Joseph Fiennes

Born: 27th May 1970
Where: Wiltshire, England

The actor has refused to live under the shadow of his twice Oscar-nominated brother Ralph thanks to films such as Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love.

The youngest of six, he consolidated his reputation with a string of performances ranging from the classics on stage to contemporary comedy and period fare on screen.

Finishing school at 16, he left home the next year and worked as a dresser at the National Theatre before beginning his stage-acting career with the Young Vic Youth Theatre.

Fiennes received a grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and after graduating in 1993, embarked on his career.

Early high points included co-starring opposite Helen Mirren in A Month in the Country and Bernard Hill in A View From the Bridge.

During his two-season stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Joseph struggled to pay his rent.

"There were times when I was actually losing money. I was paying for my flat in London and being charged another £120 a week by the RSC for their little house."

He made his TV acting debut in 1995 with The Vacillations of Poppy Carew and his feature debut the following year as a decadent in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty.

His career gained momentum in 1998 when he landed a leading role in the low-budget comedy Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence, about three friends who fall for an American expatriate.

Subsequently, his profile was raised when he played Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester opposite Cate Blanchett in the biopic Elizabeth.

Remaining in Elizabethan times, he was then tapped to portray the title character in the Tom Stoppard-penned fictional romance Shakespeare in Love, co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

In 2001, he was cast opposite Jude Law and Rachel Weisz to form a triangular romance in the WWII-era drama Enemy at the Gates.

In it he played a Russian soldier adept at propaganda who uses Law's exploits as a marksman to create a hero during the siege of Stalingrad.

Kaihe Chen's thriller Killing Me Softly was less successful but he won plaudits for the drama Leo with Elisabeth Shue and Dennis Hopper.

Upcoming projects include Michael Radford's The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.