennes Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor. Given his newfound heartthrob status, many audience members were surprised to see Fiennes next turn up in the title role of the gawkish, ginger-haired minister with a gambling problem (playing opposite a then-unknown Cate Blanchett) in Oscar and Lucinda (1997). He gave a highly eccentric performance in the film, which received a mixed critical reception. Where Oscar and Lucinda was only vaguely disappointing, Fiennes' next project, a 1998 film version of the popular 1960s TV series The Avengers, was one of the most lambasted films of the year. Fiennes somehow managed to avoid most of the critical wrath directed at the film, and in 1999 he could be seen starring in no less than three disparate projects. In Onegin, directed by his sister, Martha, Fiennes played the title character, a blasé Russian aristocrat; in The End of the Affair, directed by Neil Jordan, he portrayed a novelist embroiled in an adulterous affair with the wife (Julianne Moore) of his best friend (Stephen Rea); while in Sunshine, directed by István Szabó, he played three different roles in a saga tracing 150 years of the affairs and intrigues of a family of Hungarian Jews.If his roles to date had served to showcase Fiennes' talent at about the rate of a solid performance per year, 2002 provided a trio of diverse and demanding roles that would prove just how well he could perform under pressure. In Red Dragon -- the first of those efforts to hit stateside screens that year -- Fiennes' chilling performance as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde shifted between meekness and menace at the drop of a hat. Thankfully eschewing the grandiose theatrics of Hannibal for a tone more in keeping with the original Silence of the Lambs, the film proved a hit at the box office, and Fiennes' performance rivaled that of Ted Levine's in providing the film with a chilling villain straight from the pages of the most lurid true-crime encyclopedia (Fiennes' character was purportedly based on the exploits of an uncaptured Wichita serial killer who went by the name "Bind, Torture, Kill"). A few short months later, audiences were treated to yet another deeply disturbed characterization by Fiennes, that of a schizophrenic man haunted by his childhood in director David Cronenberg's dark psychological drama Spider, based on author Patrick McGrath's bleak novel of the same name. Fiennes' performance substituted the menace of Red Dragon with a more sympathetic protagonist whose memory slowly regresses to reveal a scarring childhood tragedy. No doubt having had his fill of disturbed characters that year, Fiennes once again caught audiences off guard with a disarmingly charming role in the romantic comedy Maid in Manhattan.Fiennes would continue to find substantial and challenging roles in the years to come, most notably in his sister's film Chromophobia, the Merchant-Ivory film The White Countess, The Constant Gardener, the James Bond film Skyfall, and the ever-popular Harry Potter series, in which Fiennes played baddie Lord Voldemort. Fiennes would also earn accolades for directing and starring in a cinematic adaptation of William Shakespeare's war epic Coriolanus.

Trivia: Throughout his acting career, Albert Finney has impressed critics with his protean ability to step into a role and wear a character's persona no matter the age, nationality, or métier. In stage, film, and television productions over more than 40 years, Finney has portrayed a Polish pope, a Belgian detective, an Irish gangster, a British miser, a gruff American lawyer, a Scottish King, a German religious reformer, and an Roman warrior -- all with convincing authenticity. Finney was born on May 9, 1936, in the working-class town of Salford, Lancashire, England. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1955, he performed Shakespeare and quickly earned a coveted spot as understudy for the great Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare productions at Stratford-upon-Avon. On one occasion, he stepped into Olivier's shoes to play the lead role in Coriolanus, a play about the downfall of a proud Roman soldier, and won recognition that led to film roles.Finney's upbringing in Lancashire, a region of mills and smokestacks, exposed him to the kind of social injustice and economic hardship that helped prepare him for his role as a nonconformist factory worker in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a milestone in the development of British realist cinema. Critics -- who hardly noticed him in the bit-part role he played in his first film, The Entertainer -- universally praised his vibrant performance in Saturday Night. This success earned him the lead role in director Tony Richardson's 1963 film Tom Jones, adapted by screenwriter John Osborne from the Henry Fielding novel of the same name. As the wenching country boy Jones, Finney was a bawdy, rollicking, uproarious success, helping the film win four Academy awards.Rather than abandon live stage drama, Finney continued to pursue it with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London, performing in Shakespeare productions and plays by other authors. He won Tony nominations for Luther and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, as well as a best actor Oliver for Orphans. When he made his next film in 1967, he starred opposite Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Two for the Road, a comedy-drama about marital mayhem, and again won high critical praise.If there was a pattern to the types of roles he selected, it was that there was no pattern. For example, after playing a 20th century art enthusiast in 1969's Picasso Summer, he took on the role of a 19th century Dickens character in Scrooge (1970), then played a bickering husband in Alpha Beta (1973), Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), a Napoleon-era Frenchman in The Duellists (1978), a werewolf hunter in Wolfen (1981), and a plastic surgeon/murder suspect in the ludicrous Looker (1981).After winning an Academy award nomination for his performance in 1982's Shoot the Moon, Finney delivered another outstanding performance in Peter Yates' 1983 film The Dresser, which earned five Oscar nominations, including a nomination for Finney as best actor. In the film, Finney plays a boozing Shakespearean actor whose life strangely parallels the tragic life of one of the characters he portrays, King Lear. In 1984, Finney won still another Oscar nomination, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, for his role as a self-defeating alcoholic in director John Huston's Under the Volcano. In the same year, critics praised him highly for his dynamic portrayal of Pope John Paul II in an American TV production.Finney continued to take on diverse and challenging roles in the late 1980s and during the 1990s, primarily in small, independent productions. Among the films that earned him more accolades were the Coen brothers' gangster epic Miller's Crossing (1990) -- for which Finney replaced actor Trey Wilson after his untimely death -- as well as A Man of No Importance (1994), The Browning Version (1995), and Simpatico (1999). Also in 1999, he won the BAFTA TV award for best actor for his role in A Rather English Marriage. 2000's Erin Brockovich exposed Finney to the widest audience he'd seen in years: playing the hangdog attorney Ed Masry, Finney proved to be the perfect comic foil to Julia Roberts' brassy heroine, and in the process secured himself Golden Globe and Academy award nominations for best supporting actor. Though a Golden Globe Award eluded him that year, he returned in two years and won for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the made-for-television film The Gathering Storm.2003 saw Finney in his biggest role since Erin Brockovich. In Tim Burton's Big Fish, he played Edward Bloom in present-day scenes, while Ewan McGregor assumed the role of the eccentric storyteller in flashbacks. The actor once again proved to be a favorite of the Hollywood Foreign Press when he received yet another Golden Globe nomination for his work.2006 found the now veteran actor appearing in the Ridley Scott dramedy A Good Year, in which he played the uncle to a younger version of Russell Crowe through flashbacks. He also signed on to appear in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a thriller staring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei. In 2007 he was cast as the mastermind behind the program that created Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum, a roll he reprised five years later in The Bourne Legacy.Over the years, Finney saw the end of two major performances in his personal life: his first marriage to Jane Wenham (1957-61) and his second marriage to Anouk Aimée (1970-1978). He has one son, Simon, from his first marriage.

Trivia: Not long after British actor Ben Whishaw debuted onscreen in the late '90s, he began to reveal a gift (and a proclivity) for essaying some of the more intense and unusual characterizations in contemporary cinema, occasionally delivering uncanny evocations of real-life figures. Whishaw was memorable as a young Keith Richards in Stephen Woolley's Brian Jones biopic Stoned (2005), then portrayed a demented young man so determined to capture "the scent of womanhood" that he resorts to serial murder in Tom Tykwer's psychological thriller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006). Whishaw evoked a young Bob Dylan (one of many) in Todd Haynes' controversial avant-garde biopic of the folk singer, I'm Not There (2007), then signed on to portray famed author John Keats in director Jane Campion's dramatization of the Keats/Fanny Brawne romance, Bright Star (2008). That same year, audiences could catch Whishaw's portrayal of Sebastian in Julian Jarrold's big-screen Evelyn Waugh adaptation , Brideshead Revisited (2008). In the years to come, Winshaw would remain a bankable actor, with prominent roles in films like Skyfall and Cloud Atlas.

Trivia: A prolific English actress with a marked flair for period drama, Helen McCrory accepted one of her first roles as a New Orleans prostitute in Neil Jordan's gothic horror opus Interview with the Vampire (1994); though this merely constituted a bit part, McCrory gradually ascended to higher billing in outings such as Witness Against Hitler (1995), The James Gang (1997), and Split Second (1999), before tackling the lead role of Anna Karenina in director David Blair's 2001 miniseries adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's seminal novel, and signed for another lead in the humorous made-for-television crime thriller Dead Gorgeous (2002), adapted from the novel On the Edge by Peter Lovesey. McCrory maintained a higher profile and netted more widespread global recognition as the title character's mother in Lasse Hallström's Casanova (2005) and as Cherie Blair, the wife of British prime minister Tony Blair, in the 2006 docudrama The Queen. McCrory then signed for a plum role as Narcissa Malfoy in the fantasy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2008).

Trivia: Says that he started acting as a way to get to know his father better, actor Roy Kinnear, who died when Rory was 10 years old. He originally planned on becoming a butcher. At age 15, he learned the piano and participated in his first theatre performance through school, Cyrano. Performed with the Royal Shakespeare company and won two awards for his performance in the Restoration comedy, The Man of Mode, in 2008 — a Laurence Olivier Award and an Ian Charleson Award. Played Iago, opposite Adrian Lester, in Othello at the National Theatre in 2013; the two men tied for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor.

Trivia: Born in Sudan to English parents and lived in Israel as a child due to his father's position as a bank manager. Found an affinity for performing at the age of 6 while reciting A.A. Milne poems to his family. Earned a scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Was a member of the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. Made his Broadway debut as Henry Straker in Man and Superman at Circle in the Square Theatre in 1978. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1980s. Starred as Inspector Goole in the 1994 Broadway production of Stephen Daldry's An Inspector Calls. Played the role of Lord Burleigh in Mary Stuart on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in 2009.

Trivia: Began his journalism career in 1972 in the Tel Aviv Bureau of Reuters. Worked as a correspondent for the Jerusalem Post in Washington D.C. Published his first book Between Washington and Jerusalem: A Reporter's Notebook, in 1985 . Traveled to Moscow in 1991 to cover the collapse of the Soviet Union. Was CNN's senior White House correspondent from 1992 to 1999. Received the Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award. Is the eighth recipient of the Urbino Press Award from the Italian Embassy. In 2014, was awarded the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism by the National Press Foundation. Has interviewed many prominent political figures, including Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Trivia: Member of the National Youth Theatre as an adolescent. While studying at Guildhall, starred in the title roles in stage productions of Richard III and Oedipus. Won the Spotlight Prize in 2011 for his work in Best Man Speech. Starred in the role of Tom in a 2011 stage tour of Earthquakes in London. First appeared on screen in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall in a minor role as Q's Assistant. Nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for Best Classical Stage Performance by an Actor Under 30 for his role as Arsace in a production of Berenice in 2012. Made his Broadway debut in the roles of Richmond and Valentine in repertory productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night opposite Mark Rylance at the Belasco Theatre in 2013.

Trivia: Welsh actor Rhys Ifans has not only one of the most distinctive names in the film industry but also one of its most idiosyncratic appearances. Tall, lanky, and snaggletoothed, Ifans can go from raving freak to persuasive romantic interest in less time than it takes to pronounce his name correctly.Ifans got his start acting in a number of Welsh language dramas and comedies, and he made his feature film debut in Anthony Hopkins' August (1996). The following year, he was part of one of the most successful films in Great Britain in 1997 when he starred in Twin Town. As one half of a set of twins (the other was portrayed by his real-life brother, Llyr Evans), he played what was undoubtedly one of the most riveting and revolting characters to come into contact with film audiences in years. The film's success opened the way for more work, and the following year he did a complete about-face, appearing as the charmingly errant father of Catherine McCormack's young son in Dancing at Lughnasa.The year after that, Ifans rejected grooming and general communication skills to play the role that was to give him international recognition, starring as Hugh Grant's hygienically challenged roommate in the romantic comedy Notting Hill. Many a critic agreed that Ifans virtually stole the show from his better-known co-stars, and that same year he had a chance to prove himself further in such diverse features as Heart, a black comedy in which he played a writer; and Rancid Aluminum, in which he starred as a man forced into business with the Russian mob after his father's death. Following an unlikely appearance as a football player in The Replacements (2000) and a turn as the son of Old Scratch in Little Nicky (2000), Ifans' role as a socially challenged forest dweller turned opera-loving socialite in the eccentric Human Nature provided audiences with abundant laughs and a further glimpse into the quirkiness of a truly unique actor.Of course the ever-eccentric Ifans was only warming up, and after supporting roles in such efforts as The 51st State, The Shipping News and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands Ifans once again took the lead in the 2003 comedy Donnie Deckchair. Cast as a man whose desperate attempt to escape the monotony of suburban life includes a bundle of large helium balloons and a lightweight deck chair, Ifans charmed Australian audiences in the family-friendly effort. Outside of his film work, Ifans briefly served as lead singer of the band Super Furry Animals before they struck the big time in the late 1990s.In 2006 he voiced McBunny in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, but had major roles the next year in two very different projects -- Hannibal Rising and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He appeared in 2009's Pirate Radio, reteaming with Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis. Ifans had a strong supporting turn in Greenberg in 2010, and was center stage in Roland Emmerich's Shakespearean drama Anonymous in 2011. The next year he was part of the cast of the Spider-Man reboot, and was the romantic rival to Jason Segel in the comedy The Five-Year Engagement.