Ewan McGregor
Born: 31 March 1971
Where: Crieff, Scotland
The actor enjoys success on both sides of the Atlantic following his scene-stealing turn as Mark "Rent Boy" Renton in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting.
By the age of nine, inspired by the success of his uncle Denis Lawson (Local Hero, Star Wars), McGregor decided he would become an actor.
He left school at 16 and joined Perth Repertory Theatre. He studied drama for a year at Kirkcaldly in Fife, then enrolled at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a three-year course.
Before graduating he made his first break in Dennis Potter's 1993 TV series, Lipstick on Your Collar.
In 1994, he met a director-producer-writer trio who would really launch his career. Danny Boyle, Andrew MacDonald and John Hodge cast him in Shallow Grave.
This was Ewan's first big movie role; however, his breakthrough performance came when the same group teamed up again to make Trainspotting.
These performances led to a steady flow of movies, including A Life Less Ordinary, Little Voice and Brassed Off.
In Star Wars Episodes I, II and III he played the role Alec Guinness had previously taken, that of Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He won critical acclaim for the Baz Luhrmann's Oscar-nominated Moulin Rouge, in which he starred with Nicole Kidman.
With good friends Jonny Lee Miller, Sean Pertwee, Jude Law and Sadie Frost, McGregor ran the ill-fated production company Natural Nylon.
Ridley Scott cast him as an American Marine in the action thriller Black Hawk Down and he played a slick lothario opposite Renee Zellwegger in Down With Love.
In 2003, he starred as a canal drifter in David Mackenzie's gritty Young Adam opposite Emily Mortimer and Tilda Swinton.
The following year he appeared alongside Billy Crudup in Tim Burton's romantic fantasy Big Fish.
In 2005, he supplied the voice of Rodney Copperbottom in the animated feature Robots and as a daredevil pigeon in the British cartoon Valiant.
He also reprised the role of Obi Wan-Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith, the last instalment of the franchise.
Rounding off a busy year, he starred alongside Scarlett Johansson in the sci-fi thriller The Island.
