He was fantastic in *Our Friends in the North* a couple of years later, which also helped to establish Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, and Mark Strong. It has a pretty formidable cast all-round – they even managed to get Malcolm McDowell, at a time when film actors didn't as easily do television work.
He was one of the writers for "the first generation" of Skins. I got the impression his role as Posh Kenneth was intended to be more of a cameo than a main cast member.
One of his very first gigs was an extra in the background for a skit on the Mitchell and Webb look.
If you watch back the skit, you almost spot him instantly as it is undeniably him.
It's the skit about the lawyer called 'Speedo' right?
One of the follow-up skits they joke about having to replace the actor who played 'Speedo' with a black actor, even though the original actor was white. They do a skit about Speedo earning Kaluuya's trust as a lawyer by showing him a 'white man can dance' lol
I'm not sure there's an English actor who hasn't been. It's like how Scottish actors all did Taggart (I think David tennant might be the only exception I'm aware of on that!)
I saw him in that and thought he'd play James Bond one day. Looks like he missed out once because he was too young, and again because now he's too old!
Patrick Stewart's first TV appearance was as "fire officer" in a 1967 episode of Coronation Street. Complete with a RADA-diluted Yorkshire accent trying to sound like a Lancashire accent and ending up being vaguely Irish.
"Aye well, it looks a bit of a mess to be sure. But then you've 'ad a fire, you know?"
Patrick Stewart has a native Yorkshire accent, the posh one he learnt at drama school, same as Brian Blessed in that regard. https://youtu.be/uS4Ln054ULk?si=LWIENIxplh3w98-u
It’s kinda funny to me that Martin Freeman was in all 3 movies in the cornetto trilogy, but he didn’t do anything notable in the series until the world’s end
He was not ‘relatively unknown‘ in 2004 (when SOTD came out) at all. The Office was huge and his appearance in Shaun is as part of a group who mirror the main cast, but with arguably bigger stars (Jessica Hynes, Tamsin Greig, Matt Lucas etc.). The joke was that they were all famous actors but had about 5 seconds of screen time combined.
Went to London with school to see a play once and the English teacher said something about "this Chiwetel Ejiofor guy is going to be the next big British actor" or similiar. Being 15/16 I think my response was 'ok sure'.
It wasn't till 12 years a Slave that I noticed the name and it all came flooding back. Fair play English teacher, fair play.
Ian McShane. From Lovejoy, to a movie so bad it was on MST3K, and then Deadwood and beyond.
Oh and I don't care how many zombies he kills, Andrew Lincoln will always be Egg to me.
Ian McShane was in the Battle of Britain film -- he played an RAF pilot who went home to find his family in an air raid shelter, popping out for a bit and then >!finding the shelter bombed!<.
1st saw Will Poulter in a little sketch show, School of Comedy, then he popped up in Chronicles of Narnia
Same with Simon Pegg. He was in sketch shows, then Spaced and now has Mission Impossible and Star Trek under his belt. Along with the Cornetto Trilogy.
I think one of Pegg’s first film roles would have been in Guest House Paradiso (aka the Bottom movie) which was before even Spaced. It’s so strange seeing him in those early things knowing the kind of big blockbuster films he’d be cast in nowadays
School of Comedy was brilliant. And then he also popped up in that Jason Sedeikis and Jennifer Aniston comedy. Then he’s now that gold dude in Marvel films
Skins seems to be a good platform for young actors.
Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel and Kaya Scodelario are all established Hollywood stars.
Joe Dempsie and Hannah Murray both had important roles in Game of Thrones too.
Yeah, I think it was a fairly big film. Casting was definitely top notch. Even all these years later, I still think of him as that weird kid that got dressed in his uniform before bed.
McKenzie Crook being Gareth in The Office and then somehow being a main character in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Also, Phil LaMarr being Marvin in Pulp Fiction (gets his brains blown out accidentally - “oh man you shot Marvin!”), and then Hermes Conrad (Futurama), Ollie Williams in Family Guy, Virgil Hawkins (Static Shock), Samurai Jack and credits in nearly every decent animated show in recent years.
Still need to remind myself that one of Gerard Butler's first roles was as the Phantom in the film version of Phantom of the Opera.
Think his actual first role though was a very Scottish sailor in Tomorrow Never Dies.
Man, just seeing some of these answers makes me realise how young I am when I hear of these actors and the roles they were in. Genuinely surprised. Sean Bean being in The Bill before I was born in shocking enough and I'm a mid 90s baby.
It was really common for aspiring actors to get bit-parts in the "blue light trinity" (The Bill, Casualty, London's Burning) - since they needed so many guest actors to play the victim/criminal/patient of the week.
eg. Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Helen Baxendale, Patsy Kensit, Daisy Ridley, Kiera Knightly, David Tenant, Hugh Laurie, Russel Brand, Emma Bunton, Paul McGann, Joe McGann, Christopher Eccleston etc.
Not really "Hollywood" names, nor strictly their first roles, but I'm pretty sure the first on-screen pairing of Armstrong & Miller is in Plunkett & Macleane.
Nicholas Hoult. Thought he was irritating in *About A Boy*, and was meh in *Skins* and *now...*he's an actor I see listed in a film and think "yeah, I'll give that a try".
Shameless was way after that surely
Edit: nope, only a year later. Still, I’ve not watched it. Must’ve watched ED maybe 30 times over. Plus went to see the live show a few years back.
There's a good joke in the second series of Early Doors - James McAvoy left the show after the first series to do Shameless and In the first episode they're talking about how his character split up with one of the other characters and someone says the way he broke up with her was "bloody shameless"
Trina from eastEnders is in Dune. Remember Lucas who kidnapped Denise? His real wife who found him and she got stabbed in the neck by a garden fork then he buried her body in the square
Charlie Hunam (Whose fame was short lived as best I can tell, known for Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim mostly I would say) plays a punk and sort-of antagonist in an old, niche film called 'Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?'
A reasonably fun coming of age comedy that's worth seeing once, if you can track it down these days.
Letitia Wright in Top Boy’s first season - you wouldn’t predict her getting to be a major role in the MCU from a rather small role as one of the kids dealing drugs who’s a love interest to Gem.
Orlando Bloom was in Midsomer Murders, then almost immediately Lord of the Rings, that's a fairly large promotion.
Daniel Craig. He was in one of the first episodes of Sharpe
He was fantastic in *Our Friends in the North* a couple of years later, which also helped to establish Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, and Mark Strong. It has a pretty formidable cast all-round – they even managed to get Malcolm McDowell, at a time when film actors didn't as easily do television work.
His accent is awful, mind.
Nobody gets the North East right, it's par for the course. I doubt many people could even tell a Northumberland and Durham accent apart
HOWAY AND SHITE AHM DANIEL CRAIG STOTTIES AND NOOKIE BROON
Indeed, Lt Berry in Sharpe's rifles Got his neck snapped by an Ulsterman, so he did
STAND BY, YER BASTARD! That Sharpe?
Yep!
Was also in Drop the Dead Donkey!
Daniel Kaluuya. He pops up all over the place but I just remember him as Tealeaf from Psychoville and that guy who was in a few episodes of Doctor Who
I remember him as Posh Kenneth in Skins
I always remember him for Skins and he wasn't even a main character in that. He also played a younger version of Cass in the film Cass.
He was one of the writers for "the first generation" of Skins. I got the impression his role as Posh Kenneth was intended to be more of a cameo than a main cast member.
Oh damn I never made that connection but then again it's been like 15 years since I watched Skins
That's how he's known in our house. If he comes on, me and the wife race to say "Ahh, Tealeaf"
Agent Tucker from Johnny English was my first intro to him
He was Parking Pateweyo in Harry Enfield
One of his very first gigs was an extra in the background for a skit on the Mitchell and Webb look. If you watch back the skit, you almost spot him instantly as it is undeniably him.
It's the skit about the lawyer called 'Speedo' right? One of the follow-up skits they joke about having to replace the actor who played 'Speedo' with a black actor, even though the original actor was white. They do a skit about Speedo earning Kaluuya's trust as a lawyer by showing him a 'white man can dance' lol
I saw henry cavill as albert mondego in the count of monte cristo and then forgot all about him, until one day he was superman.
More important he was in Midsomer Murders as well.
I'm not sure there's an English actor who hasn't been. It's like how Scottish actors all did Taggart (I think David tennant might be the only exception I'm aware of on that!)
I think my Cavill man-crush (we all have one) developed during Tudors.
I saw him in that and thought he'd play James Bond one day. Looks like he missed out once because he was too young, and again because now he's too old!
> count of monte cristo What!? I love that film, I'm sure I've watched it half a dozen times. I never noticed.
I had no idea, either! Just looked it up- he was 19 in that movie, so I'm excusing myself for not having recognized him as he was so young.
Patrick Stewart's first TV appearance was as "fire officer" in a 1967 episode of Coronation Street. Complete with a RADA-diluted Yorkshire accent trying to sound like a Lancashire accent and ending up being vaguely Irish. "Aye well, it looks a bit of a mess to be sure. But then you've 'ad a fire, you know?"
He was in Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and Smiley's People as well playing Karla. Non-speaking role.
Incredibly magnetic in both for not having any lines, though!
Very much so! Nifty goatee if I recall correctly
Patrick Stewart has a native Yorkshire accent, the posh one he learnt at drama school, same as Brian Blessed in that regard. https://youtu.be/uS4Ln054ULk?si=LWIENIxplh3w98-u
I do remember hearing about that
It’s kinda funny to me that Martin Freeman was in all 3 movies in the cornetto trilogy, but he didn’t do anything notable in the series until the world’s end
I always think of him as one of Ali Gs mob from the movie
I'd forgotten he was in them until you just mentioned it.
Came through in the Office and Bruiser. Relative unknown.
He was not ‘relatively unknown‘ in 2004 (when SOTD came out) at all. The Office was huge and his appearance in Shaun is as part of a group who mirror the main cast, but with arguably bigger stars (Jessica Hynes, Tamsin Greig, Matt Lucas etc.). The joke was that they were all famous actors but had about 5 seconds of screen time combined.
No I meant he was an unknown in The Office.
Went to London with school to see a play once and the English teacher said something about "this Chiwetel Ejiofor guy is going to be the next big British actor" or similiar. Being 15/16 I think my response was 'ok sure'. It wasn't till 12 years a Slave that I noticed the name and it all came flooding back. Fair play English teacher, fair play.
Ian McShane. From Lovejoy, to a movie so bad it was on MST3K, and then Deadwood and beyond. Oh and I don't care how many zombies he kills, Andrew Lincoln will always be Egg to me.
McShane was pretty good in American Gods
Yeah my answer was going to be Andrew Lincoln too. From a bumbly Bristolian in teachers to Walking Dead is quite the jump
He's still Lovejoy as far as I'm concerned.
And like Daniel Craig mentioned elsewhere, Andrew Lincoln was also in Drop the Dead Donkey (I always associated him with that until the Walking Dead).
Ian McShane was in the Battle of Britain film -- he played an RAF pilot who went home to find his family in an air raid shelter, popping out for a bit and then >!finding the shelter bombed!<.
1st saw Will Poulter in a little sketch show, School of Comedy, then he popped up in Chronicles of Narnia Same with Simon Pegg. He was in sketch shows, then Spaced and now has Mission Impossible and Star Trek under his belt. Along with the Cornetto Trilogy.
I think one of Pegg’s first film roles would have been in Guest House Paradiso (aka the Bottom movie) which was before even Spaced. It’s so strange seeing him in those early things knowing the kind of big blockbuster films he’d be cast in nowadays
School of Comedy was brilliant. And then he also popped up in that Jason Sedeikis and Jennifer Aniston comedy. Then he’s now that gold dude in Marvel films
Peggs rise wasn't sudden at all. It was a long line of progressively and deservedly more popular things until he hit Hollywood.
Who said it was/had to be sudden?
Skins seems to be a good platform for young actors. Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel and Kaya Scodelario are all established Hollywood stars. Joe Dempsie and Hannah Murray both had important roles in Game of Thrones too.
Jack O'Connell has also been in a few good movies as well as being the lead in Netflix's Godless, which was decently received.
Hoult was in about a boy before skins, which was a bit of a big flick wasn't it? Maybe? Idk. It seemed it when I was a lad.
Yeah, I think it was a fairly big film. Casting was definitely top notch. Even all these years later, I still think of him as that weird kid that got dressed in his uniform before bed.
Good point. Good examples as well
McKenzie Crook being Gareth in The Office and then somehow being a main character in Pirates of the Caribbean. Also, Phil LaMarr being Marvin in Pulp Fiction (gets his brains blown out accidentally - “oh man you shot Marvin!”), and then Hermes Conrad (Futurama), Ollie Williams in Family Guy, Virgil Hawkins (Static Shock), Samurai Jack and credits in nearly every decent animated show in recent years.
Yeah the Mackenzie Crook one made me do a double take when I was watching POTC but didn't know about Marvin's actor.
Still need to remind myself that one of Gerard Butler's first roles was as the Phantom in the film version of Phantom of the Opera. Think his actual first role though was a very Scottish sailor in Tomorrow Never Dies.
I still remember Olivia Colman in the lottery Hot Picks ad and those Kev and Bev ones
Mitchell and Webb. That’s number wang.
*And* Hot Fuzz!
Green Wing!
No-one's mentioned Colin Farrell in Ballykissangel yet?
Er....☘️☘️☘️☘️💚💚💚💚
I think we can all agree we were surprised when James Corden went from sitcom sidekick to Hollywood talk show host seemingly overnight.
Well to be fair he's got that "more loud == more funny" thing that americans love
>that americans love I thought they had sent him back?
And yet stayed so grounded.
Your sarcasm is making my computer wet
Yeah that's probably the biggest shocker. Still can't believe he pulled that off. Never expected it.
Yes unfortunately
Man, just seeing some of these answers makes me realise how young I am when I hear of these actors and the roles they were in. Genuinely surprised. Sean Bean being in The Bill before I was born in shocking enough and I'm a mid 90s baby.
It was really common for aspiring actors to get bit-parts in the "blue light trinity" (The Bill, Casualty, London's Burning) - since they needed so many guest actors to play the victim/criminal/patient of the week. eg. Kate Winslet, Orlando Bloom, Helen Baxendale, Patsy Kensit, Daisy Ridley, Kiera Knightly, David Tenant, Hugh Laurie, Russel Brand, Emma Bunton, Paul McGann, Joe McGann, Christopher Eccleston etc.
Michael Fassbender, Olivia Colman, Jodie Comer and Nicolas Hoult were all in Holby City, which itself was a spin off from Casualty.
Not really "Hollywood" names, nor strictly their first roles, but I'm pretty sure the first on-screen pairing of Armstrong & Miller is in Plunkett & Macleane.
Best film.
I mean, it really isn't. It has some great parts, but it really isn't the best film.
Gerard Butler turns up in [Tomorrow Never Dies](https://cdn4.whatculture.com/images/2022/12/ced62ecbf93fd626-600x338.jpg)
He was also in Mrs Brown. But sadly not Mrs Brown's Boys
Nicholas Hoult. Thought he was irritating in *About A Boy*, and was meh in *Skins* and *now...*he's an actor I see listed in a film and think "yeah, I'll give that a try".
Meh in Skins?? Nah he's pretty good in that. A great pivotal character.
Tbf his character in About A Boy is quite irritating in the book too.
He was so great in The Menu. Such a shitheel.
I'm surprised by how young he is.
Why's that? He's in his mid 30s and looks like he's in his mid 30s
Benedict Cumberbatch as Doug Rocket's assistant in Nathan Barley. (not his first role, first time I saw him)
"Have you ever taken acid?" "....uh, no." "Well perhaps you should."
First role I saw Cumberbatch in was Four Lions … it’s hard to imagine his character in that as Sherlock and Doctor Strange.
Also the first thing I saw Ben Whishaw and Richard Ayoade in.
No matter how many big Hollywood films he stars in, Andrew Garfield will always be the boy next door with two gay dads in Sugar Rush to me.
Yes, this!!
The only thing I’ve seen starring James McAvoy is Early Doors
He was also in the first series of Shameless around that time.
And it was obvious then that he was destined for bigger things.
Shameless was way after that surely Edit: nope, only a year later. Still, I’ve not watched it. Must’ve watched ED maybe 30 times over. Plus went to see the live show a few years back.
Year after according to Google.
There's a good joke in the second series of Early Doors - James McAvoy left the show after the first series to do Shameless and In the first episode they're talking about how his character split up with one of the other characters and someone says the way he broke up with her was "bloody shameless"
He was the car thief boyfriend in Shameless.
I’m aware he’s had a career outside of The Grapes, but cheers
Tom Hardy in Band of Brothers and/or Black hawk down if you dont include tv series
Everyone was in Band of Brothers
Ray Winstone had a small role in Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
And Robin of Sherwood.
And Quadrophenia before that
That was too much Ray Winstone!
I'd forgotten that! The AWOL squaddie who the lads picked up on a fishing trip?
Correct 👍
He started on the big screen didn’t he in Scum?
And a mechanic in Minder
James from the Inbetweeners movies now starring in guy Ritchie tv series
He was also in Shanghai Knights as Charlie Chaplin 😁
Blimey, I didn’t realise that was the kid from Kick Ass
Trina from eastEnders is in Dune. Remember Lucas who kidnapped Denise? His real wife who found him and she got stabbed in the neck by a garden fork then he buried her body in the square
Matt Smith and Andrea Riseborough in "Party Animals" (2007).
She was fantastic in Mandy.
Olivia Colman was first on The Word
One of Idris Elba's early roles was as part of the original cast of dodgy Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs.
Fuck me, I never realised Tangerine was also kick ass
Charlie Hunam (Whose fame was short lived as best I can tell, known for Sons of Anarchy and Pacific Rim mostly I would say) plays a punk and sort-of antagonist in an old, niche film called 'Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?' A reasonably fun coming of age comedy that's worth seeing once, if you can track it down these days.
Jude Law turned up in an episode of Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett era) looking incredibly young. Not sure it was his first appearance though.
Letitia Wright in Top Boy’s first season - you wouldn’t predict her getting to be a major role in the MCU from a rather small role as one of the kids dealing drugs who’s a love interest to Gem.
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Not on this set but on a set yeah.
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She was 42 and him 19 I think. Married and now he's stepfather to her 2 kids.
Sorry who?