Dan Stevens

Early life

Stevens was born in Croydon, London. He was adopted at birth, by parents who were both teachers, and grew up in Wales and southeast England. He has a younger brother who was also adopted. After a rebellious youth, Stevens boarded on a scholarship at Tonbridge School, an independent school in Kent. There he became interested in drama after auditioning for the title role in Macbeth with his teacher, novelist Jonathan Smith. From the age of 15, he spent his summers training and performing with the National Youth Theatre in London.

Stevens studied English Literature at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Footlights with Stefan Golaszewski, Tim Key and Mark Watson, and was also active in the Marlowe Society. He was first spotted by director Peter Hall at a Marlowe Society production of Macbeth, in which he played the title character alongside Hall's daughter.

Career

In 2004, Stevens began his professional acting career when Peter Hall cast him as Orlando in his touring production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The tour took the production to the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames, the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City, the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. His debut performance earned him glowing reviews from prominent critics in Britain and the United States, as well as a commendation at the 2004 Ian Charleson Awards.

In 2006, Stevens starred as Nick Guest in the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty. Later that year he played Simon Bliss in Hay Fever by Noël Coward at London's Haymarket Theatre, alongside Peter Bowles and Dame Judi Dench; the director was Peter Hall. He also performed as Lord Holmwood in an adaptation of Dracula for the BBC, and as Basil Brookes in the BBC Emmy-award-winning film, Maxwell. That same year, he was named one of Screen International's 2006 Stars Of Tomorrow.

In 2008, Stevens appeared in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, Sense & Sensibility, playing Edward Ferrars, and the West End revival of Noël Coward's The Vortex. In January 2009 he appeared on New Year's Day in Agatha Christie's Marple: Nemesis on ITV1 in Britain. In June 2009 he returned to the West End, playing Septimus Hodge in an acclaimed revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York's Theatre.

In 2010, Stevens got his biggest break when he was cast as Matthew Crawley in the ITV series Downton Abbey, created and written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes. The series went on to be a global sensation, and has been nominated for several Emmy, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards since its debut. The central love story of Matthew Crawley and his distant cousin, Lady Mary Crawley, played by Michelle Dockery, was enormously popular. Stevens left the series after finishing the third season and the Christmas Special in 2012. His exit caused a huge uproar with fans, who notably took to Twitter and other social media sites to express their anger at the character's death.

In November 2011, Stevens guest-hosted an episode of Have I Got News for You. In March 2012 he completed shooting Vamps, the latest film from Amy Heckerling, and Summer in February, an Edwardian romance film set in an artist colony. In 2012, Stevens moved with his family to New York City, when he made his Broadway debut that year opposite Jessica Chastain and David Strathairn in The Heiress.

In 2014, Stevens starred in the independent film The Guest, winning critical acclaim for his portrayal of a recently discharged army veteran who goes on a killing spree to protect his true identity. He earned a Saturn Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance. Also in 2014, he appeared in the magic realism comedy-drama film The Cobbler, and in the dark action film A Walk Among the Tombstones. He played a simulacrum of Sir Lancelot in the 2014 comedy film Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.

In March 2015, it was announced that Stevens would play the Beast, opposite Emma Watson as Belle, in Disney's live-action remake adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. The film was released in March 2017. It would go on to earn $1.26 billion in world-wide box office revenue, making it the #1 movie of 2017 (so far), and the 10th highest-grossing film of all time.

In February 2016, Stevens was cast in the lead role of David Charles Haller in the FX series Legion, an X-Men-related drama created by Noah Hawley. The series began airing in February 2017, and in mid-March, following critical acclaim, was renewed for a second season.

Stevens will next appear in Marshall with Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, and Kate Hudson, and The Man Who Invented Christmas, directed by Bharat Nalluri, and co-starring Christopher Plummer and Jonathan Pryce.

Other work

Stevens has narrated over 31 audiobooks, including Casino Royale, Wolf Hall and War Horse. In 2014, he was nominated for two Audie Awards, in the Classic category and Solo Narration (Male) category for Frankenstein.

Outside acting, Stevens maintains an interest in writing and literature and is editor-at-large for The Junket, an online quarterly which he co-founded in 2011 with some friends. He was a member of the judging panel for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and was a regular columnist for the Sunday Telegraph.

A cricket enthusiast, he made his "debut" for the Authors XI team in 2012 and also contributed to the book The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Cricket Society and M.C.C. Book of the Year Award.

Personal life

In 2009, Stevens married South African jazz singer and singing teacher Susie Hariet. They met in 2006, when appearing at different theatres in Sheffield. They have a daughter named Willow (born 2009), a son named Aubrey (born 2012), and a third child named Eden (born 2016). Actress Rebecca Hall is godmother to his daughter Willow.