Portal:Ireland/Selected biography archive/30

James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, Nesbitt grew up in Broughshane and Coleraine. He wanted to become a teacher, so began a degree in French at the University of Ulster. He dropped out when he decided to become an actor, and transferred to the London Central School of Speech and Drama. After graduating in 1987, he spent seven years performing in plays such as Up on the Roof and Paddywack, and made his feature film debut in Hear My Song.

Nesbitt got his breakthrough television role playing Adam Williams in the romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet (1998–2003), which won him a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award. His first significant film role came when he appeared as pig farmer "Pig" Finn in Waking Ned (1998). With the rest of the starring cast, Nesbitt was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. In Lucky Break (2001), he made his debut as a film lead playing prisoner Jimmy Hands. The next year, he played Ivan Cooper in the television film Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 shootings in Derry. The film was a turning point in his career as he won a British Independent Film Award and was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.

Nesbitt also starred in Murphy's Law (2001–2007); a role that twice gained Nesbitt Best Actor nominations at the Irish Film & Television Awards (IFTA). In 2007, he starred in the dual role of Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde in Steven Moffat's Jekyll, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination in 2008. Nesbitt has since appeared in several more dramatic roles; he starred alongside Liam Neeson in Five Minutes of Heaven (2009), and was one of three lead actors in the television miniseries Occupation (2009) and The Deep (2010). He also starred in the movies Outcast (2010) and The Way (2011), and has been cast in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit (2012/13). Read more...