Best actors who aren't big names

Kate Dickie was born on 24 April 1971 in East Kilbride, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Red Road (2006), Prometheus (2012) and Filth (2013).

Adam Godley is a British-American film, television and theatre actor. He has been nominated for numerous SAG, Tony and Olivier Awards. He began his professional acting career in the UK at the age of 9. He is best known for his roles in Breaking Bad, Suits, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and most recently as Archie in The Great. Also, The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway and in The West End. He lives in the USA with his partner the writer Jon Hartmere.

A seasoned character actress, the diminutive Sheila Reid was born into a military family in Glasgow, one of three siblings. She was educated at the Moreton Hall School in Shropshire and at London's Rose Bruford College. Her father encouraged her acting ambitions. From childhood, Sheila aspired to be on the stage. In her own words: "... I used to just live in the world of make-believe because I wasn't terribly keen on who I was. It was interesting because with acting I would play character roles, and where there were roles where you were playing yourself I found that the hardest thing of all - because I would have to strip it all away and be me." After further studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Sheila Reid graduated in 1958.

After formative years (1957-58) with the Colchester Repertory Company, Sheila became a member of the Royal National Theatre in 1963. She appeared as Bianca on the stage and in the National's filmed version of Othello, acting alongside Laurence Olivier (in the title role), Frank Finlay, Derek Jacobi and Maggie Smith. In between seasons with the ensemble of London's Old Vic (1965-70) and with the RSC (1991-93), she took breaks from the theatre to "go it alone and get a foothold in telly and films".

On screen from 1960, Sheila established her versatility across a wide range of genres, from police dramas (Z Cars (1962), The Bill (1984)) to science fiction (Doctor Who (2005), as Clara Oswald's paternal grandmother), from period drama (Lillie (1978), as Queen Victoria) to comedies (Hi-de-Hi! (1980), The Power of Parker (2023), Big Boys (2022)). Her regular role as the strong-willed matriarch Madge Harvey in the sitcom Benidorm (2007) is perhaps her best known. Other portrayals have included Lady Florrie in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980), the hysterical Mrs Buttle in Terry Gilliam's black comedy Brazil (1985), the Reverend Alice in Monarch of the Glen (2000) and the reclusive Lady Edna Forbes-Leith in a season Three episode of Father Brown (2013).

In 2011, Sheila Reid was presented with an Order of the British Empire for her services to drama.

David Dencik was born on 31 October 1974 in Sweden. He is an actor and producer, known for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), No Time to Die (2021) and The Homesman (2014).

Simon McBurney was born on 25 August 1957 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Jane Eyre (2011). He is married to Cassie Yukawa. They have three children.

Philip Martin Brown was born on 9 July 1956 in Manchester, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), The Bounty (1984) and Sleepy Hollow (1999). He is married to Elizabeth. They have two children.

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).

Noah George Taylor, the elder of two boys, was born in 1969 in London, England, to Maggie (Miller), a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. His family lived in both England and New Zealand before returning to his parents' native Australia in 1974. His parents divorced when he was a teenager and his father remarried--to theatre publicist, Suzie Howie. Noah left home at age 16 before graduating from University High School in Melbourne when he fell into acting. He decided to pursue his craft at St. Martin's Youth Theater. Despite his intense studies, the remote, slim-framed actor did not make his professional theater debut until March 1997 with Chekhov's "The Seagull."

His work at St. Martin's led to an auspicious debut playing the painfully shy and sensitive teen Danny Embling in the coming-of-age film The Year My Voice Broke (1987). This affecting performance lost none of its heart-tugging appeal when the sequel Flirting (1991) came out four years later. Noah won awards for both films. Unconventionally typecast as the gawky, gloomy-eyed, somewhat manic depressive, directors started lining up to use the young actor. It all culminated in what is arguably the best known performance of his career--as the young, tortured genius, pianist David Helfgott, in Shine (1996). Working in tandem with Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, who played Helfgott as an older adult, Noah's scenes with Armin Mueller-Stahl, who played the pianist's egregiously abusive father, were incredibly powerful and helped him to win the Film Critics Circle of Australia and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival awards. The variety of Noah's performances have been stunning over the years. He played a young Adolf Hitler in the drama Max (2002), a "what-if" spin on Hitler growing up as an angry tortured artist instead of a Fascist dictator following World War I. He played the darkly humorous protagonist in He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (2001) and the titular Jewish outcast in Simon Magus (1999).

Music, songwriting and art have been other strong passions for Noah. In 1994 he became part of a band called "The Honky Tonk Angels. A singer-guitarist, included in this band were Noah's co-stars from previous movies Loene Carmen and Kym Wilson. He has also formed other bands with such names as Cardboard Box Man, Flipper & Humphrey and The Thirteens, a country-western rock group.

American audiences have taken an equal "shine" to Noah recently, particularly as the manager of Stillwater in the popular film Almost Famous (2000); as Bryce in the popular adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and its sequel which both starring Angelina Jolie; a featured role in Vanilla Sky (2001) which starred Tom Cruise; and in the "Willy Wonka" extravaganza Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) as Mr. Bucket.

Kate Fleetwood is an English actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance as Lady Macbeth in Chichester Festival Theatre's Macbeth, which transferred to the West End and Broadway. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance as Julie in London Road at the National Theatre. She is patron of En Masse Theatre, and joint patron of Escape Insight Arts, Stratford-upon-Avon with her husband Rupert.

Fleetwood grew up near Stratford-upon-Avon and is a graduate of Exeter University. She attended Trinity Catholic School in Leamington Spa. She began her career at the Royal Shakespeare Company during her childhood.

She is married to Rupert Goold, who directed her in Macbeth; they have a son and a daughter.

Emily Meade was born in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for The Deuce (2017), The Leftovers (2014) and Nerve (2016).

Morfydd Clark is a Swedish-born Welsh actress. She is best known for Saint Maud (2019) and The Lord of the Rings TV Series.

For her work in Saint Maud she was nominated for Best Actress of the British Independent Film Awards, and the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

She also appears in The Falling (2014), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), Love & Friendship (2016), The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).

Her feature film debut was in Madame Bovary (2014), but she also starred in the short film Two Missing (2014), and had two works on TV.

Hiam Abbass, also Hiyam Abbas, is a Palestinian actress and film director. Abbass was born in Nazareth, Israel, to a Muslim Arab family. She was raised in the village of Deir Hanna. Since the late 1980s, she has lived in Paris and holds French citizenship. During the filming of the Steven Spielberg film Munich (2005), Abbass lived in a hotel with the Palestinian Arab and Israeli actors for three months. During that time, they had many discussions that "helped both sides grow closer." In an interview in 2006, Abbass said, "I still remember how difficult it was for the Arab actors to manhandle the Israeli actors in the first scene where the Israeli national team is taken hostage."

Diana Dale Dickey is an American actress who has worked in theater, film, and television. Dickey won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Merab in the 2010 independent drama film Winter's Bone. She is also known for her character roles in a number of mainstream and independent films as of the early 2000s, and for recurring performances in television shows such as My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad, True Blood, and Justified. She also appeared on the television series Vice Principals on HBO.

Beth Grant has the unique honor of having co-starred in three Academy Award winning Best Pictures - Barry Levinson's Rain Man, the Coen Brothers's No Country For Old Men and Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist. Furthering her reputation as an Oscar lucky charm was her work with Johnny Depp in Gore Verbinski's Rango, the Academy's Best Animated Feature. Grant received the Screen Actors Best Ensemble Award for No Country For Old Men and Dayton-Faris's Little Miss Sunshine.

Grant co-starred in David O. Russell's Amsterdam, playing Robert De Niro's wife, opposite Margot Robbie, Christian Bale and John David Washington. As a Southerner she is particularly proud of her critically acclaimed role as "Addy Bundren" in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying directed by James Franco, premiering at Cannes. Grant enjoys cult status with hits Donnie Darko, To Wong Foo and Sordid Lives.

Grant had a blast in a five-episode arc on the final season of Amazon's Goliath where she gave hell to Billy Bob Thornton, Nina Arianda, Bruce Dern, Jena Malone, and J.K. Simmons. Grant stars as Carlotta Mayfair on Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC, AMC+, two seasons as "Cat Lady" in Dollface with Kat Dennings on Hulu, and 6 seasons as fan favorite "Beverly" on The Mindy Project now on Fox, Hulu and Netflix.

Her 140+ films include Lucky with Harry Dean Stanton and David Lynch, Pablo Larrain's Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, Words On Bathroom Walls with Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men starring Nic Cage, and her four movies with Sandra Bullock - Speed, A Time To Kill, All About Steve and Bullock directed Making Sandwiches.

Grant delights in having created so many well known and popular, if often wacky, characters who she remembers as dear friends. Among her favorites are characters in Friends, Child's Play 2, Flatliners, CSI, Criminal Minds, The X-Files, Coach and recurring roles on Elmore Leonard's Maximum Bob, and Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events both directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.

She adored working with writer/director Todd Holland on The Wizard, Malcolm In The Middle, and Wonderfalls, co-created with Bryan Fuller who also wrote roles for her on Pushing Daisies, Mockingbird Lane and American Gods.

Beth Grant loves doing theatre! She received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, LA Stage Alliance Ovation, LA Weekly Award, Backstage West Award for Lead Actress in Del Shores's The Trials And Tribulations Of Trailer Trash Housewife. Grant starred Off Broadway in Tony George's Tricks The Devil Taught Me at The Minetta Lane Theater. Grant has won three Ovation Awards, including Lead Actress for Grace And Glorie at The Colony Theatre directed by Cameron Watson who also directed her in his beloved feature Our Very Own opposite Allison Janney, Robert Carradine and Jason Ritter.

Theatre credits also include world premieres by Maya Angelou, Romulus Linney, Horton Foote and Mark V. Olsen. Grant had two stints at The Ahmanson in Picnic with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gregory Harrison and Summer And Smoke, directed by renowned Broadway director Marshall Mason, starring Christopher Reeve.

Grant enjoys claiming several hometowns in the South from Ft. Payne, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia to Wilmington, North Carolina. She was a Page in the North Carolina Senate, attended the NC Governor's School for Gifted And Talented, was a two term president of the College Democrats at her Alma Mater, East Carolina University, and was Governor Robert Scott's appointee to Arts and Recreation Commission at age 19. Early on she studied film acting with Clu Gulager. In later year years she found an acting home as student of Milton Katselas's Master Class.

Grant is a co-executive producer on upcoming release of Flannery O'Connor's Wildcat directed by Ethan Hawke. She produced and plays the title role in Del Shores' film Blues For Willadean, co-starring with Octavia Spencer and Dale Dickey.

Grant directed a multi-award winning short, The Perfect Fit, also starring Spencer along with Lauren Miller Rogen, Ahna O'Reilly, Frances Fisher, Jennifer Zaborowski and Grant's daughter, Mary Chieffo.

Chieffo graduated with honors from The Juilliard School and is the first female Chancellor of The Klingon Empire on Star Trek: Discovery. Grant and her daughter produced Operation Othello with Julius Tennon and Viola Davis's JuVee Productions and Oculus Story Studio, wherein Chieffo re-imagined Shakespeare's Othello, playing his nemesis "Iago" as a woman.

Beth Grant has been married to Mary's father, actor Michael Chieffo, for 37 years. She attributes much of her success to them and to her family of origin, brother Bubba Grant, his wife Dr. Mary Grant, and Beth's always beloved and remembered parents, activist Southern Belle Libba and mild-mannered Southern Gentleman William Grant, all of whom supported her wild and crazy dreams. Beth Grant says she is the luckiest woman in Hollywood.

Stephen McKinley Henderson was born on 31 August 1949 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He is an actor, known for Fences (2016), Lady Bird (2017) and Civil War (2024). He has been married to Pamela Reed Henderson since 22 April 1978.

Gayle Rankin is a Scottish actress, best known as Sheila the She-Wolf in the TV series GLOW (2017). She also played the role of Queen Victoria in The Greatest Showman (2017) and Emily Dodson in HBO's Perry Mason (2020). Rankin trained at the Juilliard School in New York City, the first Scot to win a place there.

Isiah Whitlock Jr. was born on 13 September 1954 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for Da 5 Bloods (2020), Cedar Rapids (2011) and BlacKkKlansman (2018).

Jackie Hoffman was born on 29 November 1960. She is an actress and writer, known for Garden State (2004), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) and Glass Onion (2022).

Barry Shabaka Henley was born on 15 September 1954 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Collateral (2004), The Terminal (2004) and Rush Hour (1998).

Samantha Spiro was born on 20 June 1968 in Mill Hill, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Me Before You (2016), From Hell (2001) and Cor, Blimey! (2000). She has been married to Mark Leadbetter since February 2002. They have two children.

Selina Jane Griffiths was born to the popular actress Annette Crosbie (with whom there is a strong vocal similarity) and actor Michael Griffiths and has a brother Owen, two years older, who is a sound engineer. Brought up in Kingston-upon-Thames, Selina attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and, upon graduation, her first professional stage role was in the Restoration comedy 'The Way of the World' alongside Barbara Flynn, with whom she would later appear in the starry television adaptation of the novel 'Cranford' . On stage she has acted with the National Theatre in Michael Frayn's 'Afterlife' and 'Noises Off' and in the West End in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' and 'The Sea'. On television she has tended to appear frequently in sitcoms, playing the prudish Janet in The Smoking Room (2004), snappish alcoholic Pauline in Benidorm (2007) and Connie, a woman who should never be allowed to sing but frequently does, in Cuckoo (2012).

Tom York, is best known for his role of Sam Carne, in the award-winning BBC One period drama 'Poldark' - starring alongside Eleanor Tomlinson and Aiden Turner.

He was most recently seen in the STARZ production 'American Gods', in which he played Colonial Wednesday, the young version of Ian McShane's iconic one-eyed rogue. As well as, the ITV remake of 'Van Der Valk', which brought back one of television's most iconic detectives.

(16/06/22) Tom currently has two feature-length projects in post-production:

'Stopmotion' - a psychological-horror film opposite IFTA rising star award-winning actress Aisling Franciosi.

And

Playing the enigmatic Alexander the Great in 'Titans That Built The Ancient World' - a series of 2-hour epics, retelling the story of three of history's most iconic figures.

Further credits for television include his lead role of 'Hero' in SyFy's fantasy drama, 'Olympus' alongside Sonya Cassidy, 'Endeavour', FX series 'Tyrant', 'Midsomer Murders', 'Death in Paradise' and comedy-drama 'Agatha Rasin'.

Sean Harris was born in 1966 in Bethnal Green, London, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) and Harry Brown (2009).