NOAH TAYLOR
Date of Birth: September 4, 1969
Although born in London, England to journalist parents, Taylor moved to Australia at the age
of five. His early life was spent wanting to be a spy or a commando, but leaving school
at 16, someone suggested he could try the theater as something to do on the weekends. Based on that suggestion, he began his acting career at the city's St. Martin's Youth Theatre. The experience was so enjoyable that he decided to make it his career.
His stage credits include leading roles in such productions as Pierrot Lunaire, Bloody
Mama, Alien in the Park, The Grim Reaper, Baron in the Trees and Eric
and Verna. His work in the theater led to his being cast as Danny Embling in The Year My
Voice Broke. The film garnered him three awards for Best Actor from various film festivals.
Following the critical success of this film and its sequel, Flirting, Taylor became known
as one of his country's most promising actors.
In 1996 Taylor landed a role as the talented young David Helfgott in the Academy Award winning
film Shine. He was hesitant to take the role of the tortured adolescent because he would once
again be playing the "young, sensitive, serious type." Ultimately, he couldn't resist the
role, which takes the character from his teenage years to his early twenties. Taylor was named
Best Supporting Actor by the Australian Film Critics Circle and was nominated for a SAG Award.
Taylor starred in Ben Hopkins' acclaimed period drama Simon Magus (1998), and the following
year he starred in Michel Blanc's Mauvaise passe (1999), then won a coveted role in Cameron
Crowe's Almost Famous (2000).
Although Taylor has an impressive resume for his age, he is in no way career driven. "I am
finding more and more in life," says Taylor. "The things that are important to me have very
little to do with career. I am quite happy to work as an actor so I can afford not to work
for six months out of the year and go exploring in the country." When not on set, he goes on
travels which have taken him all around the world.
Taylor has also worked on the small screen in Australia performing in mini-series like Bangkok
Hilton and Frontier, and a couple of telefilms, including Joh's Jury.
He began the new millennium with a number of feature films, including the computer-game-turned-film
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) playing the heroine's technical wizard, Bryce; the unsympathetic role of Hitler in Max (2002); and reprised his role in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003).