Trivia: After roles on a handful of BBC television shows, British actor Mark Addy made a splash on the international film scene with his turn as a rotund exotic dancer in 1997's surprise hit The Full Monty. With the filmmaking boatloads of cash stateside and garnering a handful of Academy Award nods and Addy's ability to effortlessly adopt an American accent, it took little time before he was working on the U.S. side of the pond. Addy's first high-profile Hollywood role was a supporting gig playing Michael Keaton's pal in Jack Frost (1998), a family flick about a jazz musician who is reincarnated as a snowman. Two years later, Addy took on his first lead in an American film, filling the pelt worn previously by John Goodman, playing Fred Flintstone in the prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. Unfortunately, the project failed to keep the franchise's flame burning. The next couple years saw Addy in more supporting roles in a series of projects that ranged from barely-profitable (A Knight's Tale) to downright unsuccesful (Down to Earth and The Time Machine), but in 2002 he landed the lead on the CBS sitcom Still Standing. With Addy starring opposite Jami Gertz, the show became a hit as the lead-in to the network's wildly popular Monday-night lineup.In between seasons of Still Standing, Addy continued to make time for the occassional big-screen project, popping up in such films as 2003's The Order and 2004's Around the World in 80 Days, the former of which reunited the actor with Brian Helgeland and Heath Ledger, the writer/director and star of A Knight's Tale. Addy married Kelly Addy in 1996. The couple has one daughter. He appeared as John Piggot in the highly-respected Red Riding trilogy, and followed that up with a role in 2010's Robin Hood as Friar Tuck. In 2011 he was cast in the initial season of HBO's Game of Thrones as King Robert Baratheon.

Trivia: Before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Sean Bean was going to enter his father's Sheffield steel fabrication business as a welder. He changed his mind after he garnered praise for acting in a few roles in local theater while taking an art class at Rotherham College. Bean received a scholarship to the prestigious academy and graduated a few years later with the Silver Medal for his performance in Waiting for Godot. Shortly thereafter, Bean performed in several West End productions. He also appeared in Romeo and Juliet with the Glasgow Citizens Theatre and with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the first he played Tybalt and in the second he played Romeo. Following more stage experience, Bean made his feature film debut in 1986 in Derek Jarman's Carvaggio. Two years later, after returning to the stage, Bean appeared in Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday and in another Jarman effort, War Requiem. In addition to his filmwork, Bean also has a thriving television career that began in the mid-'80s. Notable television work includes Clarissa (1992) and Sharpe (1993). It is as a "bad guy" in films such as Patriot Games and Golden Eye that Bean is best-known in the U.S., though in the 1997 remake of Anna Karenina, he plays the dashing and romantic Count Vronsky. After joining Robert De Niro and Jean Reno for some international espionage in John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998), taking a psychotic turn in Essex Boys (2000) and kidnapping the daughter of a respected adolescent therapist in Don't Say a Word (2001), Bean made his way to New Zealand for a role in director Peter Jackson's highly-successful Lord of the Rings trilogy.Bean maintained his career working in diverse projects such as Equilibrium, the old fashioned sword and sandal epic Troy, and National Treasure.He scored a supporting part in 2005's drama North Country, as well as a major part in Michael Bay's sci-fi spectacle The Island. He returned to the role of Sharpe for 2006's Sharpe's Challenge as well as 2008's Sharpe's Peril, and in between took on the role of the serial killer made famous by Rutger Hauer in the remake of The Hitcher.The steadily working actor continued his hot streak in such projects as Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Death Race 2, and he found success on the small screen when he was cast in a pivotal part in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones.

Trivia: After a number of roles in his native Denmark, actor Nikolaj Waldau began appearing in U.S. films in the early 2000s with bit parts in Black Hawk Down and Wimbledon, to name a few. In 2007, he landed the lead role on Fox's New Amsterdam, a supernatural cop show from director Lasse Hallström.

Trivia: One of the latest in an illustrious line of British actresses to graduate from the English Rose School of Acting into the realm of full-bodied contemporary roles, Lena Headey first came to the attention of audiences in 1992, when she played the younger version of Jeremy Irons' wife in Waterland. Hailing from Yorkshire (though she was born in Bermuda in 1973), Headey originally intended to be a hairdresser. Fate intervened, however, when her performance in a one-off show in the company of six school friends at the National Theatre caught the interest of a casting agent, who contacted her drama teacher and subsequently cast Headey in Waterland.Headey's turn as a sexually adventurous schoolgirl in the film led to her being cast as a sexually adventurous maid in Merchant Ivory's The Remains of the Day in 1993. More period adventure followed that same year in The Summer House, in which Headey played a quiet young lass being forced into a 1950s marriage with an insufferable mama's boy. After another stint as a corseted virgin in The Jungle Book (1994), Headey finally got to take part in the latter half of the 20th century in the BBC miniseries Loved Up (1995), in which she played an Ecstasy-saturated raver. That same year, she took part in another BBC mini, Band of Gold, in which she further distanced herself from her period past by portraying a lesbian prostitute. Over the next several years, Headey would appear in several projects like Posession, The Brothers Grimm, and The Red Baron, as well as TV series like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Game of Thrones.The actress returned to period drama in Marleen Gorris' adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1997), which cast her as the younger version of the title character's best friend. More contemporary work subsequently came her way in Antonia Bird's Face (also 1997), a crime thriller in which she played the social worker girlfriend of Robert Carlyle's political idealist-turned-gangster. She also starred in the romantic fantasy The Man with Rain in His Shoes (1998) as one of the love interests (along with Penelope Cruz) of an out-of-work Scottish actor (Douglas Henshall).After supporting turns in the lavish made-for-TV Merlin (1998) and Onegin (1999), the latter of which featured her as Liv Tyler's sister, Headey crossed over into the realm of Hollywood teen-oriented offerings with Gossip (2000), a college-set drama that cast her as one of three students who start a nasty rumor about two of their classmates (Kate Hudson and Joshua Jackson). Although the film was a bomb, Headey's career looked bright with a number of projects on the horizon. Included amongst them was Aberdeen (2000), a road movie set in Norway and Scotland that also starred Ian Hart, Charlotte Rampling, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Trivia: Parents operated a tavern in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. Got her start in drama with the Ulster Youth Theatre. Made London stage debut in 1986. Played the killer in the Inspector Morse puzzler The Way Through the Woods, which aired on PBS's Mystery! in 1997. Made Broadway debut in The Weir in 1999. Earned a 2008 supporting-actress nomination for an Olivier (the British equivalent of the Tony Awards) for her role as Emilia in Othello. Played Hermione Granger's mother in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Parts 1 and 2).

Trivia: Standing four feet five inches tall, actor Peter Dinklage has had a prolific career both on-stage and in film. After graduating from college in Vermont, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and the Welsh School of Music and Drama in Wales. He worked in several productions off-Broadway and wrote his own play entitled Frog. He made his film debut in Tom DiCillo's 1995 independent comedy Living in Oblivion as the dwarf in the dream sequence. He then appeared in Safe Men, Bullet, Never Again, and Just a Kiss before returning to independent comedies. In 2001 he had a substantial role in Michel Gondry's Human Nature, written by Charlie Kaufman. In 2002, he played Binky, the sidekick to the clown Bananas played by Steve Buscemi in Alexandre Rockwell's 13 Moons. His first starring film role was in Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent as Finbar McBride, a lonely misfit who shacks up in an abandoned railway depot. Also starring Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale, the film won festival acclaim at Sundance. In 2003, Dinklage can be seen in both the Lincoln Center production of Toulouse Lautrec and the Jon Favreau holiday comedy Elf starring Will Ferrell. After a supporting role in The Baxter found Dinklage appearing in one of the year's most off-beat romantic comedies, and the sci fi television series Threshold afforded him the opportunity to appear alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner, Dinklage would next share the screen with the most popular canine in film and television history in the 2006 family-oriented adventure Lassie. In 2005, Dinklage took on a starring role in Threshold, a short-lived science fiction series from CBS, and joined the cast of filmmaker Michael Showalter's comedy The Baxter, in which he played a wedding planner. The following year the actor would make waves in Ryan Murphy's highly sexed drama Nip/Tuck. After appearing in a variety of television roles (including a stint playing himself on HBO's popular series entourage) Dinklage once again teamed with HBO to join the cast of Game of Thrones. This proved a fateful decision on his part, as the adaptation of George R. R. Martin's popular series of novels would become wildly successful, in no small part due to Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister, the "imp" whose political savvy and brilliant mind allow him to thrive in a world that is less than kind to those it perceives as physically limited. The role led to an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2012.

Trivia: The daughter of a theatrical sound engineer, began acting at age 3 after attending a stage production of Show Boat that her father worked on. Appeared in secondary-school productions of West Side Story and Twelfth Night. Made British-TV debut in a 2009 episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors; made U.S. TV debut in the 2010 SyFy movie Triassic Attack.

Trivia: The embodiment of the line "when Irish eyes are smiling, they're up to something bad," Aidan Gillen oozed ruthless charisma and wicked sex appeal in his role as the sexually prolific Stuart Alan Jones in the 1999 British TV series Queer As Folk. Bringing wry humor and understatement to a potentially over-the-top role, Gillen earned a reputation as one of the U.K.'s most compulsively watchable new performers.Born in Dublin, Gillen got his professional start in the late '80s, appearing in minor film roles. He worked steadily through the 1990s, in film and on television, popping up in such diverse offerings as Circle of Friends (1995), Some Mother's Son (1996), and Jez Butterworth's Mojo (1997). His major breakthrough role was inarguably that of Queer As Folk's Stuart, an arrogant, vain, and thoroughly sexy PR executive who strips countless men of both their clothing and resistance. The success of the controversial miniseries ensured that it -- and its talented actors -- would be back for a second go-round, which followed in 2000. That same year, Gillen found accompanying acclaim on the big screen, in Jamie Thraves' acclaimed directorial debut The Low Down, in which he starred as an amiable but frustrated commercial artist whose life changes when he meets a radiant, ambitious woman. He appeared in both My Kingdom and Lorna Doone, as well as the action comedy Shanghai Knights before joining the cast of the revered HBO series The Wire in that show's third season. When his time on that program came to a close he was in the action film 12 Rounds, and then was cast in the series Identity.

Trivia: Hawaii-born Jason Momoa first caught the attention of the fashion industry when he was discovered by designer Takeo in 1999. The 20 year old began a modeling career, which he soon transformed into an acting career, appearing in Baywatch Hawaii and Stargate Atlantis. In 2009, Momoa took on a role in the thriller The Game, before joining the cast of the acclaimed period series Game of Thrones in 2011. That same year, Momoa took on the title role in a hard hitting remake of Conan the Barbarian. Even though Conan failed to conquer the box office, Momoa's career kept charging forward thanks to his involvement eith the hit Game of Thrones, and in 2012 the actor could be seen opposite action icon Sylvester Stallone in the gritty Walter Hill actioner Bullet to the Head.

Trivia: Joined a youth drama group at age 11 and was soon cast in a film (as a rape victim in the 2000 drama Complicity); and appeared in a children's TV series (My Barmy Aunt Boomerang) at age 13. Was bullied in secondary school because of his childhood acting experience. Starred in a Globe Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet in London and on a UK tour while still a student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Has also appeared on stage with the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Costarred in Hope Springs, a 2009 BBC comedy-drama series about women ex-cons; and Sirens, a 2011 BBC comedy series about paramedics. Won the 2009 Scottish Style Award for Most Stylish Male and was named one of Scotland's "most eligible men" by the Scotsman newspaper in 2010.

Trivia: Descended from a viscount who served as Britain's Secretary of War at the turn of the 19th century, and is a nephew of a baronet; the family is listed in Burke's Peerage. Originally planned to be a journalist before deciding on acting. Starred in the World War I stage drama War Horse in London immediately after graduating from drama school. Made his TV debut in Game of Thrones. Named the face of Jimmy Choo in 2015. Played the title role in Doctor Faustus at the Duke of York Theatre in the West End in 2016.

Trivia: Is the great-great-great grandson of Charles Dickens. Was a teen when he was cast in the 1999 made-for-TV adaptation of Dickens' David Copperfield. While attending Eton, he took on the roles of women in all-male Shakespeare productions. His big break was playing Will Scarlett in the 2006 BBC drama Robin Hood.

Trivia: Had a small role, with sister Lily Allen, in Oscar-nominated Elizabeth (1998), on which their mother, Alison Owen, was a producer. Is the subject of "Alfie," a song on Lily's debut album, Alright, Still (2006). Claims to be one of the first children in the United Kingdom to be given Ritalin after being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD). In 2008, succeeded Daniel Radcliffe in the role of troubled teen Alan Strang of Peter Shaffer's Equus for a revival tour of the 1973 play.

Trivia: Began acting at age 7. Appeared in Batman Begins in 2005. Cast in HBO's Game of Thrones as evil king Joffrey Baratheon. Says his inspiration for his Game of Thrones role was Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator. Was named an academic scholar at Trinity College in 2012. Involved in puppet-theater production in Dublin.

Trivia: A handsome supporting player whose occasional leap into the lead has resulted in some interestingly varied performances, actor Iain Glen has appeared in everything from low-budget indies to high-profile Hollywood blockbusters -- frequently holding his own opposite such screen heavies as Harvey Keitel (The Young Americans) and Billy Connolly (Gabriel & Me). A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who studied at Edinburgh Academy and the University of Aberdeen before honing his craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the talented Shakespearian actor would go on to impress audiences in such stage works as Macbeth and Henry V. In 1985, the ascending stage talent made a successful transition to the screen with a small role in an episode of the popular U.K. mystery series Taggart, and after making the leap to the big screen with a supporting role in the 1987 feature Will You Love Me Tomorrow, Glen returned to television the next year for a role in the series The Fear. In the years that followed, Glen's big-screen career gained notable momentum thanks to solid performances in Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), with his early years coming to a peak when he took home a Best Actor award from the Berlin International Film Festival for his turn as a convicted killer in the 1990 film Silent Scream. That same year, Glen also received accolades for his portrayal of real-life explorer Lt. John Hanning Speke in Mountains of the Moon, though the remainder of the decade would find him sticking mainly to U.K. television (occasionally taking the lead, as in 1992's Frankie's House). Following an endearing turn as a sports reporter whose one-night fling leads him to come to terms with his tragic past in Glasgow Kiss, Glen received notable international exposure with a high-profile role opposite Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Though Glen's shattering performance as a father suffering terminal lung cancer in the drama Gabriel & Me (screenwriter Lee Hall's follow-up to Billy Elliot) ultimately failed to gel with audiences, Glen's horrific turn as a seemingly possessed father in Darkness offered the talented actor at his manic best. By this point, Glen seemed to be growing increasingly comfortable alternating between more independent-minded features and more large-scale productions, taking the role of noted psychiatrist Carl Jung in the 2003 romantic drama The Soul Keeper before taking a more epic turn as an anthropologist who hunts and captures pygmies in order to study them and prove a link between man and ape in 2005's Man to Man. He appeared in Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven, as well as Resident Evil: Extinction. In 2008 he had a major part in a retelling of The Diary of Anne Frank for the BBC, and followed that up with a part in the Michael Caine vehicle Harry Brown. In 2011 he acted in the Oscar winning biopic The Iron Lady.

Trivia: Worked as a lumberjack and bridge painter prior to acting. First gained notice by appearing in a Scottish breakfast-cereal commercial. Won a Scottish BAFTA Award for his role in the 2002 TV series The Book Group. Is an avid outdoorsman and experienced mountaineer; got to put his climbing skills to good use in the TV series Rockface. Plays the piano.

Trivia: Began studying drama at Playbox Theatre in Warwick, England, when she was 3 years old; first role in front of a camera is Sansa in Game of Thrones. A natural blonde, her hair is dyed red to play the immature, polarizing Sansa, which helps her remain relatively anonymous in public. Studies ballet.

Trivia: Got her first acting job in HBO's Game of Thrones as Arya Stark. Studied dance at the Susan Hill School of Dancing and Bath Dance College. Credits her dancing experience for her ability to sword fight. Is naturally right-handed, but attempts to do things left-handed in the series because it is mentioned in the George R.R. Martin books that her character is left-handed. Won two 2012 Portal Awards (for best Supporting Actress/TV and Best Young Actor).

Trivia: Quintessentially British character actor Donald Sumpter tackled a host of roles in his native Britain before breaking through to international acclaim. He landed guest parts (as different characters) on the U.K. cult fantasy series Doctor Who, then segued to features throughout the 1970s, '80s, and '90s in such pictures as Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979), Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), and Richard III (1995). Sumpter's popularity increased substantially in the mid- to late 2000s when he landed pivotal supporting roles in two major features: Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener (2005) and David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007).

Trivia: Was born in a rectory where his father was a vicar. Inspired to act after seeing plays at The Old Vic theatre in London, England as a boy. One of his earliest roles was the part of a pair of talking testicles in a surreal radio play. Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981. Played Inspector Javert in the original West End production of Les Misérables in 1985. Shaved off all of his body hair for his role in Privates On Parade in 2001. Appeared in his first pantomime in 2004 playing Abbanazar in Aladdin alongside Ian McKellan.

Trivia: While attending university she began performing in neo-burlesque and cabaret shows. Modeled for luxury lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur and sang on their cabaret themed album Peep Show. Has posed for painters Christian Furr and Peregrine Heathcote. Became the spokesmodel for lingerie label The Modern Courtesan in 2008. Her character on Game of Thrones, Ros, was only supposed to appear in the pilot episode, but she was so well-received she stayed on the show for three seasons. Had a pair of shoes named after her by designer Terry de Havilland. In an interview in 2019, spoke of being a survivor of domestic abuse at the hands of a former boyfriend and how she still suffers from night terrors and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Trivia: British character actor John Standing has a pedigree in performing that spans seven generations and includes his grandfather Sir Guy Standing, the son of actress Kay Hammond, and Sir Ronald George Leon. Considered one of his country's most important actors, he has appeared frequently on British television and also guest starred in many American television series, including L.A. Law, Murder She Wrote, and Civil Wars. He is a distinguished stage actor in both London and New York. Standing made his feature film debut in The Wild and Willing (1963). In film, Standing primarily works as a supporting actor. When not performing, Standing has earned a reputation as a fine painter.

Trivia: Tall, sandy-haired British actor Charles Dance trained for a career in graphic design at Plymouth College of Art and Leicester College of Art. Dance developed a taste for the theatre by listening to the reminiscences of two elderly actors who ran a pub in his Dover neighborhood. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the age of 29, and made his first film, the James Bond picture For Your Eyes Only, six years later. Dance's widest professional exposure came in 1984 when he appeared in "The Jewel in the Crown," a 14-part British TV production seen in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre. Charles Dance's best-remembered performances have been as D.W. Griffith in Good Morning Babylon (1987); the role of Meryl Streep's husband in Plenty (1985); the title part in the 1990 TV adaptation of Phantom of the Opera; and the displaced "imaginary" villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Action Hero (1993).

Trivia: Had no interest in acting until he joined a drama club to get out of playing soccer on cold Saturday mornings during the winter. Began acting in commercials. Studied acting at the Kent Youth Theatre in Canterbury, England. Screen debut was in the 2011 horror flick The Awakening. Big break came when he was cast as Bran Stark on Game of Thrones. Plays piano and drums.