Over 100 British Actors Whose Performances I've Enjoyed (alphabetical order)

1. Adeel Akhtar

Adeel was born in London on 18th September 1980 to a Pakistani father and a Kenyan mother and attended Cheltenham College throughout the 1990s. His father was keen for him to become a lawyer and he obtained a law degree but was more interested in acting and studied at the Actors' Studio in New York...

2. Roger Allam

Actor | V for Vendetta

Born October 26, 1953 in Bow, London, England as Roger William Allam, he is a British stage, television, film, and radio actor, best known for originating the role of Javert in the musical "Les Misérables", for playing Douglas Richardson in the radio series "Cabin Pressure" and for his roles as ...

3. Alun Armstrong

Actor | The Mummy Returns

Alun Armstrong is a British actor who is known for playing Cardinal Jinette from the Van Helsing franchise, Baltus Hafez from The Mummy Returns, Uncle Garrow from Eragon, the High Constable from Sleepy Hollow and Maxwell Randall from Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire. He is married to Sue ...

4. Lorraine Ashbourne

Actress | King Kong

Lorraine Ashbourne was born on January 7, 1961 in Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for King Kong (2005), Child 44 (2015) and Breathe (2017). She has been married to Andy Serkis since July 22, 2002. They have three children.

5. Sean Bean

Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sean Bean's career since the eighties spans theatre, radio, television and movies. Bean was born in Handsworth, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, to Rita (Tuckwood) and Brian Bean. He worked for his father's welding firm before he decided to become an actor. He attended RADA in London and appeared in a ...

6. Sanjeev Bhaskar

Actor | Yesterday

Sanjeev Bhaskar was born on October 31, 1963 in Ealing, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Yesterday (2019), The Kumars at No. 42 (2001) and Absolutely Anything (2015). He has been married to Meera Syal since January 21, 2005. They have one child.

7. Emily Blunt

Actress | Edge of Tomorrow

Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is a British actress known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and The Girl on the Train (2016), among many others.

Blunt was born on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of ...

8. Brenda Blethyn

Actress | Pride & Prejudice

After forty years of hard work on stage and both television and film, there are not many other actresses who deserved the success, recognition and stardom which Brenda Blethyn has now achieved.

Born in 1946 in Ramsgate, Kent, England, she started her career at British Rail in the 1960s. Saving money...

9. Mark Bonnar

Actor | Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Mark Bonnar was born on November 19, 1968 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He is an actor, known for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), Operation Mincemeat (2021) and Unforgotten (2015). He has been married to Lucy Gaskell since December 28, 2007. They have one child.

10. Hugh Bonneville

Actor | Downton Abbey

Hugh Bonneville is a British actor, known for his stage work at the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company as well as the West End. His extensive film and television work includes Twenty Twelve, W1A, Downton Abbey, Paddington, The Gold and I Came By. See his website hughbonneville.uk for ...

11. Kenneth Branagh

Actor | Henry V

Kenneth Charles Branagh was born on December 10, 1960, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to parents William Branagh, a plumber and carpenter, and Frances (Harper), both born in 1930. He has two siblings, William Branagh, Jr. (born 1955) and Joyce Branagh (born 1970). When he was nine, his family ...

12. Jim Broadbent

Actor | Moulin Rouge!

One of England's most versatile character actors, Jim Broadbent was born on May 24, 1949, in Lincolnshire, the youngest son of furniture maker Roy Laverick Broadbent and sculptress Doreen "Dee" (Findlay) Broadbent. Jim attended a Quaker boarding school in Reading before successfully applying for a ...

13. Andrew Buchan

Actor | All the Money in the World

Andrew Buchan was born on February 19, 1979 in Stockport, Cheshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for All the Money in the World (2017), Broadchurch (2013) and Garrow's Law (2009). He has been married to Amy Nuttall since September 8, 2012. They have one child.

14. Amelia Bullmore

Actress | Scott & Bailey

Amelia Bullmore was born on January 31, 1964 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Scott & Bailey (2011), This Life (1996) and Big Train (1998). She is married to Paul Higgins. They have two children.

15. Peter Capaldi

Actor | Doctor Who

Peter Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Nancy (Soutar) and Gerald John Capaldi. His parents owned an ice cream business. He is of Italian (from his paternal grandfather), Scottish, and Irish descent. Capaldi attended drama classes and was accepted into the Glasgow School of Art. After ...

16. Jim Carter

Actor | Transformers: The Last Knight

Jim Carter was born on August 19, 1948 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Downton Abbey (2019). He has been married to Imelda Staunton since October 1983. They have one child.

17. Rosie Cavaliero

Actress | Jane Eyre

Rosie Cavaliero was born on November 27, 1967 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is an actress, known for Jane Eyre (2011), Scoop (2006) and Vera Drake (2004).

18. Martin Clunes

Actor | Shakespeare in Love

Martin Clunes was born the son of the noted Shakespearean actor Alec Clunes. He was educated at the Royal Russell School in Surrey and the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, London. He made his television debut playing an alien prince opposite Peter Davison in Doctor Who: Snakedance: Part One (...

19. Robert James-Collier

Actor | Downton Abbey

Robert James-Collier was born on September 23, 1976 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. He is an actor, known for his role as Thomas Barrow in Downton Abbey (for which he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series), The Ritual (2017) and ...

20. Martin Compston

Actor | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Martin Compston grew up in Greenock, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire. He spent his teen years going to see soccer (football) team Celtic with his brother Barry and dreamed one day he would play for them. He attended St. Columba's High School in Gourock, Inverclyde, where he passed through his Standard ...

21. Olivia Colman

Actress | The Favourite

Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

22. Robbie Coltrane

Actor | Cracker

Robbie Coltrane, one of Britain's most popular comedians who was head of debating society at school and won prizes for his art, is now a film star who played in two James Bond films and in the "Harry Potter" franchise.

Coltrane was born Anthony Robert McMillan on March 30, 1950, in Rutherglen, a ...

23. Daniel Craig

Actor | Casino Royale

One of the British theatre's most famous faces, Daniel Craig, who waited tables as a struggling teenage actor with the National Youth Theatre, has gone on to star as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).

He was born ...

24. Bernard Cribbins

Actor | Frenzy

An actor since the age of 14, Bernard Cribbins had become a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s, but it was another ten years before he became a national star by his success in film comedies and with a string of hit records. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also ...

25. Benedict Cumberbatch

Actor | The Imitation Game

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born and raised in London, England. His parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch), are both actors. He is a grandson of submarine commander Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, and a great-grandson of diplomat Henry Arnold ...

26. Timothy Dalton

Actor | The Living Daylights

At a consistently lean 6' 2", green-eyed Timothy Dalton may very well be one of the last of the dying breed of swashbuckling, classically trained Shakespearean actors who have forged simultaneous successful careers in theater, television and film. He has been comparison-shopped roundly for stepping...

27. Arthur Darvill

Actor | Doctor Who

Thomas Arthur Darvill, known professionally as Arthur Darvill, is an English actor and musician. He is perhaps most recognized as Rory Williams, one of the Eleventh Doctor's companions in Doctor Who (2005), and as Rev. Paul Coates in Broadchurch (2013). In 2013-2014 he appeared in the lead role in ...

28. Charles De'Ath

Actor | Emmerdale Farm

Charles Lawrence De'Ath was born on 24th May 1968 in London to the BBC producer and columnist Wilfred De'Ath and his wife Erica and has an older sister Emma, an executive producer for the BBC's Open University programme. From 1979 to 1984 Charles attended Woolverstone Hall School in Suffolk before ...

29. Judi Dench

Actress | Skyfall

Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the ...

30. Ayesha Dharker

Actress | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Ayesha Dharker was born in 1977 in Bombay, India. She is an actress, known for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), The Father (2020) and Outsourced (2006).

31. Michelle Dockery

Actress | Downton Abbey

Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey (2010-2015), for which she has been nominated for three consecutive Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. She made her ...

32. Monica Dolan

Actress | Eye in the Sky

Monica was born in March 1969 into an Irish family and has a sister Gabrielle. She studied drama at the Guildhall School in London, graduating in 1991 and soon afterwards went into television. A supremely versatile character actress, she has tended to specialize in stunning portrayals of the darker...

33. Adrian Dunbar

Actor | The Crying Game

Adrian Dunbar was born on August 1, 1958 in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Crying Game (1992), Line of Duty (2012) and Hear My Song (1991). He has been married to Anna Nygh since 1986. They have one child.

34. Idris Elba

Actor | Beasts of No Nation

An only child, Idrissa Akuna Elba was born and raised in London, England. His father, Winston, is from Sierra Leone and worked at Ford Dagenham; his mother, Eve, is from Ghana and had a clerical duty. Idris attended school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting, before he dropped...

35. Christopher Eccleston

Actor | Thor: The Dark World

Christopher Eccleston trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and first came to public attention as Derek Bentley in Let Him Have It (1991). However, it was a regular role in the television series Cracker (1993) that made him a recognizable figure in the United Kingdom. He appeared in the ...

36. Steve Evets

Actor | Looking for Eric

Steve Evets was born on July 26, 1960 in Salford, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Looking for Eric (2009), Robin Hood (2010) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).

37. Shaun Evans

Actor | Cashback

Shaun Evans was born on March 6, 1980 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Cashback (2006), Endeavour (2012) and Being Julia (2004).

38. Colin Firth

Actor | A Single Man

Colin Andrew Firth was born into an academic family in Grayshott, Hampshire, England. His mother, Shirley Jean (Rolles), was a comparative religion lecturer at the Open University, and his father, David Norman Lewis Firth, lectured on history at Winchester University College (formerly King Alfred's...

39. James Fleet

Actor | Four Weddings and a Funeral

James Fleet was born on March 11, 1952 in Bilston, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Phantom of the Opera (2004) and Sense and Sensibility (1995). He has been married to Jane Booker since 1984. They have one child.

40. Claire Foy

Actress | First Man

Claire Elizabeth Foy (born 16 April 1984) is an English actress. She studied acting at the Liverpool John Moores University and the Oxford School of Drama and made her screen debut in the pilot of the supernatural comedy series Being Human, in 2008. Following her professional stage debut at the ...

41. Martin Freeman

Actor | Black Panther

Martin Freeman is an English actor, known for portraying Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, Tim Canterbury in the original UK version of sitcom mockumentary The Office (2001), Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama Sherlock (2010) and Lester Nygaard in the dark ...

42. Joanne Froggatt

Actress | Downton Abbey

Joanne was born at Littlebeck, Whitby and educated at Eskdale School, Sleights Pimary and Red Roofs Theatrical School, Berkshire, Her first jobs were at Booths Fine Food Cafe and Alexanders Fish Restaurant in Whitby. She made her television debut in The Bill but became well known when she played ...

43. Stephen Fry

Actor | Gosford Park

Writer, actor, comedian, doer of good works, excellent good friend to the famous and not, Fry lives in his London SW1 flat and his Norfolk house when not traveling. Famous for his public declaration of celibacy in the "Tatler" back in the 1980s, Emma Thompson has characterised her friend as "90 ...

44. Karen Gillan

Actress | Selfie

Karen Sheila Gillan was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland, as the only child of Marie Paterson and husband John Gillan, who is a singer and recording artist. She developed a love for acting very early on, attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at ...

45. Nicholas Gleaves

Actor | Spider-Man: Far from Home

Nicholas Gleaves was born in 1969 in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019), Half Light (2006) and Playing the Field (1998). He has been married to Lesley Sharp since February 1994. They have two children.

46. Philip Glenister

Actor | Kingdom of Heaven

Philip Glenister was born on February 10, 1963 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Life on Mars (2006) and Cranford (2007). He has been married to Beth Goddard since 2006. They have two children.

47. Robert Glenister

Actor | The Aeronauts

Robert Glenister (born 11 March 1960) is a popular British actor probably best known, among other roles, as con-man Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the hit British TV series Hustle (2004) and his appearances in MI-5 (2002). His impressive career has spanned nearly three decades, and he has starred in ...

48. Stephen Graham

Actor | This Is England

Stephen Graham was born August 3, 1973, in the small town of Kirkby, Lancashire, to a pediatric nurse mother and a social worker father. His paternal grandfather was Jamaican, and one of his grandmothers was Swedish. After years of small parts, he finally got his big break in an unexpected way, ...

49. Tamsin Greig

Actress | Green Wing

Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig is an English actress, narrator, and comedian. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom Black Books, Dr. Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing, Beverly Lincoln in British-American sitcom Episodes, and Jackie Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday ...

50. Jared Harris

Actor | Chernobyl

Jared Francis Harris was born in London, England. He is the son of Irish actor Richard Harris and Welsh actress Elizabeth Harris (Elizabeth Rees), and brother of Damian Harris and Jamie Harris. Despite his lineage, Jared showed little interest in becoming an actor, until he was cast in a college ...

51. Keeley Hawes

Actress | Bodyguard

Keeley Hawes was born on 10 February 1976 at St Mary's Hospital, London, England as Clare Julia Hawes. She is an actress and producer, known for The Bank Job (2008), High-Rise (2015) and Death at a Funeral (2007). She has been married to Matthew Macfadyen since 8 October 2004. They have two ...

52. Douglas Henshall

Actor | Shetland

Douglas Henshall was born in Glasgow, Scotland in November 1965. His mother was a nurse and his father a salesman. He is the youngest of three children and has two older sisters. He grew up in Barrhead and attended Barrhead High School. Whilst at school a friend asked him to join The Scottish Youth...

53. Tom Hiddleston

Actor | The Avengers

Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company. He started off at the preparatory ...

54. Ciarán Hinds

Actor | Belfast

Ciarán Hinds was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on February 9, 1953. He was one of five children and the only son. His father was a doctor who hoped to have Ciarán follow in his footsteps, but that was not to be. It was his mother Moya, an amateur actress, who was the real influence behind his ...

55. Tom Hollander

Actor | Pride & Prejudice

Tom Hollander was born the second child of educated parents, both teachers. He grew up in Oxford, (UK).

Hollander credits the happy atmosphere of the Dragon School with his childhood introduction to acting. There, encouraged by an influential teacher named Andrew Roberts, he won the title role in "...

56. Anthony Hopkins

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales, to Muriel Anne (Yeats) and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His parents were both of half Welsh and half English descent. Influenced by Richard Burton, he decided to study at College of Music and Drama and graduated in 1957. In 1965, ...

57. Kirby

Actress | The Good Place

Kirby is an actress who is best known for her memorable roles in "Killing Eve," "The Good Place," "Barry," "Why Women Kill," and "Veronica Mars." Her other television credits include "Infinity Train," "Love," 'Downward Dog," "House Of Lies," and "Comedy Bang! Bang!."

In 2021, Kirby was seen in the ...

58. Rhys Ifans

Actor | The Amazing Spider-Man

Rhys Ifans was born and raised in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, the son of teacher parents, Beti Wyn (Davies) and Eirwyn Evans. He was educated in two Welsh language schools - Ysgol Pentrecelyn, where his mother taught, and Ysgol Maes Garmon. During his childhood, Ifans showed an interest in...

59. Lee Ingleby

Actor | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Lee Ingleby was born on January 28, 1976 in Burnley, Lancashire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003).

60. Philip Jackson

Actor | Brassed Off

Philip Jackson was born on June 18, 1948 in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Brassed Off (1996), The Best Offer (2013) and Scum (1979). He is married to Sally Baxter. They have two children.

61. Derek Jacobi

Actor | Gosford Park

Preeminent British classical actor of the first post-Olivier generation, Derek Jacobi was knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre, and, in fact, is only the second to enjoy the honor of holding TWO knighthoods, Danish and English (Olivier was the other). Modest and unassuming in nature, ...

62. Adam James

Actor | Mr Bates vs. The Post Office

Adam was born on 9 September 1972. Adam trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1996. He worked extensively in both TV and Theatre early on in his career, receiving a Best Newcomer nomination at the M.E.N awards for his work at the Royal Exchange and then coming to ...

63. Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Actress | Without a Trace

Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress. She is known for her role in the 1996 comedy-drama film Secrets & Lies, for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award in the same category. ...

64. Alex Jennings

Actor | The Lady in the Van

Alex Jennings was born on May 10, 1957 in Essex, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Lady in the Van (2015), The Queen (2006) and The Wings of the Dove (1997). He has been married to Lesley Moors since 2012. They have two children.

65. Toby Jones

Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Widely regarded as one of the greatest stage and screen actors both in his native Great Britain and internationally, Toby Edward Heslewood Jones was born on September 7, 1966 in Hammersmith, London. His parents, Freddie Jones and Jennie Heslewood, are actors as well. Toby has two brothers: Rupert, ...

66. Daniel Kaluuya

Actor | Get Out

Daniel Kaluuya is a British actor and writer. He is best known for Get Out (2017), Black Panther (2018) and for portraying Fred Hampton in Judas & The Black Messiah (2021).

He had a supporting role in Sicario (2015).

He also starred in the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits".

For his work in...

67. Katherine Kelly

Actress | The Long Shadow

Katherine was born and raised in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. As the daughter of Irish parents, Katherine spent much of her childhood in County Kerry, Ireland and was also schooled in America, where she lived for a number of years. Since graduating from the prestigious Royal Academy of ...

68. Ford Kiernan

Actor | Still Game

Born in Scotland in 1962, Ford Kiernan was originally a tailor who branched out into comedy, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1995. His debut was appearing in his play, written with Greg Hemphill, "Still Game" (2002), which is now a hit sitcom in Scotland. He is married to Lesley, and ...

69. Rory Kinnear

Actor | The Imitation Game

Rory Michael Kinnear is an English actor and playwright who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. In 2014, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Shakespeare's villain Iago in the National Theatre production of Othello.

He is known for ...

70. Sarah Lancashire

Actress | Happy Valley

Sarah Lancashire was born on October 10, 1964 in Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Happy Valley (2014), Yesterday (2019) and Clocking Off (2000). She has been married to Peter Salmon since August 22, 2001. They have one child. She was previously married to ...

71. Hugh Laurie

Actor | House M.D.

Hugh was born in Oxford, England on June 11, 1959, to Patricia (Laidlaw) and William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, a doctor, both of Scottish descent. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge. Son of an Olympic gold medalist in the sport, he rowed for the England youth team (1977) and for ...

72. Anton Lesser

Actor | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

British actor Anton Lesser (b. 1952) has played many of the principal Shakespearian roles for the Royal Shakespeare Company (Associate Artist since 1990), including Petruchio, Romeo and Richard III. He is very active in radio (BBC) and spoken word audio. Over a dozen recordings range from Paradise ...

73. Adrian Lester

Actor | The Day After Tomorrow

Adrian Lester CBE was born on August 14, 1968 in Birmingham, England. He is a multi award winning actor and director, known for seven seasons of the hit TV show Hustle (2004), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and Primary Colors (1998) and his extensive classical work in the theatre playing Othello, ...

74. Natasha Little

Actress | Mr. Nobody

Natasha was born in Liverpool, England. Her mother (Mary) is a teacher and her father (Fred) is a NHS manager. For the first ten years of her life she lived in the Middle East where her father sent up immunisation clinics for the World Health Organisation, and her mother taught at an English ...

75. Phyllis Logan

Actress | Secrets & Lies

Phyllis Logan was born on January 11, 1956 in Paisley, Scotland, UK. She is an actress, known for Secrets & Lies (1996), Another Time, Another Place (1983) and Downton Abbey (2010). She has been married to Kevin McNally since August 15, 2011. They have one child.

76. Kelly Macdonald

Actress | No Country for Old Men

Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald was born and raised in Glasgow. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised by her mother, a sales executive in the garment industry. She has one brother, David. As a hobby, she acted in an amateur theatrical club, which she enjoyed a great deal. ...

77. Matthew Macfadyen

Actor | Succession

David Matthew Macfadyen was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to Meinir (Owen), a drama teacher and actress, and Martin Macfadyen, an oil executive. He is of Scottish and Welsh descent. Because of his father's career, he spent at least part of his childhood in Indonesia, before finishing his ...

78. Michael Maloney

Actor | The Young Victoria

Michael Maloney was born on June 19, 1957 in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Young Victoria (2009), Henry V (1989) and Notes on a Scandal (2006).

79. Lesley Manville

Actress | Phantom Thread

Lesley Manville was born on March 12, 1956 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. She is a multi award-winning actress of theatre, film, and television, and has worked extensively with director Mike Leigh. She is known for Another Year (2010), All or Nothing (2002), Topsy-Turvy (1999) and Secrets &...

80. Anna Maxwell Martin

Actress | Becoming Jane

The striking actress Anna Maxwell-Martin is a rising star on both stage and screen. Anna had dreamed all her life of becoming an actress even though her family had no background in the arts. She starred in school plays and an acclaimed production of "Breezeblock Park" in the role of Betty.

At the ...

81. Daniel Mays

Actor | The Bank Job

Daniel Alan Mays (born 31 March 1978) is an English actor.

Born the third of four boys, Mays was brought up in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, by his electrician father and bank cashier mother. He attended the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts before going on to win a place at the Royal Academy of ...

82. James McAvoy

Actor | Filth

McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to James, a bus driver, and Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a nurse. He was raised on a housing estate in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his maternal grandparents (James, a butcher, and Mary), after his parents divorced when James was 11. He went to St ...

83. Helen Mirren

Actress | The Queen

Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...

84. David Morrissey

Actor | The Walking Dead

David Morrissey started acting at Everyman's Youth Theatre in Liverpool, where he was born and raised. He made an auspicious debut in One Summer (1983), a series about two Liverpool runaways. Following a degree at RADA, he worked with the theatre company Cheek By Jowl. He has also worked at theatre...

85. Neil Morrissey

Actor | The Bounty

Neil Morrissey was born on July 4, 1962 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Bounty (1984), British Men Behaving Badly (1992) and Up 'n' Under (1998). He was previously married to Amanda Noar.

86. Bill Nighy

Actor | Love Actually

Bill Nighy is an award-winning British character actor. He was born William Francis Nighy on December 12, 1949 in Caterham, Surrey, England, to Catherine Josephine (Whittaker), a psychiatric nurse from Glasgow, and Alfred Martin Nighy, who was English-born and managed a garage in Croydon.

At school,...

87. James Norton

Actor | Little Women

James Norton was born in 1985 to two teachers and has a younger sister who is a doctor. Growing up in North Yorkshire he espoused acting at a very early age - playing Joseph in his primary school nativity play aged five - and, after leaving Ampleforth College he did work experience at the Stephen ...

88. Josh O'Connor

Actor | God's Own Country

Josh O'Connor is a British actor, originally from Cheltenham, England. He trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has become known to a wide audience for portraying Prince Charles in the Netflix series The Crown, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA.

He is also known from ...

89. Sophie Okonedo

Actress | Hotel Rwanda

Sophie Okonedo is a British actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda (2004).

Okonedo was born within London in 1968. Her parents were Henry Okonedo (1939-2009) and Joan Allman. Her father was British Nigerian ...

90. Gary Oldman

Actor | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Gary Oldman is a talented English movie star and character actor, renowned for his expressive acting style. One of the most celebrated thespians of his generation, with a diverse career encompassing theatre, film and television, he is known for his roles as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy (1986), ...

91. Clive Owen

Actor | Children of Men

British actor Clive Owen is one of a handful of stars who, though he is best known for his art house films, can handle more mainstream films with equal measures of grace and skill. Owen is typically cast as characters whose primary traits are a balance of physical strength, intellect, conflicting ...

92. David Oyelowo

Actor | Lawmen: Bass Reeves

David Oyelowo also known as 'David O', is a classically trained stage actor who has quickly become one of Hollywood's most sought-after talents. He graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and received the "Scholarship for Excellence" from Nicholas Hytner in 1998.

David ...

93. Craig Parkinson

Actor | Four Lions

Born March 11 1976 Craig Parkinson was brought up in his native Blackpool and attended Blackpool and Fylde College before, at age 17, moving to London to study at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. After several years in bit parts on TV, he came to notice as impresario Tony Wilson in the 2007 ...

94. Maxine Peake

Actress | The Theory of Everything

Maxine Peake is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton ...

95. Tessa Peake-Jones

Actress | Only Fools and Horses

Tessa Peake-Jones was born on May 9, 1957 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Only Fools and Horses (1981), Pride and Prejudice (1980) and Grantchester (2014).

96. Steve Pemberton

Actor | Inside No. 9

Steve Pemberton is a BAFTA winning actor and writer born in Blackburn, UK. He graduated from Bretton Hall in Yorkshire with a BA (Hons) in Theatre Arts in 1989. After leaving college Steve spent time producing and starring in small-scale theatre productions in London and working part-time for ...

97. Amanda Redman

Actress | Sexy Beast

Amanda Redman was born on August 12, 1957 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sexy Beast (2000), New Tricks (2003) and Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001). She has been married to Damian Schnabel since September 4, 2010. She was previously married to Robert Glenister...

98. Alan Rickman

Actor | Die Hard

Alan Rickman was born on a council estate in Acton, West London, to Margaret Doreen Rose (Bartlett), of English and Welsh descent, and Bernard Rickman, of Irish descent, who worked at a factory. Alan Rickman had an older brother (David), a younger brother (Michael), and a younger sister (Sheila). ...

99. Paul Ritter

Actor | Quantum of Solace

Versatile character actor Paul Ritter was born Simon Paul Adams in Gravesend, Kent on 20 December 1966. Whilst not from a show business family, he had strong thespian connections as his mother was a class-mate of comic actor Bernard Cribbins and his father attended the same school as the great ...

100. Amanda Root

Actress | The Forsyte Saga

Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programs.Root is known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, her role in the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004, and ...