Great British TV Actors
by sje0211 | created - 24 Jun 2014 | updated - 23 Dec 2016 | Public
1. John Simm
Actor | Human Traffic
John Simm was born on 10 July 1970 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and grew up in Nelson, Lancashire. He attended Edge End High School, Nelson, Lancashire, followed by Blackpool Drama College at 16 and the Drama Centre, London, at 19. He lives with his wife, actress Kate Magowan, and their children Ryan ...
2. Marc Warren
Actor | Wanted
Marc Warren is an English actor, known for his British television roles. His roles have included Albert Blithe in Band of Brothers, Danny Blue in Hustle, Dougie Raymond in The Vice, Dominic Foy in State of Play, Rick in Mad Dogs, the Comte DE Rochefort in The Musketeers and the Gentleman in ...
3. 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 ...
4. Rupert Penry-Jones
Actor | Spooks
Rupert Penry-Jones was born on September 22, 1970 in London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for MI-5 (2002), Match Point (2005) and The Four Feathers (2002). He has been married to Dervla Kirwan since August 2007. They have two children.
5. Andrew Lee Potts
Actor | The Witcher
Andrew was born on 29 October 1979 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK to dad Alan and mum Susan. He has a sister, Sarah-Jane, who is also an actor. He studied at Leeds Performing Arts School and started out in musical theatre. He is now a veteran TV actor and has been in a catalogue of all ...
6. 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.
7. 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 ...
8. 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 ...
9. 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 ...
10. 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 ...
11. Matthew McNulty
Actor | The Rising
Matthew McNulty was born on December 14, 1982 in Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor, known for The Rising (2022), Domina (2021) and Deadwater Fell (2020). He is married to Katie. They have three children.
12. Ben Daniels
Actor | The Exorcist
Ben Daniels is a multi-award winning performer who is equally at home whether working in Film, Television or Theatre. He was born in the Midlands and became interested in acting through drama lessons while at comprehensive school. He began his career after leaving London's prestigious LAMDA drama ...
13. Mark Addy
Actor | The Full Monty
Born in York, on leaving school he started work as a stage hand at York's Theatre Royal and later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art .from 1982 to 1984 after which he joined such companies as Hull Truck Theatre and The Royal National Theatre. He achieved international fame in his film debut...
14. Ray Winstone
Actor | The Departed
Ray Winstone was born on February 19, 1957, in Hackney Hospital in London, England, to Margaret (Richardson) and Raymond J. Winstone. He moved to Enfield, at age seven, where his parents had a fruit and vegetable business. He started boxing at the age of twelve at the famous Repton Amateur Boxing ...
15. 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...
16. Hugo Speer
Actor | The Musketeers
Hugo Speer was born on March 17, 1968 in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for The Musketeers (2014), Shadow and Bone (2021) and Bleak House (2005). He has been married to Vivienne Harvey since February 19, 2015.
17. Sarah Parish
Actress | The Wedding Date
Sarah Parish was born on June 7, 1968 in Yeovil, Somerset, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for The Wedding Date (2005), The Holiday (2006) and Blackpool (2004). She has been married to James Murray since December 15, 2007. They have two children.
18. Phil Davis
Actor | Vera Drake
Phil Davis was born on July 30, 1953 in Grays, Essex, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Vera Drake (2004), Bleak House (2005) and Alien³ (1992). He has been married to Eve Matheson since 2002. They have one child.
19. Rufus Sewell
Actor | Dark City
Rufus Sewell was born on the 29th of October 1967 in Twickenham, England. His mother, Jo, was Welsh, and was an artist and painter. His father, Bill Sewell, was an English-Australian animator who was born in Australia to English parents and died when Rufus was 10. He has one brother, Caspar. He ...
20. Hermione Norris
Actress | Spooks
Hermione Norris was born on February 12, 1967 in Paddington, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for MI-5 (2002), Wire in the Blood (2002) and Cold Feet (1997). She has been married to Simon Wheeler since December 2002. They have two children.
21. James D'Arcy
Actor | Cloud Atlas
James D'Arcy was born Simon Richard D'Arcy in London, England, to Caroline (O'Connor) and Richard D'Arcy. He was raised by his mother, a nurse. He trained at LAMDA and graduated in July 1995. During his three-year course, he gained acting experience by appearing in the plays "Heracles", "As You ...
22. David Harewood
Actor | Blood Diamond
David Harewood was born on December 8, 1965 in Birmingham, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Blood Diamond (2006), The Merchant of Venice (2004) and Supergirl (2015). He has been married to Kirsty Handy since February 26, 2013. They have two children.
23. Suranne Jones
Actress | Doctor Foster
Suranne Jones was born on August 27, 1978 in Greater Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned (2015), Scott & Bailey (2011) and Coronation Street (1960). She has been married to Laurence Akers since August 4, 2015. They have one child.
24. Stephen Tompkinson
Actor | Brassed Off
Stephen Tompkinson was born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham in October 1965. His grandad (who Stephen describes as "a comic genius") inspired him to take up acting and he attended the Central Drama School, which he left at the age of 23. He has rarely been out of work since and has worked on the...
25. Richard Armitage
Actor | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Richard Crispin Armitage was born and raised in Leicester, England, to Margaret (Hendey), a secretary, and John Armitage, an engineer. He attended Pattison College in Binley Road, Coventry, where he discovered his love for acting. He took part in many theatre productions all over the UK, from ...
26. Mark Benton
Actor | Anna and the Apocalypse
Mark Benton was born on November 16, 1965 in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), Early Doors (2003) and The Second Coming (2003). He has been married to Sarah Gardner since 2002. They have three children.
27. Kevin McNally
Actor | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Kevin McNally was born on April 27, 1956, in Bristol, England. He grew up in Birmingham where he attended Redhill and Mapledene Junior schools and Central Grammar School for Boys. At the age of 16, he got his first job at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. A year later he received a scholarship to the ...
28. 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...
29. Aidan Gillen
Actor | Game of Thrones
Aidan Gillen is an Irish actor. He is best known for portraying Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011), CIA operative Bill Wilson in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series Queer as Folk (1999), John Boy in the RTÉ Television series ...
30. Bill Paterson
Actor | The Witches
Bill Paterson was born on June 3, 1945 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Witches (1990), Miss Potter (2006) and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008). He has been married to Hildegard Bechtler since 1984. They have two children.
31. Harriet Walter
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Dame Harriet Mary Walter DBE is a British actress. She has received a Laurence Olivier Award as well as numerous nominations including for a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) ...
32. 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 ...
33. Andrew Lincoln
Actor | The Walking Dead
Andrew Lincoln is a British actor. Lincoln spent his early childhood in Hull, Yorkshire before his family relocated to Bath, Somerset when he was age 10. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School in Bath, and then the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His father is a civil engineer...
34. 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...
35. Tom Hardy
Actor | Inception
With his breakthrough performance as Eames in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller Inception (2010), English actor Tom Hardy has been brought to the attention of mainstream audiences worldwide. However, the versatile actor has been steadily working on both stage and screen since his television debut...
36. Aidan Turner
Actor | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Aidan Turner was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. After graduating from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004, Aidan appeared in a number of stage productions, many with Ireland's national theatre, The Abbey. Such productions included The Plough & The Stars, Romeo & Juliet and A Cry from Heaven. In ...
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