Eddie Redmayne – who-aknew.com

Eddie Redmayne, born on 6 January 1982 in London, is an English actor who has worked across film, television, and stage with a range that few of his generation have matched. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014), and received a second consecutive nomination for The Danish Girl (2015). His stage work has earned him an Olivier Award, a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award, and a Tony Award nomination, placing him among a small group of performers who have competed for the highest honours in both film and theatre. Educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History of Art, Redmayne came to professional acting with an unusually formal academic formation behind him.

Key facts

Born: 6 January 1982
Birthplace: London
Country: United Kingdom
Occupation: film actor; stage actor; model; television actor
Education: Eton College; Trinity College; Colet Court
Awards: Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Academy Award for Best Actor; BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role; Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Early Life and Education

Redmayne grew up in a large house on the Chelsea Embankment in London, one of the most exclusive areas of the city. His family had no theatre background; the ancestral fortune traced back to a linen and drapery business on London’s Bond Street in the early nineteenth century. Despite that distance from the arts, Redmayne found his way to performance early, attending Jackie Palmer Stage School where he appeared in productions alongside a young James Corden.

He went on to Eton College and then to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History of Art, specialising in Venetian architecture and surrealism. He graduated with 2:1 Honours in 2003. The academic detour did not slow his theatrical ambitions; within a year of graduating he was performing in London’s West End.

Stage Career

Redmayne’s professional stage debut of any consequence came in 2004, when he starred in Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? at the Almeida Theatre. The performance won him the Evening Standard Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer, an early sign of how seriously the theatrical establishment took him.

His most celebrated stage work of that decade came in 2009, when he appeared in John Logan’s play Red at the Donmar Warehouse in London, directed by Michael Grandage and co-starring Alfred Molina. The production won Redmayne the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. When Red transferred to Broadway, it won six Tony Awards in 2010, the most of any show that season.

He returned to the Donmar Warehouse to play the title role in Richard II from December 2011 to February 2012, a performance that earned him the Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Shakespearean Performance. A decade later, Redmayne took on the role of the Emcee in Rebecca Frecknall’s revival of Cabaret, which opened at London’s Kit Kat Club, the converted Playhouse Theatre, on December 12, 2021, opposite Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles. The production transferred to Broadway, opening at the August Wilson Theatre on April 21, 2024, and earned Redmayne a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

Film Breakthrough and Academy Award

Redmayne first registered with film audiences through two period roles: Colin Clark in My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Marius Pontmercy in Tom Hooper’s musical Les Misérables (2012). Both parts required him to hold his own within large ensemble casts, which he did without difficulty.

The role that changed his career was Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014). Redmayne spent four months preparing for it, visiting an ALS clinic in London and working with a choreographer to reproduce each stage of Hawking’s physical decline. The preparation paid off in a specific, physical way: when Hawking viewed an early cut of the film, he was so pleased with the performance that he gave the filmmakers permission to use his own distinctive computerized voice in the final cut. The performance won Redmayne the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

The following year, he received a second consecutive Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Lili Elbe, a transgender pioneer, in The Danish Girl (2015). The casting drew criticism from the LGBTQ+ community and allies, who argued the role should have gone to a transgender actor. Redmayne subsequently participated in a workshop with trans actors who interrogated him about the film. In November 2021, he stated in an interview with The Sunday Times that accepting the role had been a mistake and that he would not accept it if the offer came again.

Fantastic Beasts and Later Film Work

Beginning in 2016, Redmayne starred as Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts film series, a franchise that J.K. Rowling originally planned as five films. Only three were produced. Outside that franchise, he appeared as Tom Hayden in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) and as Charles Cullen in The Good Nurse (2022).

Television: The Day of the Jackal

Redmayne expanded into television with a lead role in The Day of the Jackal. Peacock and Sky renewed the series for a second season in December 2024, with Redmayne confirmed to return as the Jackal.

Did you know

Redmayne is red-green colour blind. He has described the condition by saying he “sees fully in colour” but confuses certain tones, which makes it a pointed irony that he studied History of Art at Cambridge, specialising in Venetian architecture and surrealism. (bangkokpost.com)
Redmayne’s very first stage appearance was as workhouse boy number 40 in the 1994 Sam Mendes production of Oliver!. The role was so minor that he later recalled never having actually met the director during the entire run. (facts.net)
The Donmar Warehouse production of Red, in which Redmayne co-starred with Alfred Molina, won six Tony Awards in 2010, making it the biggest Tony Award winner of that season. (broadwayworld.com)
Redmayne grew up in a family with no theatre background. His great-great-ancestor’s fortune originated from a linen and drapery business on London’s Bond Street in the early nineteenth century. (barnesandnoble.com)

Data sources

Data updated: 2026-11-01