Romola Garai

Born: August 6 1982 Where: Southwark, London, UK

Garai's debut feature was as Cassandra, the heroine of I Capture The Castle based on the classic novel by Dodie Smith.

Raised in Hong Kong and Singapore until she was eight, her family then moved back to England.

She attended university in London with aspirations to become a writer but a casting agent noticed her in a theatre class.

This led to bit parts in BBC's Daniel Deronda and Gillie Mackinnon's The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.

She starred in the TV dramas Attachments and Perfect and then featured in Nicholas Nickleby with Jim Broadbent, Jamie Bell and Charlie Hunman.

Next up was the Dirty Dancing sequel Havana Nights, filmed in Puerto Rico with Diego Luna, with whom she enjoyed an off-set romance.

The actress attracted plaudits for her performance as a carer of two disabled men in Damian O Donnell's Inside I'm Dancing.

She also joined an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne and Rhys Ifans for Vanity Fair.