Daniel Mays

DANIEL MAYS was born in Epping, Essex, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Since graduating in 2000, he has won widespread critical acclaim for roles in a diverse number of film, television and theatre productions.

Mays first rose to prominence in 2001, when the British director Mike Leigh cast him in his film All or Nothing, for which he garnered critical raves. He reunited with Leigh, starring alongside Imelda Staunton, in the drama Vera Drake, which was nominated for three Academy Awards, 3 BAFTA Awards and 6 British Independent Film Awards, including Best British Independent Film.

His film credits include Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor, Ridley Scott's A Good Year, and the powerfully religious Irish period drama Middletown, directed by Brian Kirk. In the summer of 2006, Mays filmed the role of Tommy Nettle, alongside James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, in the multi-award winning Atonement, adapted from Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, directed by Joe Wright.

Additionally, he has starred in Hippie Hippie Shake, opposite Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller, about the counter-culturalist Richard Neville's misadventures in London at the end of the 1960s; the hit movie, The Bank Job, directed by Roger Donaldson and co-starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows; Nigel Cole's acclaimed Made in Dagenham, opposite Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson and Bob Hoskins; and the British thriller Shifty, which premiered to a rapturous reception at the London Film Festival, and was nominated for five British Independent Film Awards, including one for Mays in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Mays' career on stage has also earned many plaudits. In 2004, Ramin Gray cast him in Vassily Sigarev's arresting play Ladybird. At the Royal Court, he has appeared in Scarborough and the back-to-back plays, The Winterling by Jez Butterworth, and Simon Stephen's Motortown.

On television, he played the lead character of Carter Kranz in the BAFTA-nominated BBC 3 series Funland. He also starred in the ITV drama, Half Broken Things, and the BAFTA-winning Abi Morgan film White Girl for BBC 2. He was also cast in Nick Love's remake of The Firm, and on the hit Channel 4 sitcom Plus One, as well as Channel Four's landmark trilogy of films, Red Riding, for which he garnered overwhelming critical praise.

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