Seeking the Spotlight? How 10 Famous Actors Made Their Name

There are so many routes to get into acting: Drama school (or not), gaining a break-out role, being awarded a grant, a twist of fate, sheer hard work, and self-promotion are just some of them. When you delve into how the best British actors got to where they are today, it’s fascinating how their stories differ. Here are some of the most inspiring. 

Idris Elba

Known for: The Wire, Luther, The Suicide Squad
Education: National Youth Music Theatre
Agent: The Artists Partnership

Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE, otherwise known as Idris Elba, has enjoyed a stratospheric acting career since leaving Barking and Dagenham College in 1988 and winning a place in the National Youth Music Theatre after being given a Prince’s Trust grant. He saw a play audition advertised in The Stage newspaper – that role got him his first agent.

He started out with small parts, such as appearing in crime reconstructions for BBC’s Crimewatch, and supplemented his income with work in a car factory, tyre-fitting, and cold calling. He took on larger roles – in TV productions such as Absolutely Fabulous, The Bill, and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries – before his big break came in HBO’s The Wire, from 2002 to 2004. Film roles followed, including Concrete Cowboy, American Gangster, Prometheus, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and The Jungle Book.

Maxine Peake

Known for: Peterloo, Shameless, Silk
Education: Octagon Youth Theatre, Bolton
Agent: Maison Two

Maxine Peake has encountered plenty of barriers before finding herself on the road to success. From a working class family, she joined Bolton’s Octagon Youth Theatre aged 13, then progressed to the youth theatre at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. She then attended a two-year performing arts course at Salford College of Technology while simultaneously taking part in local amateur productions.

After an enthusiastic start, she struggled, receiving rejections from every theatre in education company in North West England before being turned down three times by Manchester Metropolitan University’s theatre school, and a further three by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Finally, aged 21, she was accepted by leading drama school RADA, supported by a scholarship. 

After that, her career soon took off, with a part in Victoria Wood’s BBC TV sitcom Dinnerladies and then appearances in many stage productions, including playing Hamlet in a landmark production, and television shows, including Shameless, Silk, and Black Mirror, and films such as Peterloo, Clubbed, and Funny Cow.

Meera Syal

Known for: The Kumars at No. 42, Paddington 2, Roar
Education: Stephen Joseph Studio
Agent: ARG Talent Agency

Meera Syal was inspired to become an actor when she saw a pantomime show, which she says is so important for children because it’s their first experience of theatre and live performance. She didn’t go to drama school, but studied English and drama at Manchester University, simultaneously joining the Stephen Joseph Studio to act and write stage plays.

She performed all 15 parts in a one-woman play she co-wrote called One of Us – first at the Stephen Joseph Studio, then the National Student Drama Festival, and then the Edinburgh Festival.

She has said that she considers herself “rubbish” at auditions and thinks the reason she avoided doing classical roles for many years was not feeling qualified enough to dare to try. However, she has enjoyed a long list of radio, stage, film, and television appearances including in Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars at No. 42, Jekyll, Doctor Who, Yesterday, and in her screenplay, Anita and Me.

Emily Blunt

Known for: Oppenheimer, The Girl on the Train, The Devil Wears Prada
Education: Hurtwood House boarding school (including two years of theatre studies)
Agent: The Artists Partnership

No doubt initially inspired by her mother Joanna Mackie, also an actor, Emily Blunt has achieved a stellar career with multiple awards, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe, and nominations for Oscars and BAFTAs. 

A childhood stutter left her struggling to take part in conversations at school, but one of her teachers encouraged her to act in a school play using character voices and different accents, which helped her overcome it. The play went to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where she was discovered and signed by an agent; she started to audition once she had completed her exams.

The star of Mary Poppins Returns, The Fall Guy, My Summer of Love, and more, Blunt was ranked by Forbes as one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020.

Danny Dyer

Known for: Rivals, Mr. Bigstuff, The Hooligan Factory
Education: No formal training
Agent: Independent Talent 

One of the best-known working class actors of his generation who has built a solid reputation for portraying “hard man” roles, Danny Dyer began acting in his teens, but lied about taking classes because he was bullied at school. His career began when an agent discovered him at a Sunday drama school for underprivileged children in North London in 1993; they were searching for someone to play the part of Martin Fletcher in Prime Suspect 3. Films followed, including Human Traffic, The Football Factory, The Business, and Andrea Arnold’s Oscar-winning Wasp, while on television he has appeared in Eastenders, Skins, and Hotel Babylon.

Olivia Colman

Known for: The Favourite, Wonka, Wicked Little Letters
Education: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Agent: United Agents

Olivia Colman has said that her mother’s ballet career (which she left to become a nurse) was inspiration for her own path as a professional actor. She graduated from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and adopted the stage name Olivia from her birth name Sarah Caroline because Equity already had an actress called Sarah Colman on its books.

She had studied at Cambridge University for a term, where she had auditioned for the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club and met David Mitchell and Robert Webb. This meeting was to prove fortuitous, as the pair later cast her in their sitcom Peep Show — which would be an enormously successful hit and Colman’s breakthrough role. 

Having won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, and two Emmys, Colman has shown herself to be one of the most versatile UK actors. Among her leading film roles are parts in The Favourite, The Father, The Lost Daughter, and Empire of Light, while television credits include Great Expectations, The Crown, and Fleabag. She has also worked in theatre and radio.

Martin Clunes

Known for: Men Behaving Badly, Doc Martin, Losing It
Education: Arts Educational Schools (ArtsEd)
Agent: Independent Talent

Martin Clunes’ father, Alec, was a Shakespearean actor, although he died when Martin was only 8 years old. However, his paternal grandparents were music hall entertainers, his uncle the actor Jeremy Brett, and his mother very stage struck, so it’s not hugely surprising he went into the profession. 

After studying at ArtsEd and being cast in a number of minor roles, he went on to star in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, the dramas Doc Martin and Manhunt, and films including Shakespeare in Love and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Angela Griffin

Known for: Waterloo Road, The Wives, White Lines
Education: Intake High School (now Leeds West Academy)
Agent: ARG Talent Agency

Angela Griffin grew up on the Cottingley Estate in Leeds. She first got the acting bug as a child, attending a Saturday amateur dramatics improvisational class. She didn’t go to drama school, and although she thinks it wasn’t necessary to have gone, she acknowledges that drama school is a chance for students to showcase work to prospective agents, which can lead to early signing. 

Her first professional job, aged 13, was an ITV children’s programme, and in 1992, she landed a part on Coronation Street. Other programmes she has starred in include Holby City, Inspector Lewis, Waterloo Road, Midsomer Murders, and The Suspect. In the theatre, she’s been in Gertrude’s Secret and The Tyler Sisters, while film credits include Last Chance Harvey and Choose or Die.

Jason Statham

Known for: The Fast and Furious franchise, The Expendables, The Transporter
Education: Great Yarmouth Grammar School (now Great Yarmouth Charter Academy)
Agent: Patrick Knapp

Best known for portraying tough characters in action-thriller films, Jason Statham’s journey to becoming one of the world’s most famous actors has been pretty unusual. He devoted 12 years to diving with the National Swimming Squad, worked as a model, and sold dubious goods to tourists on the streets of Knightsbridge in London — the latter secured him a way into acting. 

Film director Guy Ritchie wanted someone authentic to play a black-market salesman in his film Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and with Statham’s background selling goods on the streets, he fitted the bill.

He’s since become one of the industry’s most bankable stars, scooping roles in many films including The Beekeeper, Snatch, and The Meg.

Eddie Redmayne

Known for: The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl, Cabaret
Education: Jackie Palmer Stage School
Agent: United Agents

Eddie Redmayne’s love of performing was solidified when he joined the Jackie Palmer Stage School at the age of 10. He received a choral scholarship from private school St Paul’s Juniors, then a music scholarship at Eton College, and another choral scholarship to attend Cambridge University. However, he had no formal dramatic arts training.

His professional stage debut came in 2002 when, aged 20, he played the female part of Viola in a production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe. Two years later he won the Outstanding Newcomer award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his role in The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? Fortunately, some U.S. casting directors saw it, and film parts such as Savage Grace and The Good Shepherd swiftly followed – as did several more awards, including an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for the film The Theory of Everything. 

He’s gone on to star in such films as The Good Nurse, the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and Les Misérables, while TV productions include The Day of the Jackal, Birdsong, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles.