Actor / Director Profile

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 school. His early work in theatres around the UK led to him being cast as Richard Loeb, one of the two Chicago "thrill killers" who murdered a nine-year-old boy in John Logan's factual play, "Never the Sinner", at London's Playhouse Theatre. His performance earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor in that year's Laurence Olivier Awards and has led to a highly respected theatre career, notably "Martin Yesterday" by Canadian writer Brad Fraser for which he received a M.E.N. nomination for Best Actor, "As You Like It" (TMA Supporting Actor award nomination), "All My Sons" receiving an Olivier Award and a Whatsonstage Award for Supporting Actor and, most recently, starring opposite Academy Award nominee Laura Linney in the Broadway revival of Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", for which he received a Tony Nomination for Best Actor, A Theatre World Award for Breakthrough Broadway Performance, a Drama Desk nomination for Distinguished Performance and an Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Performance.Ben's television breakthrough came playing philandering "Finn Bevan" in three seasons of the BAFTA-nominated BBC series "Cutting It" (2002). Other notable television work includes the late, great Frank Deasy's hard-hitting drama Real Men (2003) (TV) and the controversial "The Passion" (2008), playing "Caiaphas"; "Francis Walsingham" in "The Virgin Queen" (2005); HBO's Conspiracy (2001) (TV); Ian Fleming in Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005) (TV); the political thriller "The State Within" (2006) and, more recently, four seasons of the acclaimed ITV drama, "Law & Order: UK" (2009), as senior crown prosecutor "James Steel".His diverse film work includes the religious fanatic "Goat" in Doom (2005); "Leopold the Tutor" in Daisy von Scherler Mayer's Madeline (1998); neo-hippy "Tony" in Beautiful Thing (1996); "DJ Bob" in Michael Winterbottom's I Want You (1998/I); "Augustin Robert", the soldier who falls in love with a leopard, in Passion in the Desert (1997), the sadistic "Danny" in Noli's disturbing Married/Unmarried (2001) (V) and the upcoming _Luna (2011), written and directed by cult artist and graphic novelist Dave McKean.