Daniel Caltagirone

Daniel Caltagirone (born 18 June 1972) is an English actor. Best known for his roles in The Beach, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, and the Oscar-winning movie The Pianist. His breakthrough role came in the television series , where he played series lead Moon.

Caltagirone was born and brought up in London, where he attended St Ignatius College. He spent a considerable amount of time as a child in New York, where he has relatives. During his gap year, a theatre director who was convinced that Caltagirone was his perfect leading man, hired him.

Caltagirone went on to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which he graduated in 1997. It was in his last year at Guildhall that he was discovered by an ITV talent scout and cast as a lead in Ruth Rendell's Going Wrong. He finished filming his first role in a cinema movie, Legionnaire, alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in the summer of 1998.

Shortly after, he spent a season at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Whilst at the RSC he was spotted by director Danny Boyle and cast as Unhygenix in The Beach starring Leonardo Di Caprio. Before commencing work on The Beach, Caltagirone joined the cast of Friends for a role in "The One with Ross's Wedding", shot mostly in London. In 1999 Caltagirone was cast by Guy Ritchie as one of the leads in Lock Stock, the TV spin off to hit British film .

Caltagirone then starred in Roman Polanski's The Pianist which went on to win an array of international awards, including Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screen Play. In 2003 he appeared in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life with Angelina Jolie and Gerard Butler. Shortly after finishing filming on Tomb Raider he was cast in the critically acclaimed movie The Fall. Directed by Tarsem Singh, Caltagirone played the dual roles of Hollywood star Archibald Sinclair and Governor Odious.

...
Wikipedia