Trivia: Has an English father and American mother. Began acting as a member of the Medieval Players. Worked with Mark Saban as a street theatre duo in The Two Marks. Appeared as a car salesman in a SEAT television advertisment. Is the voice of the fox in the Old Speckeled Hen advertisment.

Trivia: Began her career at a young age and starred in advertising billboards and television adverts from the age of 4. Took her stepfather's name at age 10, when her mother remarried. Won the 1997 National Television Award for her role in EastEnders. Her debut solo single "Perfect Moment" went to number 1 in the UK in 1999 and stayed there for 3 weeks, with the album You Me and Us going platinum. Released her autobiography Who Does She Think She Is? in 2000 and made a donation to the charity Refuge with money from the book's sales. Played the role of Eliza Doolittle in 2001 West End production of My Fair Lady, opposite Jonathan Pryce as Henry Higgins. Won the Laurence Olivier Award in 2002 for her role in My Fair Lady. Was one of seven bridesmaids at Liza Minnelli and David Gest's wedding in 2002. Won the 2004 Empire Award and the 2004 MTV Movie Award for her role in Love Actually. Released her first novel, The Mistress, in 2009. Was declared bankrupt in 2013 by the Kingston-upon-Thames County Court with creditors including HM Revenue and Customs. Was awarded an Honorary Degree by Bolton University in 2014 for her services to entertainment. Released the album Lost and Found in 2017, which peaked at number 17 in the UK and became her highest-charting record since her debut album.

Trivia: A glamorous actress whose beauty and sophistication has only increased as the years pass, London-born screen star Francesca Annis is well known to cinema lovers for her roles in such films as Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971) and David Lynch's Dune (1984). Though she would later become better known to gossip column readers for her May-September romance with actor Ralph Fiennes following an appearance opposite the intense actor in the Broadway version of Hamlet, Annis has continued to impress both on stage and screen thanks to numerous challenging roles.Though a convent education initially steered her toward life as a nun, studies in acting and dance gradually led her into the entertainment industry until she was cast in the lead of the 1958 film The Cat Gang at age 14. The featured child actor in the tale of a group of children who stumble across a smuggling ring while spending long days on the local harbor, Annis made a distinct impression on audiences and was soon advancing in such films as No Kidding (1960) and His and Hers (1961). A role in the 1963 film Cleopatra gained the young starlet international attention, and shortly after the family film Flipper's New Adventure, Annis was cast as Estella in the 1967 U.K. television series Great Expectations. If audiences had not previously recognized her talent by this point, her remarkably powerful performance in Roman Polanski's 1971 feature film Macbeth would be hard to deny. After continuing to gain credit on stage and screen throughout the 1970s, roles in the following decade's Dune, Krull (1983), and Under the Cherry Moon (1986) culminated with an impressive performance as Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1988 made-for-television feature Onassis: The Richest Man in the World.Perhaps her most well-known performance to date due to the romantic scandal that resulted from it, her part in the 1995 Broadway production of Hamlet found both her and co-star Ralph Fiennes abandoning their longtime partners to embark on a heated romance (after playing mother and son Gertrude and Hamlet in the play). Though the scandal caused quite a stir, her memorable (and BAFTA-nominated) performance in 1998's Reckless steered gossip hounds back toward recognizing her remarkable skills as an actress. In 1999 Annis would once again remind the public of her affairs, though, when she appeared opposite Fiennes in the film Onegin, a cinematic adaptation of a 19th century Russian novel. In addition to appearing in such efforts as Deceit (2000) and Copenhagen (2002) in the new millennium, Annis continued her many impressive on-stage performances with an appearance in the West End production of Noël Coward's The Vortex.

Trivia: Of Jewish descent.Named Edmund after the poet Edmund Gosse.Studied at a boarding school.His father's reaction to him pursuing acting was discouraging at first.Met wife Amie Stoppard on the set of the film Rogue Trader (1999).

Trivia: Attended the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London. Began his acting career as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Made his television debut in the movie Unwanted Woman in 1992. Appeared in several films associated with Ancient Greece – Troy (2004), 300 (2006) and Clash of the Titans (2010). Helped launch South London's Landor Theatre.

Trivia: Fair-haired actress Emily Beecham made her entrance into the mainstream spotlight with the 2007 apocalyptic zombie movie 28 Weeks Later. Fans in her native England had become familiar with her the previous year, when she appeared as the teenage daughter in the TV movie Bon Voyage.

Trivia: In 1983, appeared in the music video for Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart." Made his film debut in 1984 as David in A Year of the Quiet Sun. Starred as Sgt Dennis Tucker in Land Girls between 2009 and 2011. In 2011, won the Off West End Award for Best Actor, for his role in Blasted. Appeared as Professor Edwin Hobb in the Channel 4/AMC show Humans between 2015 and 2016.

Trivia: Studied law at university; decided to follow his dreams of becoming an actor after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Ran the London Marathon in 1999. Has participated in televised celebrity poker games. Did not realise that the popular 2000 film Billy Elliot was one in which he had a role, because while it was being shot it was known as Dancers and he did not know it had undergone a title change. Is an ambassador for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Trivia: Has been a regular on British television since 1966, but is also well known for her theatre work, both in the West End and on Broadway. Has turned her hand to directing on a number of theatre productions. Won an Olivier award for Actress of the Year in a Musical as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls (1982), and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1984). It was announced that she would play Miss Marple in the long running, and highly popular ITV series in 2008 as a replacement for Geraldine McEwan.

Trivia: Supporting actor Cranham first appeared on screen in 1968.

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: Known for his film, TV and stage work. Went to the same high school as John Simm (though Simm is several years older) and played his father in the final episode of Life on Mars. Appeared in London's West End as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2001. Wrote and starred in short film Cracks In The Ceiling in 2002. Known for his role as Detective Sergeant John Bacchus, later promoted to Inspector, in the BBC drama Inspector George Gently. In 2016, played the role of Paul Hughes, the father of an autistic son, Joe, in the BBC drama The A Word. Voiced the part of Phillip De Nicholay, Sheriff of Nottingham in Hood: Noble Secrets in 2013 on BBC Radio 4.

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: On stage from 1951 and in films from 1952, British actress Prunella Scales blossomed as a character actress in the mid-1960s. As was the case with many English performers, Scales' tastes veered towards the Classics on stage (the character of Cherry in The Beaux' Stratagem was a particular favorite), while she tended to take whatever came along in films and on television. Her movie credits encompass such efforts as Hobson's Choice (1954), The Boys From Brazil (1978), Howard's End (1992), and, more recently, An Awfully Big Adventure (1995). TV fans the world over know Prunella as Sybil Fawlty, sharp-tongued wife of hotelier John Cleese, in the brief but memorable British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Prunella Scales is the wife of stage and film actor Timothy West, and the mother of actors Sam and Joseph West.

Trivia: Took time off his A-level studies to film The Royle Family and returned to school after the series getting the grades needed to get to university. Put his medical studies on hold to pursue acting. Has played football in semi-professional clubs whenever his schedule allows it. Is friends with Robbie Williams and has played for his football team. Is a suporter of Manchester United.

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

Trivia: Tall, gangly, and possessed of a frenetic intensity that lends itself to the highly eccentric and often borderline insane characters he plays, British actor Richard E. Grant is nothing if not one of the more distinctive performers to have gained celluloid immortality. His wild eyes and high-strung demeanor occasionally giving him an uncanny resemblance to a meerkat on speed, Grant has been delighting and shocking observers with both his on- and off-screen persona since his 1987 breakthrough in Withnail & I. Born Richard Grant Esterhuysen on May 5, 1957, in Mbabane, Swaziland, Grant had a somewhat distinctive upbringing, thanks in part to his father's job as the Swazi Minister of Education. His parents' divorce when the actor was 11, for example, was the source of a fair amount of scandal in South Africa. For his part, Grant knew early on that he wanted to be an actor, something that was fueled by an infatuation with Barbra Streisand and a steady diet of movies. He followed the career of Donald Sutherland with particularly rapt attention, as, like Grant, Sutherland was tall, thin, long-faced, and hailed from the middle of nowhere.After studying English and Drama at Cape Town University, where he co-founded the multi-racial, avant garde Troupe Theatre Company, Grant headed for London in 1982. He was greeted by a period of unemployment and frustration that lasted for almost five years. The actor eventually began finding work on the stage, and in 1984 was dubbed by Plays and Players magazine as "most promising newcomer" for his performance in Tramway Road at Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre. Ironically enough, given his years of struggle, it was Grant's portrayal of a bitter, pill-popping, unemployed actor in Bruce Robinson's black comedy Withnail & I that finally put him on the map. The film was a genuine cult classic, and Hollywood soon came sniffing around, if only to cast Grant in the 1988 demons-on-the-loose flop Warlock. The following year, the actor again tapped into his reserves of unpleasantness for Robinson, starring as a toxic advertising executive who develops a talking boil in the satirical How to Get Ahead in Advertising. Grant's hilariously vile characterization was considered by many to be the highlight of the film, and further paved the way for greater industry appreciation.Grant subsequently earned recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to a number of diverse and often peculiar roles in films of widely varying quality. Particularly memorable during the early to mid-'90s were portrayals Anais Nin's well-intentioned but dull husband in Henry & June (1990), the evil billionaire Darwin Mayflower in the spectacularly disappointing Hudson Hawk (1991), an overly insistent screenwriter in Robert Altman's The Player (1992), high society lounge lizard Larry Lefferts in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), and an outrageous fashion designer that Grant described as a "male Vivienne Westwood" in Altman's disastrous Pret-A-Porter (1994).Despite his eccentric persona, Grant has time and again proven himself more than capable of essaying straight man roles, as he demonstrated in such films as Jack and Sarah (1995), in which he played a grieving widower; The Portrait of a Lady (1996), in which he had a small but memorable role as one of Isabel Archer's most ardent suitors; and the made-for-TV The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999), which cast him as its titular hero. He has also continued to shine in films that impress upon his comedic abilities, as evidenced by his role as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night (1996) and his portrayal of a disgruntled advertising man in A Merry War (1997) (otherwise known as Keep the Aspidistra Flying), a satirical comedy based upon a novel by George Orwell.Enlisted again by Altman, Grant showed up alongside a star-studded ensemble cast in 2001's critically-acclaimed Gosford Park. Supporting roles continued to suit him well as he would later take on parts in Steven Fry's Bright Young Things and the 2004 John Malkovich-starrer Colour Me Kubrick.