Ralph Fiennes

Born in Ipswich, Suffolk, Fiennes was trained at and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1985. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1995, Fiennes made his Broadway debut playing Prince Hamlet in the revival of Hamlet, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play. He was later Tony-nominated for his role as a traveling faith healer in the Brian Friel play Faith Healer (2006).

Fiennes made his film debut playing Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992). He has earned three Academy Award nominations for his performances in the films Schindler's List (1993), The English Patient (1996), and Conclave (2024). He has also acted in Quiz Show (1994), Maid in Manhattan (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), In Bruges (2008), The Reader (2008), The Duchess (2008), The Hurt Locker (2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), A Bigger Splash (2015), Hail, Caesar! (2016), The King's Man (2021), and The Menu (2022).

Fiennes gained wider recognition for playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film series (2005–2011) and Gareth Mallory / M in the James Bond films (2012–2021); he has voiced roles in the animated films The Prince of Egypt (1998), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017). He directed and starred in the films Coriolanus (2011) and The Invisible Woman (2013). Aside from acting, Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 1999.

Fiennes' other theatre credits include Straight Line Crazy, Four Quartets, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. He returned to the stage in June 2025 in David Hare's play Grace Pervades. The play will transfer to the West End in April 2026.

In 2026, Fiennes will star in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the sixth film in the Hunger Games series, as President Coriolanus Snow, previously portrayed by Donald Sutherland and Tom Blyth.