Dan Stevens

Dan Stevens (birthname: Daniel Jonathan Stevens) gained his first wave of fame as Matthew Crawley, who died in a shocking plot turn in Downton Abbey (2010-2012), but has had a strong and steady movie career, starting with his acclaimed performance in Hilde (2009), a German-produced biopic of actor Hildegard Knef, directed by Kai Wessel and starring Heike Makatsch, Monica Bleibtreu, and Hanns Zischler, and which premiered at the Berlin film festival. Stevens played support in writer-director Amy Heckerling’s loopy female vampire movie, Vamps (2012), co-starring Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Lewis, Wallace Shawn, Justin Kirk, Kristen Johnston, and Malcolm McDowell, and released by Anchor Bay Films.

Stevens was co-star and producer of the romantic British indie period drama, Summer in February (2013), based on screenwriter Jonathan Smith’s novel about a love triangle involving British artist Alfred Munnings, and co-starring Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning. Stevens tackled his second true-life character in a row in the Julian Assange WikiLeaks drama, The Fifth Estate (2013), directed by Bill Condon, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Alicia Vikander, Stanley Tucci, Laura Linney, and Moritz Bleibtreu, but losing money for DreamWorks Pictures/Disney after premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Dan Stevens nabbed his first starring role in a feature in the Adam Wingart-directed The Guest (2014), premiering in the Sundance Film Festival and co-starring Maika Monroe, Leland Orser, and Lance Reddick, and released by Picturehouse. Stevens was cast by writer-director Scott Frank in the Liam Neeson-starring adaptation of Lawrence Block’s crime novel, A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014), with Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, and Brian Oliver, and earning a solid $62 million for Universal Pictures.

Stevens played support to star Adam Sandler in writer-director Tom McCarthy’s urban fantasy movie, The Cobbler (2014), with Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Fritz Weaver, Steve Buscemi, and Dustin Hoffman, resulting in a poor theatrical release for Image Entertainment after a Toronto film festival premiere. Stevens joined the cast of Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, and Ben Kingsley in the Night at the Museum sequel,  Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014),

Dan Stevens co-starred and was also executive producer for the Jackie Earle Haley-directed crime movie, Criminal Activities (2015), starring John Travolta, Michael Pitt, Edi Gathegi, and Haley. Stevens was the face of the poster for the first time with his starring role in co-writer/director Ido Fluk’s drama, The Ticket (2016), with Malin Akerman and Oliver Platt, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Writer-director Joseph Cedar cast Stevens for the supporting ensemble of the New York-set drama, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (2016), starring Richard Gere, with Lior Ashkenazi, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Michael Sheen, and which grossed $5.2 million globally after premiering at the Telluride film festival. Stevens played star Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend in the sci-fi black comedy, Colossal (2016), directed and written by Nacho Vigalondo and featuring Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson, but losing money for backers from Canada, Spain, U.S., and South Korea, after premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Dan Stevens again played the leading man to the leading woman in director Bill Condon’s live-action version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (2017), starring Emma Watson, with Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian McKellan, and Emma Thompson, and which took in an outstanding $1.26 billion worldwide while it was one of the most expensive movies ever made at a $255 million budget. Stevens co-starred with Rebecca Hall in director-writer Brian Crano’s comedy-drama, Permission (2017), with Gina Gershon, Francois Arnaud, Morgan Spector, and Jason Sudeikis, and launching at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Stevens had his first above-the-title film role in the American-Dutch co-production, Kill Switch (2017), directed by Tim Smit and co-starring Berenice Marlohe, Tygo Gernandt, and Charity Wakefield, and released to the poor box office by Saban Films. Stevens joined the powerhouse cast of Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Sterling K. Brown, and James Cromwell in the Reginald Hudlin-directed biopic drama, Marshall (2017), but underperformed at the box office with a $10 million return for Open Road Films.

Dan Stevens portrayed Charles Dickens in the Irish-Canadian feature adaptation of Les Standiford’s non-fiction book, The Man Invented Christmas (2017), directed by Bharat Nalluri, and with a sprawling cast including Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Ger Ryan, Cosimo Massimo Fusco, and Morfydd Clark, and grossed $8 million globally. Stevens joined indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry for the wild rocker movie, Her Smell (2018), starring Elisabeth Moss, with Cara Delavigne, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, and Ashley Benson, and released by Gunpowder & Sky.

Stevens was cast by director/writer/producer Noah Hawley for the poorly received female astronaut drama, Lucy in the Sky (2019), starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Colman Domingo, and Ellen Burstyn, and released and produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures.  Stevens played support in 20^th Century Fox’s tepidly received version of Jack London’s Klondike Gold Rush classic, The Call of the Wild (2020), starring Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Karen Gillan, and Bradley Whitford, and directed by Chris Sanders.

Dan Stevens joined Dave Franco for his directorial debut, The Rental (2020), co-written by Franco and Joe Swanberg and co-starring Alison Brie, Sheila Vand, Jeremy Allen White, and Toby Huss, and which grossed $4.3 million worldwide for IFC Films/STXfilms. Stevens played support to (star/co-writer) Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams in the musical comedy, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), directed by David Dobkin, and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix.

 Stevens delivered one of his rare feature-film animation voice performances for the English-dubbed version of Studio Ghibli’s fantasy, Earwig and the Witch (2021), directed by Goro Miyazaki, with the English version released by Toho to poor box office. Stevens was co-star and executive producer of the German sci-fi romance, I’m Your Man (2021), co-written and directed by Maria Schrader and co-starring Maren Eggert, Sandra Hüller, and Hans Löw, and which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival before being shortlisted for the Oscars’ best international feature.

Dan Stevens added to his animation credits by voicing a supporting role in Netflix Animation’s Oscar-nominated theatrical feature, The Sea Beast (2022), with the voice cast of Karl Urban, Zaris-Angel Hator, Jared Harris, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste under the direction of Chris Williams.  Stevens returned to the world of Studio Ghibli to voice a role in the English-dubbed version of Hayao Miyazaki’s fantasy drama, The Boy and the Heron (2023), alongside fellow castmates Robert Pattinson, Karen Fukuhara, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, and Dave Bautista.

Stevens co-starred with Hunter Schafer, Jessica Henwick, and Marton Csokas in writer-director Tilman Singer’s German-U.S. horror movie, Cuckoo (2024), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and then was released by Neon. Stevens co-starred with returning star Rebecca Hall in the sequel directed by Adam Wingard, the Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures/Toho Studios co-production, Godzilla vs. Kong: The New Empire (2024), with Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, and Rachel House.

Dan Stevens co-starred with Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Matthew Goode, and Giancarlo Esposito in his second consecutive monster movie with a reimagining of Universal Classic Monsters’ Dracula’s Daughters (1936) titled Abigail (2024), co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and released by Universal Pictures.