British & Irish actors & actresses under 35

Alexander Nathan Etel is a former English actor. His film debut was the starring role of Damian Cunningham in 2004's Millions, a family film directed by Danny Boyle. He played the lead in his second film, Jay Russell's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The film, based on a Dick King Smith story about a boy who adopts a monster sea creature, opened in North America on Christmas Day, 2007 and in other countries in early 2008. The film is set in Scotland during World War II, although all the scenes involving the creature itself were shot in New Zealand.

Etel also played the bright-eyed ragamuffin Harry Gregson in the six-part TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" for the BBC and WGBH, which was transmitted on BBC 1 in the autumn of 2007 and co-starred Philip Glenister, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Francesca Annis and Imelda Staunton. He reprised his role in the two-part second series entitled Return to Cranford.

He is currently scheduled to appear in two projects: From Time to Time, an adaptation of The Chimneys of Green Knowe directed by Julian Fellowes, and Easter Sixteen set in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916.

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 Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street. She was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress for her role in Eyewtness and won the 2010 British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomerfor the film In Our Name. She got Emmy nominations in 2012 and 2014 for Downton Abbey and a Golden Globe Best Actress in 2015

Emily Beecham was born on 12 May 1984 in Wythenshawe, Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Daphne (2017), Hail, Caesar! (2016) and The Pursuit of Love (2021).

Jessica Brown Findlay is an English actress. She is known for Emelia Conan-Doyle in the British comedy-drama Albatross (2011), Winter's Tale (2014), This Beautiful Fantastic (2016) and Lady Sybil Crawley in ITV's Downton Abbey (2010). She also starred in the TV series Misfits (2009) and mini-series Labyrinth (2012). In 2011, she starred in the Black Mirror (2011) episode, Fifteen Million Merits (2011). "Albatross" was her film debut.

Jessica was born in Cookham, Berkshire, to Beverley, a teacher's aide and nurse, and Christopher Brown-Findlay, who works in finance. She is of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Jessica trained with the National Youth Ballet and the Associates of the Royal Ballet. At age fifteen, she was invited to dance with the Kirov at the Royal Opera House for a summer season.

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 professional stage debut in His Dark Materials in 2004. For her role as Eliza Doolittle in the 2007 London revival of Pygmalion, she was nominated for the Evening Standard Award.

Laura Carmichael was born on 16 July 1986 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Downton Abbey (2019), Downton Abbey (2010) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

Matt Smith is an English actor who shot to fame in the UK aged 26 when he was cast by producer Steven Moffat as the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC's iconic science-fiction adventure series Doctor Who (2005).

Matthew Robert Smith was born and raised in Northampton, the son of Lynne (Fidler) and David Smith. He was educated at Northampton School For Boys. He studied Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. He got into acting through the National Youth Theatre and performed with the Royal Court and the National Theatre.

Smith made his television debut in The Ruby in the Smoke (2006) and won several further roles on television but was largely unknown when he was announced as the surprise choice for the role of the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who. He was younger than any other actor to have taken the role (Peter Davison was previously the youngest, aged 29 when he was cast in 1981). Smith starred in 49 episodes of Doctor Who (three short of his predecessor, David Tennant). He left in the momentous 50th anniversary year of the Doctor Who legend in 2013, which included starring in the 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor (2013), which found him acting with Tennant, guest star John Hurt and the oldest living and longest-serving actor to play the Doctor, Tom Baker.

Since leaving Doctor Who, Smith has launched himself into a film career.

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 her school, Charleston Academy.

At age 16, Karen decided she wanted to pursue her acting career further and, studied under the renowned theatre director Scott Johnston at the Performing Arts Studio Scotland. She later attended the prestigious Italia Conti Academy in London. During her first year, she landed a role on Rebus (2000) and soon appeared in a variety of programs including Channel 4's Stacked (2008) and The Kevin Bishop Show (2008), as well as a two-year stint on the long-running series Doctor Who (2005). Karen also stars in the film Outcast (2010), starring James Nesbitt. Her most recent starring role is as Eliza Dooley on the situation comedy Selfie (2014).

Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.

Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived with her younger sister and her mother. Her parents encouraged their children to explore their creative abilities. Gemma's sister, Hannah, liked to sing, whereas Gemma chose acting. During her teenage years, she was part of the Masquerade and Miskin theater companies, appearing in productions of The Massacre of Civitella and Guiding Star. In 2004, she won an award for Best Supporting Actress, which helped her to win a grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

Whilst studying at RADA, she landed her first professional role in Capturing Mary (2007), directed by Stephen Poliakoff and starring Maggie Smith. Gemma graduated from RADA in 2007 and won her first film role in St. Trinian's (2007). Her breakthrough role came in 2008, when she appeared in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008). In 2009, she was the winner of Empire's Best Newcomer Award.

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 Royal National Theatre, she played the title role in the BBC One miniseries Little Dorrit (2008), and made her film debut in the American historical fantasy drama Season of the Witch (2011). Following leading roles in the television series The Promise (2011) and Crossbones (2014), Foy received praise for portraying the ill-fated queen Anne Boleyn in the miniseries Wolf Hall (2015).

Foy gained international recognition for portraying the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown (2016-2017), for which she won a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, among other awards. In 2018, she starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane and portrayed Janet Shearon, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man. For the latter, she was nominated for the BAFTA and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Foy was born in Stockport. She has said that her mother, Caroline, comes from "a massive Irish family". Her maternal grandparents were from Dublin and Kildare, respectively. She grew up in Manchester and Leeds, the youngest of three children. Her family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire, for her father's job as a salesman for Rank Xerox. Her parents divorced when she was eight.

Foy attended Aylesbury High School, a girls' grammar school, from the age of twelve; she then attended Liverpool John Moores University, studying drama and screen studies. She also trained in a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama. She graduated in 2007 and moved to Peckham to share a house "with five friends from drama school".

Georgia May King (born 18 November 1986) is an Scottish actress. King is the daughter of actor Jonathan Hyde and opera singer Isobel Buchanan.

Although King grew up dreaming of being a director, she got her break into acting when she was eighteen and still working at a cheese shop, making her professional debut as Rosamond Oliver in Jane Eyre. She was nearly unable to play the role, however. A source stated that "a week before the day she began filming, King felt stomach pains, then had her appendix rupture. Her agent told the producers that she was unlikely to recover from the operation to remove it for at least ten days." Another actress was cast, but King recovered in time and was able to get the required medical clearance to film.

She is best known as Goldie, a surrogate mother in the American sitcom, The New Normal. Formerly, she was well known for her acclaimed performance as the tyrannical head-girl Harriet Bentley in 2008's Wild Child, and as cruel, conniving Sophie in the 2009 slasher film Tormented. Also in 2009 King received positive acclaim for her performance as the manipulative Victoria in the film Tanner Hall. She also performed in One Night in November at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, from October to November 2010, as well as being featured in the 2011 film Chalet Girl. She appeared as Princess Elena in the episode "The Changeling" of the third series of the BBC's Merlin. She appeared in the comedy horror film Cockneys vs Zombies as a bank robbery hostage trying to escape from a zombie-infested London.

King also appeared as series regular Amanda Snodgrass across both seasons in the 2016/2017 HBO comedy Vice Principals.

Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. After Kings Norton Girls School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A Levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants (2003)). She took time off from acting to attend school during her formative years, and has worked steadily since she graduated with a 2:1 from Wadham College, Oxford in 2006, where she read English. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.

On radio, she is known for playing the long-running role of Emma Grundy in The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden. Since 2006, Jones has appeared in numerous films, including Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), and The Tempest (2010). She stars in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Jyn Erso. Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy (2011) was met with critical acclaim garnering her numerous awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, her performance as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014) was also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 2019, Jones founded her own production company, Piecrust Productions with her brother, Alex Jones.

Russell Tovey was born on 14 November 1981 in Billericay Essex, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), The Good Liar (2019) and Grabbers (2012).

British actor Benjamin Thomas Barnes was born in Cambridge, England, to Patricia (Becker), a relationship therapist, and Thomas Barnes, a professor of psychiatry. He has a brother, Jack. His mother is from South Africa while his father is English.

Barnes studied at Homefield Preparatory and King's College, both independent all boys' schools. He began acting in musical theatre, including at the National Youth Music Theatre, and was a member of Hyrise, a boy band. In 2004, he graduated with BA Honours from Kingston University, where he studied drama and English literature.

In 2006, Barnes played Dakin in The History Boys on stage, and made his television debut on the series Doctors (2000). His first film was Matthew Vaughn's Stardust (2007), and his second major film role was the epic The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008), in which he played Prince Caspian. He next co-starred with Jessica Biel in Easy Virtue (2008), played the title role in Ol Parker's Dorian Gray (2009), and reprised his role, now as King Caspian, in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).

In 2011, he co-starred with Robert Sheehan, playing brothers, in Killing Bono (2011). He also had major roles in the films The Words (2012) and The Big Wedding (2013).

In 2015, Barnes played the title role in the fantasy adventure Seventh Son (2014), opposite Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. The same year, he portrayed American founding father Sam Adams in the History Channel mini-series Sons of Liberty (2015).

Sophie McShera was born on 17 May 1985 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Cinderella (2015), Downton Abbey (2010) and Galavant (2015).

Allen Leech was born on 18 May 1981 in Killiney, County Dublin, Ireland. He is an actor and producer, known for The Imitation Game (2014), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Downton Abbey (2010). He has been married to Jessica Blair Herman since 5 January 2019.

Thomas Howes was born in 1986 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Anna Karenina (2012), Downton Abbey (2010) and Dark Angel (2016).

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 school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He continued to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.

Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the Hamilton Hodell agency in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001). Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated (2007). His breakthrough role came when he portrayed the nemesis Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor (2011). He reprised the character in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). On television, he appeared on the BBC series The Hollow Crown (2012), in the adaptations of Shakespeare's "Henry IV" and "Henry V". In theatre, he has been in the productions of "Cymbeline" (2007) and "Ivanov" (2008). In December 2013, he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of "Coriolanus" which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in "Cymbeline" while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in "Othello".

Romola Garai was born on 6th August 1982. She is an English actress-writer-director who has worked extensively on film, television and theatre. As an actress she is known for her performances in films such as Atonement (2007), Angel (2007), I Capture the Castle (2003) and (Suffragette). On television her work includes her BAFTA nominated performance in The Crimson Petal and the White (2011), The Hour (2012), Born to Kill (2017) and The Miniaturist (2017). As a director her work includes the Sundance Best International Short Film nominated Scrubber. her debut feature, the horror film Amulet, will premiere in the Midnight Madness section at Sundance 2020.

Freema Agyeman is a British actress who is known for playing Martha Jones in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2007-2010), Alesha Phillips in crime procedural drama Law & Order: UK (2009-2011), Amanita Caplan in the Netflix science fiction drama Sense8 (2015-2018), and Dr. Helen Sharpe in the NBC medical procedural series New Amsterdam (2018-2022).

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 the theatre musical Once in the West End and on Broadway. Darvill's mother Ellie Darvill is an actress and during Arthur's early childhood she worked with masks, puppets and live acting as a member of Cannon Hill Theatre, which was based at Midlands Arts Centre, and toured Britain and the world. She is also known as the puppeteer and voice behind Why Bird from Playdays. Prior to the birth of his sister, Darvill went on some of the tours, helping with the setting up of the shows. His father Nigel played the Hammond organ for artists including Edwin Starr, Ruby Turner, Fine Young Cannibals and UB40. Darvill attended Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire from 1993 to 2000.

Eve Myles was born on 26 July 1978 in Ystradgynlais, Wales, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Torchwood (2006), Dragon Age II (2011) and Keeping Faith (2017). She has been married to Bradley Freegard since 18 May 2013. They have two children.

Billie Piper studied at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School. She caught the eyes of record producers who were interested in signing a young vocalist when she was the poster girl for the ad campaign of a British pop music magazine, "Smash Hits". She released her first single, "Because We Want To", which debuted at #1 at age 15. Her second single, "Girlfriend", was also a #1 hit. By the time she turned 16, Billie had released 4 singles that all made the top three on the charts. She has been labeled the "Pop Princess" of England, UK.

Andrew Russell Garfield was born in Los Angeles, California, to a British mother, Lynn, and American father, Richard Garfield. When he was three, he moved to Surrey, U.K., with his parents and older brother. He is of English and Polish Jewish heritage. Andrew was raised in a middle class family, and attended a private school, the City of London Freemen's School. He began acting in youth theatre productions while he was still at school. At age 19, he went to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

His first professional roles were on the stage and in 2005 he made his TV debut in the Channel 4 teen series Sugar Rush (2005) in the UK. More TV work followed (reaching a wider UK audience in a two-part story in the third season of Doctor Who (2005)), as well as a number of movie appearances. Garfield played Eduardo in The Social Network (2010) and Tommy in Never Let Me Go (2010), two films that brought him to full international attention. That same year, he was cast as the title character in the reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). He reprised the role in the sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), before passing off the torch to Tom Holland.

Resuming his work in drama films, Garfield starred in Ramin Bahrani's 99 Homes (2014), with Michael Shannon, Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge (2016), about real-life Seventh Day Adventist war hero Desmond Doss, and Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016), opposite Adam Driver, playing Jesuit priests. He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his role as Doss.

In 2017, he starred in Andy Serkis-directed drama Breathe (2017), where Garfield plays Robin Cavendish, an adventurous man paralyzed by polio. In 2018, he headlines David Robert Mitchell's noir thriller Under the Silver Lake (2018).

Carey Hannah Mulligan is a British actress. She was born May 28, 1985, in Westminster, London, England, to Nano (Booth), a university lecturer, and Stephen Mulligan, a hotel manager. Her mother is from Llandeilo, Wales, and Carey also has Irish and English ancestry.

Her first major appearance was playing Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005) alongside Keira Knightley, Judi Dench, and Donald Sutherland. Carey also played orphan Ada Clare in the BBC television series Bleak House (2005).

Carey has said that her passion and love for acting was first kindled at her old school Woldingham School, where she took part in a school production of "Sweet Charity" in her final year, and where she was also a student head of drama.

Carey is married to musician Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons.