Raised in Harlsden in northwest London

Worked as a street performer (busker) in London

Spent one season with the Royal Shakespeare Company

Acted in Stephen Daldry's acclaimed revival of "An Inspector Calls"

Film acting debut, playing a Nazi captain in "Bent"

Appeared as Prince William of Orange in the British TV production "Sharpe's Waterloo"

Had supporting role in "Land Girls"

First leading role in films, as the young incarnation of the title character in the British drama "Gangster No. 1"

Debut in a US TV production, cast as James Steerforth in the TNT miniseries adaptation of "David Copperfield"

Co-starred in the black comedy "Dead Babies"

Breakthrough screen role as an often naked Geoffrey Chaucer in "A Knight's Tale"

Cast opposite Russell Crowe, who portrayed mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., in Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind"

Re-teamed with Crowe for Peter Weir's "Master and Commander"

Starred in the feature "The Heart of Me," an adaptation of Rosamond Lehmann's novel The Echoing Grove

Cast as a young monk who joins a traveling band of actors in "The Reckoning"

Co-starred with Nicole Kidman, as Tom Edison, the self-appointed town spokesman in Lars von Trier's "Dogville"

Played an aging tennis pro, opposite Kirsten Dunst, in Richard Loncraine's "Wimbledon"

Co-starred with Harrison Ford in the thriller, "Firewall"

Portrayed albino monk, Silas in Ron Howard's big-screen adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code"

Co-starred in the feature adaption of the bestselling novel "The Secret Life of Bees"