The Best and the Brightest
by peterdi315 | created - 18 Mar 2012 | updated - 27 Jul 2012 | PublicSome of today's most talented young actors. Alphabetically.
1. Ben Aldridge
Actor | Knock at the Cabin
Ben Aldridge was born on November 12, 1985 in Exeter, Devon, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Knock at the Cabin (2023), Spoiler Alert (2022) and The Long Call (2021).
2. Ben Barnes
Actor | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
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 ...
3. Ryan Cartwright
Actor | Bones
Ryan Cartwright is best known for his work on Bones (2008-2011), Mad Men (2009), Mom (2014), Vacation (2015), Alphas (2011), and Kevin Can Wait (2016-2018). After working for many years in England on shows like Hardware (2003-2004), Donovan (2005-2006) and The Grimleys (1999-2001) Ryan moved to Los...
4. Henry Cavill
Actor | Man of Steel
Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill was born on the Bailiwick of Jersey, a British Crown dependency in the Channel Islands. His mother, Marianne (Dalgliesh), a housewife, was also born on Jersey, and is of Irish, Scottish and English ancestry. Henry's father, Colin Richard Cavill, a stockbroker, is of ...
5. Michael Cera
Actor | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Canadian actor Michael Cera was born in Brampton, Ontario, to parents who worked for Xerox. His mother, Linda, who is from Quebec, has English, Irish, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry, and his father, Luigi Cera, is Italian (from Sicily). Michael is the middle child between two sisters. He was educated...
6. Charlie Cox
Actor | The Theory of Everything
Charlie Thomas Cox was born in London, England, to Patricia C. A. (Harley) and Andrew Frederick Seaforth Cox, a publisher. He has English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, and descends from several prominent forebears (Baronets of Agnew and Carnegie, an Earl of Findlater, and a Colonial Governor of ...
7. 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 ...
8. Matt Czuchry
Actor | The Resident
Matt Czuchry is an American Actor and Producer known for his work on The Resident (2018), The Good Wife (2009) and Gilmore Girls (2000).
Matt graduated from College of Charleston with Summa Cum Laude honors, and B.A degrees in the disciplines of both History and Political Science. In his senior year...
9. John Dagleish
Actor | Zack Snyder's Justice League
John Dagleish was born in February 1981 in Kelvedon, Essex, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), Justice League (2017) and The Little Mermaid (2023).
10. Hugh Dancy
Actor | Hannibal
Talented British actor Hugh Dancy is one of the UK's most noted young talents.
Hugh Michael Horace Dancy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, to Sarah Ann (Birley), who works in academic publishing, and Jonathan Peter Dancy, a philosophy professor and writer. He has a brother, Jack (b...
11. Jesse Eisenberg
Actor | The Social Network
Curly haired and with a fast-talking voice, Jesse Eisenberg is a movie actor, known for his Academy Award nominated role as Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film The Social Network. He has also starred in the films The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, The Education of Charlie Banks, 30 Minutes or ...
12. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Actor | 12 Years a Slave
English actor, writer and director Chiwetel Ejiofor is renowned for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He is also known for playing Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things...
13. Barrett Foa
Actor | NCIS: Los Angeles
BARRETT FOA is best known as senior technical operator Eric Beale on all 12 seasons and 275+ episodes of the current hit CBS crime drama/comedy "NCIS: Los Angeles".
Prior to moving to LA, Foa starred on Broadway in the Tony-winning musicals AVENUE Q as Princeton/Rod, THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY ...
14. Ben Foster
Actor | Hell or High Water
Ben Foster was born October 29, 1980 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Gillian Kirwan and Steven Foster, restaurant owners. His younger brother is actor Jon Foster. His paternal grandparents were from Russian Jewish families that immigrated to Massachusetts (his grandfather became a prominent judge in ...
15. Laurence Fox
Actor | The Hole
RADA-trained Laurence Fox is the third son of the actor James Fox and his wife Mary. He is a British actor who has appeared in several important films, plays, and television programs.
He is also active in politics, founding a new political party named "Reclaim" in 2020 and he presents an opinion ...
16. Andrew Garfield
Actor | Hacksaw Ridge
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, ...
17. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor | Inception
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and ...
18. Ryan Gosling
Actor | Blue Valentine
Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, ...
19. Kit Harington
Actor | Game of Thrones
Kit Harington was born Christopher Catesby Harington in Acton, London, to Deborah Jane (Catesby), a former playwright, and David Richard Harington, a businessman. His mother named him after 16th-century British playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe, whose first name was shortened to Kit, a name ...
20. 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 ...
21. Freddie Highmore
Actor | Finding Neverland
Freddie Highmore is an English actor who came to prominence for his roles in Five Children and It (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
He was born Alfred Thomas Highmore in Camden Town, London, England, to Sue (Latimer), a talent agent, and Edward Thomas ...
22. Dulé Hill
Actor | Psych
Dulé Hill can currently be seen starring as the patriarch Bill Williams in ABC's re-imagining of "The Wonder Years". Inspired by the beloved award-winning series of the same name, the Peabody Award winning, "The Wonder Years" is a coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s that takes a nostalgic ...
23. Jonah Hill
Actor | 21 Jump Street
Jonah Hill was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of Sharon Feldstein (née Chalkin), a fashion designer and costume stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses. He is the brother of music manager Jordan Feldstein and actress Beanie Feldstein. He graduated from ...
24. Emile Hirsch
Actor | Into the Wild
Emile Davenport Hirsch was born in Palms, California, to Margaret Esther (Davenport), a teacher and visual artist, and David M. Hirsch, an entrepreneur and producer. He grew up in Los Angeles and Santa Fe, New Mexico, and having been introduced to acting while still at school, he got his first ...
25. Thomas Howes
Actor | Downton Abbey
Thomas Howes was born in 1986 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Downton Abbey (2010), Anna Karenina (2012) and Dark Angel (2016).
26. Sam Huntington
Actor | Detroit Rock City
A dynamic young actor, Sam Huntington was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, on April 1, 1982. His father is a cabinet maker and owns his own business. His mother, Christen Stabile, is an actress on stage and screen (most famously in Knots Landing (1979)). She also is a teacher and writer.
Sam ...
27. Josh Hutcherson
Actor | The Hunger Games
Joshua Ryan Hutcherson was born on October 12, 1992 in Union, Kentucky to Michelle Fightmaster, who worked for Delta Air Lines, and Chris Hutcherson, an EPA analyst. He has one younger brother, Connor Hutcherson. From the age of four, Josh knew that he wanted to be an actor. In order to pursue his ...
28. Jeremy Irvine
Actor | War Horse
Jeremy Irvine is an English stage and screen actor. He was born Jeremy William Fredric Smith in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, England. He attended one year of drama school at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before catching Hollywood's eye starring in Steven Spielberg's 2011 epic war film ...
29. 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 ...
30. Luke Kirby
Actor | Mambo Italiano
Luke Farrell Kirby is a Canadian actor. In 2019, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his guest role as Lenny Bruce on the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Kirby was born in Hamilton, Ontario, to American parents. His mother is from Brooklyn, New York, and his father grew up "along the ...
31. Allen Leech
Actor | The Imitation Game
Allen Leech was born on May 18, 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 January 5, 2019.
32. Richard Madden
Actor | Game of Thrones
Richard Madden, born 18 June 1986, is a Scottish stage, film, and television actor best known for portraying Robb Stark in the HBO series "Game of Thrones" and Prince Kit in Disney's "Cinderella." Starring as David Budd in the BBC miniseries "Bodyguard" has also brought him more international ...
33. 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 ...
34. 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.
35. Cillian Murphy
Actor | 28 Days Later...
Striking Irish actor Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, the oldest child of Brendan Murphy, who works for the Irish Department of Education, and a mother who is a teacher of French. He has three younger siblings. Murphy was educated at Presentation Brothers College, Cork. He went on to study law ...
36. Lucas Neff
Actor | Marriage Story
Lucas Neff was born in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, IL in 1985. The start of his acting career came about by mistake after he was assigned to the performing arts department at the University of Illinois. It was there that he graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Theatre in 2008....
37. Michael Peña
Actor | American Hustle
Michael Peña was born and raised in Chicago, to Nicolasa, a social worker, and Eleuterio Peña, who worked at a button factory. His parents were originally from Mexico. After graduating from high school, he went to an open casting call for the Peter Bogdanovich feature To Sir, with Love II (1996), ...
38. Danny Pino
Actor | Cold Case
Danny Pino was born on April 15, 1974 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Cold Case (2003), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999) and Dear Evan Hansen (2021). He has been married to Lilly Pino Bernal since February 15, 2002. They have two children.
39. Zachary Quinto
Actor | Star Trek
Zachary Quinto was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Margaret J. (McArdle), an Irish-American office worker, and Joseph John Quinto, an Italian-American barber. Zachary graduated from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, with the class of 1995, where he won Pittsburgh's Gene Kelly Award ...
40. Eddie Redmayne
Actor | Les Misérables
British actor Eddie Redmayne won the Academy Award for Best Actor (for The Theory of Everything (2014)).
Edward John David Redmayne was born and raised in London, England, the son of Patricia (Burke) and Richard Charles Tunstall Redmayne, a businessman. His great-grandfather was Sir Richard ...
41. J. August Richards
Actor | Angel
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in the Maryland suburb of Bladensburg, Richards discovered his love for acting at an early age and enrolled in a performing arts high school where he appeared in several plays a year. Academically confident and determined to move out to Los Angeles to pursue his...
42. James Roday Rodriguez
Actor | Psych
James David Rodríguez was born on April 4, 1976. He is the son of Jim Rodríguez and Deborah Collins. Roday was born in San Antonio. He attended Taft High School. He studied theater at New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing, where he earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. He has acted in ...
43. Dan Stevens
Actor | Downton Abbey
Dan Stevens was born at Croydon in Surrey on 10th October 1982. His parents are teachers. He was educated at Tonbridge School and trained in acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. He studied English Literature at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Whilst he was a Cambridge undergraduate, ...
44. Patrick Wilson
Actor | The Phantom of the Opera
Patrick Joseph Wilson was born in Norfolk, Virginia and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, the son of Mary Kathryn (Burton), a voice teacher and professional singer, and John Franklin Wilson, a news anchor.
Wilson has a B.F.A. in Drama from Carnegie-Mellon University. His theater work has produced ...
45. Sam Witwer
Actor | The Mist
Sam Witwer headlines the SyFy series, Being Human, the U.S. adaptation of the popular British television series. The darkly humorous, provocative drama stars Sam as the heroic, "Aidan", a sensual and brooding vampire. His excellent work was noticed soon after the show's premiere, as Sam received a ...
46. Anton Yelchin
Actor | Star Trek
Anton Yelchin was an American actor, known for playing Bobby in Hearts in Atlantis (2001), Chekov in the Star Trek (2009) reboot, Charlie Brewster in the Fright Night (2011) remake, and Jacob in Like Crazy (2011).
He was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, USSR, to a Jewish family. His ...
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