Cillian Murphy

Born: March 13 1974 Where: Douglas, Cork, Ireland

Murphy turned his back on a career in the law to take to the stage and subsequently the big screen in movies including 28 Days Later and Girl With A Pearl Earring.

The private educated teenager and keen rugby player was doing legal training before he got into acting with the Concordia Stage Productions.

His performance in the play Disco Pigs, which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival, won him some major rave reviews.

In 1998 he transferred from the stage and made his movie debut in The Tale Of Sweety Barrett.

Although he did spend time working on television dramas such as The Ambassador, he continued working in film, including William Boyd's The Trench.

Subsequent roles included reprising his stage character of Pig for the film version of Disco Pigs and the independent How Harry Became A Tree.

It paid off when he won the lead role in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a film that earned him attention stateside as one of the last Britons left alive by a disease that decimated the population.

Recent work includes the enjoyable Irish romantic drama InterMission with Colin Farrell and the period drama Girl With a Pearl Earring.