10 Welsh Acting Wonders

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If you think you need to be in London to have a successful acting career, think again. Wales may only have just over 3 million inhabitants, but there’s an awful lot of acting talent over the Severn Bridge. Oscar winners, stage icons, and acting legends have kick-started their careers in Wales and flourished. Here are just some of the country’s most successful acting exports.

Michael Sheen

Sheen was born in Newport, trained at RADA, and made his name in Hollywood, but he’s recently returned home to Wales. He first gained attention in the ’90s for his stage career, starring in acclaimed productions including Amadeus and Caligula. Then he moved to Hollywood, appearing in the Twilight films and earning plaudits for his portrayals of real-life figures such as Tony Blair (The Queen) and David Frost (Frost/Nixon).

He told North Wales Live, “My Welsh roots are everything, it’s where I come from, the people I come from, the land I come from. In my own lifetime it’s made me who I am.” In 2011, he staged a secular passion play on the streets of his hometown, Port Talbot, to rave reviews; and in 2025, he will bring his most recent stage role, as the founder of the NHS in the National Theatre’s Nye, to Cardiff.

Joanna Scanlan

Brought up in North Wales, Scanlan was previously a drama teacher and academic, but since deciding to act professionally, she’s built a successful career on TV, onstage, and in films, often in comedic roles. In 2022, she won a BAFTA for best actress for playing a Muslim convert in the dramatic film After Love. She thanked the academy in Welsh, “‘Diolch yn fawr iawn,’ as we say in my country! BAFTA, thank you so much. Some stories have surprising endings, don’t they?”

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Sir Anthony Hopkins

Double Oscar-winning star of stage and screen, Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, south Wales, in 1937. Inspired to act by fellow Welshman Richard Burton, Hopkins has starred in classic films such as The Elephant Man, Shadowlands, and most famously as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.

Despite being in his 80s, Hopkins is still very much working. In the past two years alone, he’s played Sigmund Freud, a Roman emperor, and war hero Sir Nicholas Winton, and he’s voiced an ancient robot knight in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon series. He’s also reportedly working on his autobiography and producing a documentary about his life. Clearly, retirement is not on the agenda for Hopkins.

Rakie Ayola

Triple BAFTA-winning actor Ayola describes herself as simply “Rakie Ayola from Cardiff!”

She grew up on a council estate and got the acting bug through the National Youth Theatre, going on to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She’s had a varied career onstage, in film, and on TV, playing roles on the West End, on Holby City, and as a presenter on BBC Wales’ arts output. Ayola also starred opposite Janet McTeer, Jeff Goldblum, and David Thewlis as Persephone, queen of the underworld, on Netflix’s acclaimed but short-lived Kaos.

Ayola is a passionate advocate for keeping the arts open to everyone. She told the Guardian, “I did the National Youth Theatre of Wales’s four-week residential course with Michael Sheen and Ruth Jones, paid for by the council. Now you’d be reliant on bursaries or benefactors. When I did a three-year acting diploma, every single penny of my subsistence and course fees was paid for by the local education authority. Arts access makes a huge difference. People’s voices matter.”

See Also: How to Become an Actor in the UK

Matthew Rhys

It may surprise some audiences, but the star of Hollywood hits such as Brothers & Sisters, Perry Mason, and most notably The Americans is not actually American. In fact, Rhys, who is Cardiff born and bred, says his Welsh identity is unwavering and “as strong as oak.”

Rhys kicked off his acting career playing Elvis Presley in his school play, eventually moving to London to train at RADA. Since leaving the UK for Hollywood, he’s won an Emmy, starred in countless American films and TV shows, and now lives in New York with his wife, actor Keri Russell. He’s still very Welsh, though: He speaks the language fluently and was honoured at the Welsh National Eisteddfod as a member of the druidic order of the Gorsedd of Bards.

Alexandra Roach

Roach played a kick-ass cyber investigator who foils a terrorist plot to destroy London on BBC1’s hit thriller Nightsleeper, but her career began 200 miles away in Ammanford, south Wales.

As a teenager she acted for several years on legendary Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm and with the National Youth Theatre of Wales before going on to train at RADA. Fluent in Welsh, she’s talked in the past about how her Welsh accent used to count against her in auditions. Not that you can see that in her career trajectory; she’s starred on the London stage, in Hollywood feature films, and flourished on hit TV shows such as Utopia, Black Mirror, No Offence, and Killing Eve.

Taron Egerton

Known for starring in acclaimed films such as Rocketman, Kingsman, and Eddie the Eagle, Egerton grew up in the Welsh seaside town of Aberystwyth. Although not initially enamoured with becoming an actor, he discovered its appeal at 15 when he joined the youth theatre at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. 

Asked about how being Welsh has helped his career, Egerton told Into Film, “Aberystwyth is phenomenally nurturing. Wales’ culture, the culture of performance being closely associated with schools. Singing and choirs and the Eisteddfod. I did all of that and it has massively contributed.”

Aimee-Ffion Edwards

From Peaky Blinders and Skins to Luther and Slow Horses, Newport actor Edwards has been on some of the biggest TV shows of the last 15 years. It’s not all been hits though - her first TV appearance was on Wawffactor, S4C’s music talent show where she finished second. 

She’s bilingual in Welsh and English and trained with the National Youth Theatre of Wales. As well as her screen career, she’s also had success onstage, including playing opposite Mark Rylance on the West End and Broadway in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards on “Slow Horses” Courtesy Apple TV+

Catherine Zeta-Jones

One of Mumbles most famous exports, Zeta-Jones kicked off her acting career as a teenager. At 17 she was unexpectedly catapulted into the lead role in a West End production of 42nd Street when the star and first understudy became ill. The producer was so impressed, Zeta-Jones got the job full time.

Her iconic role on TV’s The Darling Buds of May led to Hollywood, where she starred in blockbusters such as The Mask of Zorro, Entrapment, and Ocean’s Twelve. She won an Oscar for her performance in Chicago, a Tony for her work on Broadway, and has been married for 24 years to fellow actor Michael Douglas.

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Iwan Rheon

Game of Thrones star Rheon started acting at the age of 17 in his Welsh language school’s drama productions. Like other Welsh stars, he also did a stint on soap Pobol y Cwm before eventually leaving to go to drama school.

At just 24 years old, Rheon won an Olivier for the rock musical Spring Awakening at the Lyric Hammersmith, which led to his role in E4’s BAFTA-winning teen drama Misfits. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, though; he originally auditioned for the lead role of Jon Snow on Game of Thrones but lost out to his friend Kit Harington, before being cast as villain Ramsay Bolton.  

When it comes to Wales, Rheon told the Guardian he’s proud of his homeland. “I bloody love Wales! Culturally, we’re great storytellers: there are loads of stories in Wales that haven’t been told… I’d love to just work in Wales to be honest with you. I’d absolutely love that.”