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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Has been a vegetarian since he was 18; is a patron of the Vegetarian Society. In 1995, released a cover version of "Unchained Melody" with his Soldier Soldier co-star Robson Green; it sold more than a million copies and was the best-selling single of the year. Robson and Jerome donated £27,000 to Greenpeace from the proceeds of their singles. Before his appearance on Game of Thrones in 2011, had not been on screen for 10 years. Is a patron of The Forces-Helpline, a website that helps address any bullying issues in the Navy, Army or Royal Air Force.

Trivia: A veteran of the theater in Scotland, Ireland, Broadway, and London's West End, actor Conleth Hill began supplementing his impressive stage career with on-screen acting in the late '80s. He started by making minor appearances on British television, eventually working his way up to more substantial parts, like his recurring role of Jared on the comedy series The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle in 2007. In 2009, Hill was cast as Brockman in the Woody Allen comedy Whatever Works, opposite Larry David.

Trivia: Began performing as a child, putting on impromptu scenes for family by cobbling together costumes and props from around the house. Had to request a day off from drama school rehearsals in order to travel to London for an audition on the HBO television series Game of Thrones. Is an avid music fan and an amateur drummer.

Trivia: Her parents moved from Turkey to West Germany before she was born. Trained as a public administrator and worked for two years at a municipal waste office. After she was nominated for several awards for her work in Head-On (2004), the German press uncovered that she had previously worked in the adult film industry; during one of her acceptance speeches, she publicly complained about the situation. Supports women's rights and volunteers with Terre des Femmes, which fights to end domestic violence against women.

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.

Trivia: Born September 5, 1976, in the Netherlands, actress Carice van Houten worked steadily in her native country on both the small and big screens, garnering a number of nominations for her work. She first started to acquire international fame as the star of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, portraying Rachel Stein, a Jewish woman who disguises herself and uses her allure and beauty in order to manipulate the Nazis in charge of the occupation of Holland. The exposure from her work in that film served as a springboard for van Houten, and she was soon appearing prominantly in high-profile Hollywood pictures, such as Bryan Singer's WWII drama Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise; the sci-fi film Repossession Mambo, as the wife of Jude Law's character; and the biographical drama Vivaldi, starring Joseph Fiennes as the classical composer. In 2012, she joined Game of Thrones, playing Melisandre, though she still found time to return to the big screen, including The Fifth Estate in 2013 and the Jesse James biopic Race (2016), playing German film director/propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.

Trivia: Graduated from drama school in 2005. Worked at an interiors boutique in Brighton, England. Modeled for noted photographer Polly Borland. Performed in stage productions of Dr. Faustus and Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Stands 6-foot-3.

Trivia: Irish actor Liam Cunningham has spent much of his career on stage, but also occasionally appears on television and in feature films. He made his movie debut with a small role in Mike Newell's charming Irish fantasy Into the West (1993). He has since played supporting roles in productions such as War of the Buttons (1994) and Michael Winterbottom's Jude (1996). Before entering drama school in the 1980s, Cunningham had been an electrician. He started out on the Irish stage and then embarked upon a U.S. tour with a travelling Irish troupe. Cunningham's other stage credits include stints with the Passion Machine theater company and London's Royal Court Theatre. His television credits include guest-starring roles on such British series as Cracker.

Trivia: Hails from the same hometown as Kate Winslet and Kenneth Branagh. Studied ballet, jazz and modern dance at 3 years old. Former member of the London Fencing Academy. Honed her acting skills in British theater. Made her big-screen debut in 2005's Casanova. Enjoys playing poker; came in second place at the 2008 PartyPoker.com Women's World Open in London.

Trivia: Her father, Sebastian, is the 14th Laird of Warthill and the Aberdeenshire Chieftain of Clan Leslie. Grew up in Lickleyhead Castle, the family's 15th century ancestral seat; her family also owns the 12th century Warthill Castle in Aberdeenshire. Won a Scottish BAFTA award for New Talent for her professional acting debut in the TV movie New Town (2009). Appeared in Bedlam at the Globe Theatre in 2010. Had to take an archery course after she was cast as Ygritte in Game of Thrones in 2012.

Trivia: A well-respected stage and TV actor who has also appeared in a number of films in his native England, Stephen Dillane is blessed with both exceptional talent and the kind of dark, wry good looks that allow him to move effortlessly through a variety of characterizations.Raised in South London as the son of a surgeon, Dillane first became involved in theatre while in school. He studied history and politics at Exeter University and then did a stint as a journalist for the Croydon Advertiser. As he developed an intense and unswerving hatred for journalism very early on, Dillane was soon casting his thoughts toward an alternate career and, after a few years, decided to chuck journalism for acting. After studying his adopted profession at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school, he began finding work on the stage and was soon racking up positive notices. His theatrical credits grew throughout the 1990s, with critically acclaimed work in the 1994 Peter Hall production of Hamlet, in which Dillane was cast as the eponymous Dane, and the London production of Angels in America.Dillane first struck a responsive chord with British TV viewers in 1994, when he starred in The Rector's Wife. He went on to do starring screen work in Henry Jaglom's Deja Vu (1997), in which he played a painter, Firelight (1997), which cast him as a 19th-century aristocrat opposite Sophie Marceau, and Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), which featured Dillane as a journalist. In 2000, the actor received a Tony Award for his portrayal of a brilliant but emotionally evasive playwright in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, earning a new level of respect and recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.Throughout the early part of the 2000's, Dillane appeared in an increasing number of high-profile films. In 2001 he was onscreen with the likes of Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in Spy Game, and in 2002 he could be seen in The Truth About Charlie, Jonathan Demme's remake of Charade, and the critically-acclaimed The Hours. His next big-screen role would be as Merlin in Antoine Fuqua's 2004 historical retelling of the story of King Arthur. As the next several years came to pass, Dillane would appear in many more projects, like Savage Grace and 44 Inch Chest, as well as TV series like Game of Thrones and Coup.

Trivia: Look up "statuesque" in the dictionary and you just might find a picture of British actress Diana Rigg. Born in a Yorkshire industrial town, Rigg was two years old when her father, a railroad constructionist, moved the family to India. Six years later, she was back in Yorkshire, suffering through the discipline and rigors of private school until one of her teachers introduced her to the world of the theatre. After graduation, Rigg was accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; she went on to the Royal Shakespeare Company, where her deeply distinctive voice, auburn red hair, and towering height (5'8") assured her such dynamic roles as Viola in Twelfth Night and Cordelia in King Lear. Though never lacking in prestige, the Royal Shakespeare paid starvation wages, compelling Rigg to moonlight in the more lucrative world of movies and TV. In 1965, she was selected to replace Honor Blackman on the popular tongue-in-cheek TV-adventure series "The Avengers," and for the next two years captivated little boys of all ages with her energetic portrayal of coolheaded, leather-clad karate expert Mrs. Emma Peel. Film stardom followed in short order with plum roles in The Assassination Bureau (1968) and the James Bond flick On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Though she was always welcome in films and television (she headlined a brief American sitcom, "Diana," in 1973), Rigg preferred to think of herself as a "theatre animal," and continued to star in the classics on stage, still frequently accepting a miniscule salary in order to satisfy her muse. In the last decade, Rigg published the hilarious book No Turn Unstoned, in which she gathered together the worst reviews ever received by the world's best actors (including her own bad notices); in the early 1990s, she replaced Vincent Price as the host of PBS' "Mystery" anthology.

Trivia: Actor and musician who plays guitar, sings and writes his own music. Performed with the Netherlands band Fontane. Released a solo album, Serene Stories, in Dutch, in 2005.

Trivia: As a teenager, occasionally worked at Porthcawl Little Theatre. Left school near the end of his final year to work as a children's entertainer at the Welsh theme park Barry Island Pleasure Park. Was accepted by the Guildford School of Acting in September 1980 and by Chistmas 1983 had received his Equity card. Spent four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in plays such as Julius Caesar and Robin Hood. Made his Broadway debut in A Doll's House, opposite Janet McTeer, in 1997. Won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor for A Doll's House. Played First Voice in a 2014 touring production of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood; he later played Dai Bread in the BBC TV movie.

Trivia: Born in Los Angeles, California, where his father was a professor of linguistics at UCLA, the family moved back to their native London when he was 7. Went by the name BB Burn when he competed as a beatboxer. His big television breakthrough came in BBC's Bleak House, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, in the role of William Guppy. Appeared in the 2009 West End revival of Oliver! as Bill Sikes, opposite Rowan Atkinson; he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical in the Whatsonstage Theatre Awards for the role. He and his wife had a third child, a daughter, Rosa in 2014. The couple split up in 2017.

Trivia: Started acting as a child, and her breakthrough role came as Young Nala in the original London production of The Lion King in 1999. Got noticed on British TV playing Sasha Valentine on the soap opera Hollyoaks (2006-10). Made film debut in 2012 thriller Twenty8k, which also featured her future Game of Thrones costar Stephen Dillane. First appearance as Missandei on HBO's Game of Thrones came in the third-season premiere, "Valar Dohaeris," in 2013. Credits Game of Thrones role for opening doors to more work in feature films, including Furious 7 (2015) and Fast 8 (2017), the seventh and eighth installments, respectively, of The Fast and the Furious franchise, and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018), the second and third titles, respectively, in The Maze Runner movie series.

Trivia: Wrote his first song, a paean to the Norwegian town of Stavanger, upon being inspired during a visit for a family friend's wedding. Left home at age 17 and moved to London to begin his professional career. Uses the alias Raleigh Ritchie for his music career, which is a combination of the names of Bill Murray's and Luke Wilson's respective characters in the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. Debut studio album You're a Man Now, Boy was released in 2016 on Columbia Records.

Trivia: British actor Thomas Sangster caught audience's attention in 2003's Love Actually when he was 13. He would go on to appear in films like Nanny McPhee, Tristan and Isolde, and Bright Star, as well as provide the voice of Ferb on the animated TV series Phineas and Ferb.

Trivia: Attended an all-girls school and frequently played male roles in their theatre productions, including the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver! Former member of the National Youth Theatre. Made her stage debut in 2009, as Juliet in a Shakespeare's Globe production of Romeo and Juliet. Wrote a play, titled Silly Girl, that was adapted into a short film directed by Hope Dickson Leach. Works with The Arts Emergency charity, which seeks to provide mentoring and networking for underprivileged budding artists.