Eddie Redmayne

Eddie Redmayne (birthname: Edward John David Redmayne) is the only actor in his generation to win the Oscar for Best Actor (for The Theory of Everything (2014) and then be nominated for the same award the following year (The Danish Girl in 2015). A quicksilver performer capable of a wide range of roles, Redmayne’s fame has nevertheless been restricted to main biopics or huge studio productions, such as Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022), his third in the series after Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).

Encouraged by his parents to explore acting as a child, Eddie Redmayne’s first stage experience was in director Sam Mendes’ West End production of Oliver! Debuting professionally at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre as Viola in Twelfth Night, Redmayne went to great success in Edward Albee’s The Goat and John Logan’s Red, which earned him an Oliver (2009) and a Tony in a featured role (2010).

At the same time, Eddie Redmayne was making a significant mark in the movies, most notably in supporting roles in The Good Shepherd (2006), with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and director Robert De Niro; Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), with Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, and Geoffrey Rush; The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson; My Week with Marilyn (2011), with Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh; and Les Misérables, with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway (2012).

In 2014, Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar-winning portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything changed everything in his career, catapulting him to leading-man status. This, of course, received a fascinating (if controversial) spin the next with Redmayne’s performance as trans artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, which, though highly acclaimed, received strong criticism from the trans community for a CIS man like Redmayne being cast as a transgender character. Despite the storm, Redmayne received a second, consecutive Oscar nomination.

In between his time-consuming assignments as Newt Salamander in the Fantastic Beasts series, Redmayne has expanded his interest in portraying real-life characters, including his Tom Hayden in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and the infamous serial killer-nurse Charlie Cullen in The Good Nurse (2022) with Jessica Chastain. Eddie Redmayne has also turned to family-friendly projects, both on-screen (The Aeronauts (2019) with Felicity Jones) and off-screen, lending his voice to Aardman’s animated Early Man (2018).