Trivia: British actor Matthew MacFadyen studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before beginning his career on the stage. He joined the renowned theater company Cheek and Jowl, with whom he participated in productions of The School for Scandal, Much Ado About Nothing, The Duchess of Malfi, and other plays. In 1998, he made a much-noticed transition to the screen with the role of Hareton Earnshaw in a television adaptation of Wuthering Heights. He would go on to appear in such films as Enigma and Almost Strangers before being cast in the lead role of Tom Quinn in the spy series MI-5 (aka Spooks) in 2002. He stayed with the series until 2004, and the next year he made yet another foray into period drama, playing the male lead of Mr. Darcy in a big-screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, opposite Keira Knightley. He soon followed it up with a turn in the quirky comedy Death at a Funeral in 2007, before signing on for the 2008 Ron Howard film Frost/Nixon. MacFayden would continue to appear on screen in several series to come, most notably on Little Dorrit, The Pillars of the Earth, Any Human Heart, and MI-5.

Trivia: When doing work experience at Cosmopolitan magazine, she was approached by a modelling agency and spent a year doing photoshoots and music videos when she was 17 years old. Was the fourth person to voice Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider video games, since Tomb Raider: Legend was released in 2006. Along with her husband Matthew Macfadyen, she is a patron of the charity Chase and participated when the charity transformed Christopher's Hospice in Guildford into a winter wonderland in 2009. Is a member of the Loud and Clear Voices agency, and narrated the documentary Kate and William: A Royal Love Story in 2011 for the BBC. Worked on the Febreze Fresh Havens initiative, which aimed to help London become a fresher and greener city before the Olympic Games in 2012. Is a patron of the Lace Market theatre in Nottingham which has a good reputation for modern and traditional drama. Her performance as Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton in the BBC Two drama Line of Duty (2014-2016) was described in The Daily Telegraph as the performance of 2014. Was number 38 on the 2018 Radio Times TV 100 list, chosen by television executives and broadcasting veterans. Became a UNICEF ambassador in 2017, focusing on visiting Syrian refugee children and families living in the Za'tari refugee camp and host communities in Amman. In 2019, was nominated for a Leading Actress award for her role in Bodyguard and for Supporting Actress for Mrs Wilson.

Trivia: Knew that he wanted to act from the age of 12; age 15 came second in the Midland's Shakespeare Competition. In 2012, played the role of Laurence in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London; this earned him a nomination for best supporting actor at the 2013 London What's On Stage awards. Is a frequent collaborator with fellow magician Derren Brown; co-wrote and co-directed four of Brown's stage shows, one of which, Enigma, was nominated for Best Entertainment at the 2010 Olivier Awards. Is the co-creator, writer and director of the long-running horror play Ghost Stories with Jeremy Dyson; in 2017 directed and starred in the film adaptation of the play.

Trivia: Despite the fact that his excrement-flinging moment of glory in director Danny Boyle's flamboyant adaptation of the Irvine Welsh novel Trainspotting would forever leave an impression on adventurous filmgoers, and regardless of subsequent appearances alongside such Hollywood heavies as Ben Affleck in high-profile Hollywood releases like Pearl Harbor, actor Ewen Bremner has yet to achieve the level of success of Trainspotting cohorts Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle. An Edinburgh native whose art teacher parents actively supported his creative pursuits, Bremner first received widespread exposure when, at age 17, the theater workshop play in which he appeared transferred from Scotland to London's Royal Court. Subsequently making his feature debut with the U.K. television drama Heavenly Pursuits (1985), Bremner would take on supporting roles in Prince of Jutland (1994) and Judge Dredd (1995) before being catapulted into the international limelight as the hapless "Spud" in Trainspotting. Despite having essayed the lead as Renton in the popular stage adaptation of Trainspotting, Bremner no doubt made quite an impression with audiences in the key supporting role, his alternately pathetic and sympathetic put-upon character offering some of the film's finest comic moments. The following year, Bremner attempted to bypass the hype by taking some time off and pondering his future as an actor. Though such subsequent films as The Life of Stuff (1997) and The Acid House (1998, again adapted from the works of Welsh) contained Trainspotting's edgy humor, their attempts to be "hip" were notably strained, and neither film fared well at the box office. Bremner's role as the titular character in eccentric wonder-boy director Harmony Korine's Julien Donkey-Boy found him again overlooked when the film failed to click with critics and audiences, but the undaunted Bremner would soon crack up audiences with his supporting role as "Mullet" in Guy Ritchie's stylized follow-up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch (2000). With his role in director Michael Bay's high-profile 2001 war film Pearl Harbor, the talented actor proved his versatility once and for all by essaying the role of a wholeheartedly patriotic American soldier fighting in WWII. When Bremner stepped back into fatigues the very next year for a supporting role in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, it appeared as if he might finally be achieving the success that had previously eluded him. The next year, he appeared as none other than legendary surrealist Salvador Dali in the U.K. television drama Surrealissimo: The Trial of Salvador Dali, and in the following few years, he would balance such high-profile Hollywood releases as The Rundown (2003) and Around the World in 80 Days (also 2003) with such foreign gems as the Swedish film Sweet Dreams. He was in 2004's Alien vs. Predator, and the next year played an Inspector in Woody Allen's Match Point. He was part of the ensemble in the original version of Death at a Funeral, and reteamed with Allen for 2010's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. In 2011 he appeared alongside Ewan McGreggor in the drama Perfect Sense, and also appeared in the spy drama Page Eight.

Trivia: Worked as a receptionist and a runner for The Eleven O'Clock Show before joining the show as a cast member in 1999. Was nominated for the Best Female Comedy Newcomer award at the 1999 British Comedy Awards, for her work on The 11 O'Clock Show. In 2000, appeared in the first season of the long-running sitcom My Family as Brigitte. In 2005, presented her own reality/comedy series, Daisy Does America. In 2006, presented the British Fashion Awards.

Trivia: Though he lived in Los Angeles before moving to New York and founding the Court Jesters Improv Troupe, actor Alan Tudyk freely admits that he will always be a Texan at heart. Born in El Paso and raised in Plano, Tudyk was a ham even before he pursued a serious acting career at Julliard from 1993 to 1996. Frequently dressing in cowboy garb on family dinner outings and faking fainting spells in school to get a rise out of teachers, it was easy to see that Tudyk had found his calling early in life. Later, performing at the Dallas Shakespeare Festival and founding the city's Rubber Chicken Standup Improv Troupe, Tudyk moved to the West Coast and bounced to the East Coast before making his feature debut in 1997, with 35 Miles From Normal. It didn't take long before Tudyk found more roles in such popular films as Patch Adams (1998) and The Wonder Boys (2000), though his breakthrough role would come as Sandra Bullock's rehab-mate in 28 Days (also 2000). Tudyk's character was so popular with audiences in test screenings, that director Betty Thomas called him back to shoot a scene giving closure to his character within the film. Larger roles began to pour in, such as his turn in the energetic jousting adventure A Knight's Tale (2001), as well as a lead role in writer-director Joss Whedon's short-lived sci-fi series Firefly and its much-adored theatrical spin-off, Serenity. By the early 2000's, Tudyk had become a favorite, familiar face - and voice, as well, lending his vocal talents to the cast of the animated Ice Age franchise, beginning in 2002. He would earn particular accolades for turns as the drunken Simon in the 2007 British sleeper hit Death at a Funeral, as well as the easily shaken Doc Potter in the gritty western 3:10 to Yuma that same year. Even die-hard fans might not have recognized Tudyk's comic cameo in 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon as effete and surprisingly hardcore fighting henchman Dutch. Tudyk would also find a continual home for his talents in the realm of TV, however, with recurring roles on Doll House, Good Vibes, and Suburgatory, as well as voice-acting roles on animated series like Glenn Martin DDS, Young Justice, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Never straying far from his cinematic routes, however, Tudyk would gear up for 2012 with the comedic role of historical politician Stephen A. Douglas in the comedy-centric revisionist horror-history film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Trivia: Long before her "formal" professional stage bow in 1957 with the Frinton Summer Theatre, London-born Jane Asher was a busy child actress, appearing in such films as Crash of Silence (1952), Dance Little Lady (1955) and The Creeping Unknown (1956). Thus, when Jane made her London stage debut in Will You Walk a Little Faster, she already had a decade's worth of credits. Once we saw her in the role of the egotistical Annie in 1966's Alfie, we knew that juvenile actress Jane Asher was lost to us forever. Her major film appearances since that time have included The Winter's Tale (1968), Deep End (1971), and Dreamchild (1985), in which she played the mother of Lewis Carroll's Alice. On television, Jane was seen as Jane Seymour in The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1971) and as a regular on the British weeklies Wish Me Luck (1989-90), Eats for Treats (1991) and The Choir (1995). Romantically linked with Beatle Paul McCartney in the mid-1960s, Jane Asher is (at last report) the wife of cartoonist Gerald Scarfe.

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: Rupert Graves has repeatedly impressed audiences with his dead-on portrayals of upper-class twits since 1985, when he appeared in Merchant Ivory's classic adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room With a View. However, Graves' own background could not be more different from those of the characters he brings to the screen.Born June 30, 1963, Graves grew up in the small town of Western-Super-Mare (coincidentally also the birthplace of John Cleese), located in western England. By his own account a terrible student who resented authority, Graves left school at 15 and joined the circus. After his stint with the circus ended, Graves made his way to London, where, at 19, he landed his first acting role in a stage production of The Killing of Mr. Toad. His performance caught the attention of a film industry figure, which in turn led to his first film role in A Room With a View. As the irresponsible and irrepressible Freddy Honeychurch (brother of the film's heroine, played by Helena Bonham-Carter), Graves gave a performance that set the pattern for the roles he was to be typcast in for much of the next decade. Graves virtually became the male equivalent of Helena Bonham-Carter, in that he was stuck in period drama after period drama until others slowly realized that his range was not limited to films with an abundance of waistcoats, corsets, and men with names like Cecil or Clive. Graves' other significant films of the 80s included another Merchant Ivory outing, the memorable Maurice (1987) (in which Graves played Maurice's working class lover, Alec Scudder, and, as in A Room With a View, demonstrated his ability to tackle nude scenes), 1988's A Handful of Dust (also starring a then-unknown Kristin Scott Thomas, and Graves' Maurice colleague James Wilby), and the epic television series Fortunes of War, set during World War II and starring Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.In the 1990s, Graves has continued to do period pieces such as the 1991 adaptation of E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread (reuniting him again with Bonham-Carter), and Nicholas Hytner's brilliant The Madness of King George (1995), which also starred "the other Rupert," Rupert Everett. In addition, he made a memorable appearance in the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1997) as a shell-shocked World War I veteran. As he has gained greater recognition, however, Graves has been able to branch out toward other genres, notably as Jeremy Irons' jilted, ill-fated son in Louis Malle's Damage (1993), a confused and irresponsible motorcycle courier in Different For Girls (1996), and as the severely conflicted Harold Guppy in the deliciously twisted Intimate Relations (1996), for which he won a Best Actor award at the Montreal Film Festival. In addition to his film work, Graves has continued to work for television and the stage, acting as the wormy, conniving Octavius alongside Billy Zane in the TV series Cleopatra (1999), and in such stage productions as Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh (1998) and the the hit Broadway production of Patrick Marber's Closer (1999).

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: At age 16, worked as a set designer for an amateur theatre company, who cast him in their production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Claims his learned his "posh" accent while studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Played Osric in Hamlet directed by Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1970. Received his first television role in the BBC adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm, playing the oversexed Seth Starkadder. Received a Best Actor award in 1972 from the London Theatre Critics' Awards for his role in Journey's End. An active campaigner for animal rights, serving as an ambassador for Animals Asia Foundation, a charity working to end cruelty to animals across Asia.

Trivia: British actor Peter Vaughan began alternating between stage and screen after his 1959 film bow in Sapphire. Nearly always cast as a frosty authority figure, Vaughan's movie assignments embraced both period films (he was Buhrud in 1968's Alfred the Great) and contemporary dramas (the Policeman in 1963's The Victors). On two occasions, Vaughan's talents were effectively utilized by director Terry Gilliam, first in the role of the Ogre in Time Bandits (1981), then in the part of Mr. Helpman in Brazil (1985). In 1986, Vaughan was seen on TV screens worldwide as the prosecutor in the miniseries Sins. He was seen as Mr. Stevens Sr. in Merchant-Ivory's Remains of the Day. Vaughan had a strong presence on British television for decades, appearing in shows like Fox, Masterpiece Theatre's Bleak House and Chancer. He later became known to an international set with his role of Maester Aemon on Games of Thrones. Vaughan died in 2016, at age 93.