How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting careers? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Colin Firth
Nominated for “Best Actor In A Leading Role”
Film: The King’s Speech
Role: King George VI, the British monarch who seeks help from a speech therapist for his severe stammer.
How he got started: Colin Firth developed an interest in acting when he was a teenager. When he was 18 years old, he began studying drama at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. After performing with the Drama Centre London, he was cast as the lead in a West End production of Julian Mitchell’s Another Country. He appeared in several mini-series and films before catching his big break in the perennially popular BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. His breakthrough performance as “Mr. Darcy” also led to him being cast in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Other notable films: The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mamma Mia!, Love Actually, A Single Man (Academy Award nomination)
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
