Charlie Hunnam

Fair-haired, hunky British performer Charlie Hunnam began life in Newcastle, England, and moved to Hollywood at the age of 19 (around 1999) in a quest for movie and television stardom. He found it almost instantly as homosexual character Nathan on the first two seasons of the groundbreaking Showtime series drama Queer as Folk (1999-2001), then signed on to work for executive producer Judd Apatow and others with a role as a college student in the short-lived but critically worshipped situation comedy Undeclared (2001). Hunnam's feature film contributions began shortly thereafter and witnessed him specializing in intense, angry, often psychotic characterizations; memorable assignments included a portrayal of the nasty villain in Anthony Minghella's period drama Cold Mountain (2003) and a gold-toothed, dreadlocked psychopath in the dystopian saga Children of Men (2006). The role that truly rocketed Hunnam to acclaim, however, cut closest to his British roots: a scarily accurate evocation of a thuggish English footballer in the gritty drama Green Street Hooligans (2005). In 2007, Hunnam signed on to star in director Christopher McQuarrie's hotly anticipated psychodrama Stanford Prison Experiment, based on the titular sociological incident of the same name. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide