- In full:
- Damian Watcyn Lewis
- Awards And Honors:
- Golden Globe Award (2013)
- Emmy Award (2012)
Damian Lewis
News •
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Who is Damian Lewis?
Damian Lewis, born on February 11, 1971, is a British actor known for his red hair and American accent. He's recognized for his roles, especially military characters like U.S. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody in Homeland. Before his role in Homeland, Steven Spielberg cast Lewis as Maj. Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers in 2001. For his performance in Homeland, Lewis received an Emmy Award in 2012 and a Golden Globe Award in 2013. In 2015, he played King Henry VIII in the TV miniseries Wolf Hall. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014.
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What is Damian Lewis best known for as an actor?
Damian Lewis is a British actor known for his red hair and American accent, but he is most noted for playing military characters, such as U.S. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody in the television series Homeland. For his performance as Brody, Lewis received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Lewis also played Maj. Richard Winters in the miniseries Band of Brothers and General William Tecumseh Sherman in To Appomattox. Additionally, he is known for playing King Henry VIII in the miniseries Wolf Hall and Bobby "Axe" Axelrod in the series Billions.
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Which popular TV series and movies has Damian Lewis appeared in?
Damian Lewis is a British actor known for his red hair and American accent. He is noted for his military character portrayals, such as U.S. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody in Homeland.
Lewis's early career included the TV series Life Force and Hearts and Bones. Steven Spielberg cast him as Maj. Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. He also played Soames Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga and a wrongly imprisoned police detective in Life.
Lewis portrayed King Henry VIII in Wolf Hall and Bobby "Axe" Axelrod in Billions. His film roles include Dreamcatcher, The Escapist, Our Kind of Traitor, Steve McQueen in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, and Dream Horse.
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What awards or recognitions has Damian Lewis received for his acting?
Damian Lewis is a British actor known for his roles in Homeland, Band of Brothers, and Billions. For his portrayal of Sgt. Nicholas Brody in Homeland, Lewis received an Emmy Award in 2012 for outstanding lead character in a drama series and a Golden Globe Award in 2013 for best performance by an actor in a television series (drama). In 2014, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
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How did Damian Lewis start his acting career?
Damian Lewis began his acting career at age 16, while enrolled at Eton College, where he started his own theater company. After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1993, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). His theater career took off when he played Laertes in the 1995 RSC London production of Hamlet, which later moved to Broadway. Before being cast in Band of Brothers (2001) by Steven Spielberg, Lewis appeared in the TV series Life Force (2000) and Hearts and Bones (2000–01).
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What other interests or talents does Damian Lewis have besides acting?
Damian Lewis, the British actor known for his red hair and American accent, showed an early interest in theater, launching his own theater company at Eton College at age 16. He honed his skills at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Lewis played Laertes in Hamlet and has appeared in TV series such as Life Force and Hearts and Bones.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Damian Lewis (born February 11, 1971, London, England) is a British actor who is known for his trademark red hair, his impeccable American accent, and his wide-ranging roles, though he is perhaps most noted for his portrayal of military characters, especially U.S. Marine Sgt. Nicholas Brody in the television series Homeland.
Lewis had a privileged upbringing, spending his youth in the prosperous St. John’s Wood district of London. His father was a stockbroker, and his mother was descended from wealthy 19th-century newsprint manufacturers. At the age of 16, while enrolled at Eton College, he decided on a career in acting and was given permission to launch his own theater company at the elite school. He graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in 1993 and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon and later performed in London.
His theatrical career blossomed when he played Laertes in the 1995 RSC London production of Hamlet (with Ralph Fiennes in the title role), which later moved to Broadway. Lewis appeared in the TV series Life Force (2000) and Hearts and Bones (2000–01), a dramatic romantic romp, before filmmaker Steven Spielberg cast him as a leading character, Maj. Richard Winters, in the highly acclaimed HBO World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001); Lewis was nominated for a Golden Globe for his stirring performance. In the TV miniseries costume drama The Forsyte Saga (2002–03) he portrayed the materialistic Soames Forsyte, and in the TV series Life (2007–09) he was a police detective, wrongly imprisoned for murder, who returns to the police force after being exonerated.
In 2011 Lewis made a splash on American television with his portrayal of Sgt. Nicholas Brody in Homeland. His character returns home following eight years of captivity in Iraq, a virtual stranger to his family and a worry to intelligence agents who fear that he has been turned by the enemy. For his riveting performance as the complicated and duplicitous Brody, Lewis received an Emmy Award (2012) for outstanding lead character in a drama series and a Golden Globe Award (2013) for best performance by an actor in a television series (drama). Lewis left Homeland in 2014, but he appeared again in a U.S. military uniform when he was cast as the Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman in the TV miniseries To Appomattox (2015).
Lewis returned to his English roots with a brilliant turn as King Henry VIII in the TV miniseries Wolf Hall (2015) and its sequel, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024), based on the novels by Hilary Mantel. In the American series Billions, which premiered in 2016, he portrayed Bobby (“Axe”) Axelrod, a scheming hedge-fund billionaire who takes delight in bedeviling U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades (played by Paul Giamatti); Lewis left the show after season five (2021).
During this time Lewis also appeared in films, including Dreamcatcher (2003) and The Escapist (2008). In 2016 he starred in the thriller Our Kind of Traitor. He later played Steve McQueen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (2019). Lewis’s other films include the dramedy Dream Horse (2020). He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014.
In 2007 Lewis married noted British actress Helen McCrory. The couple were together until her death from cancer in 2021.
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