Damian Lewis biography

Damian Lewis

Date of Birth: February 11, 1971

Born in Saint John's Wood, a district of London, England, Damian Lewis won a Golden Globe award in 2013 for his starring role in the hit TV series Homeland.

Until the age of eight, Damian grew up on Abbey Road with his two brothers—Gareth and William—and his sister Amanda.

After studying at Eton College, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, alongside now well-known colleagues such as Daniel Craig and Joseph Fiennes. Damian graduated in 1993 and continued to work on stage, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Damian soon made his television debut in the TV movie Micky Love (1993), followed by a guest role on the TV series Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1995. His feature film debut came in the adventure film Robinson Crusoe (1997) starring Pierce Brosnan in the title role.

However, it was while he was playing Laertes in a stage production of Hamlet that he was noticed by Steven Spielberg, who cast him in the acclaimed 2001 HBO/BBC miniseries Band of Brothers. For his outstanding performance, Damian Lewis received his very first Golden Globes nomination in 2002.

He quickly followed that up with a role in the motion picture horror drama Dreamcatcher (2003), based on a novel by Stephen King.

After appearing in various television and film productions, Damian earned the lead role of Charlie Crews in the NBC crime drama series Life, which ran from 2007 to 2009. But it was his character Nicholas Brody, during nearly 40 episodes of the acclaimed series Homeland headlining Claire Danes, that made him a star. He turned one of his two Emmy nominations into a victory and did the same at the Golden Globes. Viewers were able to appreciate his presence in the cast as early as 2011, when he also enjoyed visibility in theaters with the screening of the comedy Your Highness starring Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride. In 2014 his association with the Homeland team ended.

By 2015 he was again starring on TV, this time on the historic BBC Two Wolf Hall miniseries. He brilliantly embodied Henry VIII opposite Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell. Both earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for their roles.

After playing a supporting role in the suspense film Thomas Cromwell (2016) alongside Ewan McGregor and Naomi Harris, Damian was cast as the late Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, in the indie film Run This Town (2019).

His next project was a higher profile one, when he was cast by director Quentin Tarantino to play the role of Steve McQueen in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), starring Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Damian has been married to British actress Helen McCrory since 2007. The couple has two children: Manon and Gulliver. Thanks to the popularity of Homeland, the actor and his wife were invited to dinner by President Barack Obama at the White House in March 2012. In addition, Damian was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2014.

Damian also plays guitar and piano.

Bio photo © Ik Aldama/Keystone Press via ZUMA Press.