Samantha Morton

Born: 13 May 1977
Where: Nottingham, UK

An Oscar nod for Woody Allen's Sweet & Lowdown and a major role in Spielberg's Minority Report has firmly established the self-styled British "urban warrior" in Hollywood.

The product of a tough, working class background, Morton trained at the Central Junior Television Workshop and began acting on the small screen at the age of thirteen.

Her breakthrough TV performance came as a young girl impregnated by a cult leader on a 1994 episode of the UK crime drama Cracker.

The following year she appeared as Tracy, a troubled young prostitute stalked by a serial killer, in the first two episodes of the ITV series Band of Gold.

Appearances as the artless Harriet Smith in Jane Austen's Emma and in the TV adaptation of Tom Jones were followed by a winning turn as Jane Eyre.

She made her big screen debut in the sectarian love story This Is the Sea but received critical recognition for the girl who spirals out of control after her mother's death in Under the Skin.

In 1999's Dreaming of Joseph Lees she played a woman torn between her disabled cousin and her unstable partner before the Oscar nod came for her turn as the mute laundress in Sweet and Lowdown opposite Sean Penn.

Next up was the role of a young woman taken hostage by two inept crooks in the comedy The Last Yellow and she went on to play a drug addict opposite Billy Crudup in Jesus' Son.

In 2000, art imitated life when a pregnant Morton was cast as an expectant Sara Coleridge opposite Linus Roache as Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Julien Temple's Pandemonium.

She was offered the role of Iris in the biopic of Iris Murdoch...but turned it down and it went to Kate Winslet.

Two years later she appeared opposite Tom Cruise as psychic Agatha in the action feature Minority Report (she was third choice after Angelina Jolie and Jenna Elfman).

Switching styles, she played the title role in Lynne Ramsay's drama Morvern Callar.

As well as providing the voice for children's favourite Max & Ruby she also starred in Jim Sheridan's tale of Irish emigres In America.

In 2003, she starred alongside Tim Robbins and Michael Winterbottom's futuristic love story Code 46.

She also starred alongside Daniel Craig in the big screen adaptation of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love.

Recent work includes the Restoration drama The Libertine opposite Johnny Depp.