BEST

1. Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan was born on October 14, 1965 in Middleton, Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Philomena (2013), Alan Partridge (2013) and 24 Hour Party People (2002). He was previously married to Caroline Hickman.

2. Ricky Gervais

Writer | The Office

Ricky Dene Gervais was born in a suburb of Reading, Berkshire, to Eva Sophia (House) and Lawrence Raymond Gervais, who was a hod carrier and labourer. His father was born in Ontario, Canada, of French-Canadian descent, and his mother was English. He was educated at Ashmead Comprehensive School and ...

3. Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Actress | Solo: A Star Wars Story

Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge is an English actress, producer, and writer. She created, wrote, and starred in the Channel 4 sitcom Crashing (2016) and the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016-2019). She was also the show-runner and executive producer for the first series of the BBC America thriller ...

4. 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 ...

5. 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 ...

6. Matt Berry

Actor | Toast of London

Matthew Charles Berry is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy series such as The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, What We Do in the Shadows, and Toast of London, the last of which he also co-created. The series ...

7. Thomasin McKenzie

Actress | Leave No Trace

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to actress Miranda Harcourt and director Stuart McKenzie. She is the granddaughter of actress Dame Kate Harcourt and Peter Harcourt. Peter's family founded the real estate company Harcourts International in Wellington. She has an elder...

8. Dylan Moran

Actor | Black Books

Irish comedian Dylan Moran was born in Navan, County Meath in 1971. Leaving school without any qualifications at age 16, Moran quickly became attracted to stand-up comedy and debuted, in 1992, at a comedy club in Dublin, The Comedy Cellar. A year later, he won the Channel Four comedy newcomer's "So...

9. Reece Shearsmith

Actor | The League of Gentlemen

Reece Shearsmith originates from Hull and is a talented writer and performer. Having graduated from Bretton Hall Drama College with a BA(hons) in Theatre Arts, he is a quarter of the award-winning comedy team The League of Gentlemen and has appeared in a variety of television shows and films. He ...

10. 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 ...

11. Mark Gatiss

Actor | The League of Gentlemen

Mark Gatiss is an accomplished author, actor and playwright. Originally from Sedgefield, County Durham, he graduated from Bretton Hall Drama College with a BA (honors) in Theatre Arts.

He was one-quarter of the award-winning comedy team The League of Gentlemen (1999), and became heavily involved in ...

12. 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 ...

13. 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.

14. David Walliams

Actor | Little Britain

David Walliams was born on August 20, 1971 in Banstead, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Little Britain (2003), Dinner for Schmucks (2010) and Run Fatboy Run (2007). He was previously married to Lara Stone.

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. Jessica Raine

Actress | An Adventure in Space and Time

Jessica was born in 1982 and brought up on a farm near Eardisley, Herefordshire. Wanting to act from an early age she read drama at the University of the West of England at Bristol before taking a gap year to teach English in Thailand. On return she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ...

17. Jessica Hynes

Actress | Shaun of the Dead

As both a writer and performer, Jessica Hynes has worked prolifically in television, film and theatre. Born in Lewisham, South London in 1972, she was brought up in Brighton, Sussex. At school, she would write bizarre sci-fi stories. At age 15, she joined the National Youth Theatre and left home at...

18. Daisy May Cooper

Actress | Am I Being Unreasonable?

Daisy May Cooper was born on August 1, 1986 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Am I Being Unreasonable? (2022), This Country (2017) and Avenue 5 (2020).

19. Joe Gilgun

Actor | Lockout

Joe Gilgun was born on March 9, 1984 in Chorley, Lancashire, England. He is an actor who first appeared in Coronation Street (1960) when he was only ten years old. Later he became known through Emmerdale Farm (1972) and the film This Is England (2006). He also appeared in its spin-off series This ...

20. Dan Clark

Actor | How Not to Live Your Life

Dan Clark was born on July 3, 1976 in England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for How Not to Live Your Life (2007), A Kind of Kidnapping (2023) and The Estate Agents (2000).

21. 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, ...

22. David Spade

Actor | Joe Dirt

Adept at playing comic brat extraordinaires both on film and TV, David Spade was born on July 22, 1964, in Birmingham, Michigan, the youngest of three brothers. He is the son of Judith J. (Meek), a writer and editor, and Wayne M. Spade, a sales rep, and is of German, English, Irish, and Scottish ...

23. George Segal

Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

George Segal was born on February 13, 1934 in New York City, New York, to Fannie Blanche (Bodkin) and George Segal Sr., a malt and hop agent. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. After a stint in the military, he made his bones as a stage actor before being cast in his first ...

24. Max Beesley

Actor | The Gentlemen

Max Beesley was born on April 16, 1971 in Burnage, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for The Gentlemen (2024), Hijack (2023) and The Outsider (2020). He is married to Jennifer Beesley. They have one child.

25. Neil Maskell

Actor | Hijack

Neil Maskell was born in 1976. From the age of eleven he attended the Anna Scher acting school in Islington in his native London and later studied at the Miskin Theatre at the North West Kent College,subsequently returning there as a director. He began acting as a teenager,making his television ...

26. Michael Sheen

Actor | Masters of Sex

Even though he had burned up the London stage for nearly a decade--and appeared in several films--Michael Sheen was not really "discovered" by American audiences until his critically-acclaimed turn as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1999 Broadway revival of "Amadeus".

Sheen was born in Newport, Wales...

27. Sharon Horgan

Actress | Catastrophe

Sharon Lorencia Horgan is an Irish actress, writer, director, comedian and producer. She is best known for the comedy series Pulling (2006-2009) and Catastrophe (2015-2019), both of which she starred in and co-wrote. She also created the HBO comedy series Divorce (2016-2019).

Horgan won the 2008 ...

28. 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 ...

29. Charlie Brooker

Writer | Black Mirror

Charlton "Charlie" Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English humourist, critic, author, screenwriter, producer, and television presenter. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the anthology series Black Mirror and has written for programmes such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show, and Nathan Barley...

30. Alain Delon

Actor | Le samouraï

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy childhood, being ...

31. 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 ...

32. Maimie McCoy

Actress | The Libertine

Maimie McCoy was born on April 21, 1979 in Staddlebridge, Northallerton, Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Libertine (2004), Virgin Territory (2007) and Early Days (2018).

33. 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 ...

34. 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 ...

35. Robson Green

Actor | Touching Evil

Robson Golightly Green was born on 18 December 1964 in Hexham, Northumberland, England, to Robson and Ann Green. He has two sisters, Dawn and Joanna; a wife, Vanya Seager; and a son (born in 2000). He began his TV/film career on Casualty (1986) as hospital porter Jimmy Powell. He then appeared in ...

36. Amanda Abbington

Actress | Sherlock

Amanda Abbington was born on February 28, 1974 in North London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Sherlock (2010), Crooked House (2017) and After You've Gone (2007).

37. Rik Mayall

Actor | The Young Ones

Rik Mayall, one of the first and foremost alternative comedians in the UK, was born in Matching Tye, a village just outside Harlow in Essex. His parents, John and Gillian, were both drama teachers. His acting debut was at the age of seven when he appeared in one of his father's stage plays. He met ...

38. Adrian Edmondson

Actor | Bancroft

Adrian Edmondson was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. He went to Manchester University to study drama. Whilst he was there he met Rik Mayall, and the pair began performing as 20th Century Coyote. The act continued after university when Adrian & Rik moved to London, and they became two of ...

39. 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...

40. 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 &...

41. Alex Lawther

Actor | The End of the F***ing World

Alex Lawther was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, England in 1995. He is known for his role as the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) for which he won the London Film Critics' Circle Award for "Young British Performer of the Year" in January of 2015. Being the youngest of three, and the ...

42. Jason Isaacs

Actor | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Jason Isaacs was born in Liverpool. He studied law at Bristol University but fell in love with the theatre and directed, produced and appeared in dozens of productions there, at the National Student Theatre Festival and at the Edinburgh Festival. He graduated in 1985 but then attended the Royal ...

43. Steven Robertson

Actor | Kingdom of Heaven

Born in Vidlin in the Shetland Islands, Steven Robertson overcame severe dyslexia to be named Student of the Year at Fife College in Kirkcaldy in recognition of his 'journey travelled'. After completing college he came to London to study drama at the Guildhall acting school, becoming the first ...

44. James Bradshaw

Actor | Endeavour

James Bradshaw was born on March 20, 1976 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Endeavour (2012), Close to the Enemy (2016) and Primeval (2007).

45. Sara Vickers

Actress | Sunshine on Leith

Sara Vickers grew up in Edinburgh. A stage and screen actor best known for her role as Joan Thursday, in ITV's Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour (2013-2016), as well as Sunshine on Leith (2013) and Shetland (2016). She moved to London to train at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), graduating in...

46. 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).

47. Abigail Thaw

Actress | Caring for the Recently Deceased

Abigail Thaw was born in London to John Thaw and Sally Alexander in October 1965. She was brought up by her mother and stepfather, Gareth Stedman Jones in a house in Pimlico. The Philippa Lowthorpe film "Misbehaviour" is loosely based on these early years. Alexander was an active member of the ...

48. 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 ...

49. Dakota Blue Richards

Actress | The Golden Compass

Dakota Blue Richards, was born at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in South Kensington, London but grew up in Brighton with her mother. She is of Prussian heritage on her Grandmother's side, and Irish on her father's. The name Dakota Blue was inspired by her mother's time spent with Native ...

50. Lauren Socha

Actress | Misfits

Lauren Marie Socha is an actress, known for her role in Misfits (2009).

She born June 9, 1990, in Derby, Derbyshire, England, to Kathleen (Lyons) and Robert Socha, and has Polish, English, Irish, and Italian ancestry. In 2010, Socha starred alongside Tim McInnerny in the short film Missing. She also...

51. Shaun Dooley

Actor | Kandahar Break

Shaun was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to Ann and Denis Dooley. He is an actor known for Misfits (2009).

He has two younger sisters, Stephanie Dooley and Kimberly Dooley.

Shaun is married to Polly Dooley.

Despite living in London, Shaun still attends all of Barnsley FC's home games.

Shaun won the...

52. Aris Retsos

Actor | Anametrisi

Aris Retsos was born in 1957 in Alexandria, Egypt. He is an actor, known for Anametrisi (1982), Oi apenanti (1981) and The Photograph (1986).

53. 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).

54. Morven Christie

Actress | The Bay

Morven Christie was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. She trained as an actor at Drama Centre London under Reuven Adiv, a colleague of Lee Strasberg.

Morven Christie took the lead role of DS Lisa Armstrong in ITV's hit 2019 series The Bay, with Morven's performance as the focus of the critical ...

55. Sally Bretton

Actress | Green Wing

Sally Bretton was born on April 23, 1980. She is an actress, known for Green Wing (2004), The Office (2001) and Outlaw (2007).

56. Kris Marshall

Actor | Love Actually

Kristopher Marshall is an English actor who has been starring in films, on television, and on stage for more than 20 years. He has played Nick Harper in "My Family", Colin Frissell in the 2003 film "Love Actually", Gratiano in "The Merchant of Venice", and Dave in the first series of "Citizen Khan"...