Rupert Friend may currently be best know as being the boyfriend of actress Keira Knightely but over the last couple of years he has been establishing himself as one of the country's best young actors.
He broke through in 2004 in The Libertine and since then has mixed an matched his roles as he has slowly built a career for himself. The Libertine saw him star alongside Johnny Depp as Billy Downs, a friend and lover of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.
But it was his role as Mr Wickham in Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice that shot the young actor to fame, as well as introducing him to a certain Miss Knightley.
The film was a critical and commercial success boosting the careers of all the young cast including Rosamund Pike, Friend and Knightley herself who was trying to shake off her Pirates of the Caribbean tag.
Friend stayed in the British film industry moving on to Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont alongside Joan Plowright.
Based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor the film followed Mrs Palfrey who, after being all but abandoned by her family, strikes up a friendship with writer Ludovic Meyer.
He next appeared in sword and sandal drama The Last Legion before going on to star alongside Sean Bean and Danny Dyer in Outlaw, both receiving mixed reviews.
After this varying degrees of success 2009 brought the most success for the twenty eight year old and he mixed and matched his role, kicking off with The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas when he took on the role of Lt Kotler.
He followed this up with The Young Victoria, in which he starred alongside Emily Blunt, taking on the role of Prince Albert to Blunt's Queen Victoria. The movie was well received by the critics, and Blunt went on to earn a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.
He stuck with the period movie towards the end of last year as he starred in Cheri, which saw him star alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and work with filmmaker Stephen Frears.
The film is a romantic drama set in 1920s Paris, where the son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
But this week he is back on the big screen in his new movie The Kid, which also stars Natascha McElhone, Ioan Gruffudd and Jodie Whitakker and is directed by Nick Moran.
Kevin Lewis never had a chance. Growing up on a poverty-stricken London council estate, beaten and starved by his parents, bullied at school and abandoned by social services, his life was never his own.
Even after he was put into care, he found himself out on the streets caught up in a criminal underworld that knew him as 'The Kid'. Yet Kevin survived to make a better life for himself. This international bestseller published in 2003 is his heartbreaking and inspiring story.
And the actor has already completed work on Red August, a drama set centred around the war between Russia and Georgia, and focused on an American journalist, his cameraman, and a Georgian native who become caught in the crossfire.
Directed by Renny Harlin, who brought us The Long Kiss Goodnight, Val Kilmer and Andy Garcia are also on the cast list. Lullaby for Pi, which is due out next year, is currently in post production.
The Kid is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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