Richard Madden

Richard Madden was born on 18 June 1986 in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, Scotland. The son of a firefighter father and a school assistant mother, Madden joined PACE Youth Theatre at the age of 11 to overcome his extreme shyness during his childhood years. This step enabled him to discover his acting talent and led to his first appearances on camera in the film "Complicity" (2000) and the children's television series "Barmy Aunt Boomerang" (1999–2000). In 2007, after graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he focused on a professional theatre career and gained stage experience at the Globe Theatre. His major breakthrough and global recognition came in 2011 with HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones". The character he portrayed, Robb Stark, the eldest son of Eddard Stark, earned him a large fanbase. His noble demeanor and leadership performance, showcased up to one of the show's most shocking episodes, "The Red Wedding," made him one of Hollywood's most prominent figures.

Following this success, he proved his ability to carry a romantic lead by playing Prince Kit in Disney's live-action adaptation "Cinderella" (2015). During the same period, he continued his success in period projects by portraying Cosimo de' Medici in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and the historical series "Medici: Masters of Florence" (2016). Richard Madden's second major career peak came with the 2018 BBC thriller series "Bodyguard." In this series, he portrayed David Budd, a police officer suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; the show achieved the highest viewership figures in the UK over the past decade. Madden won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Drama for his intense and psychologically profound performance there. In cinema, he received critical acclaim for his portrayal of John Reid, Elton John's manager and lover, in the musical biopic "Rocketman" (2019), which chronicles Elton John's life. He also took on a brief but pivotal role in Sam Mendes' "1917" (2019).

In recent years, the Scottish actor has focused his career on high-budget action and science fiction genres, making his debut as a superhero with Ikaris in Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Eternals" (2021), directed by Chloé Zhao. He subsequently shared the lead role in the spy series "Citadel" (2023), one of Amazon Prime's most expensive productions to date, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas. With both his theatre-trained discipline and action star charisma, he stands among modern cinema's versatile actors.