Richard Madden

Richard Madden is a Scottish actor born on 18 June 1986 in Elderslie, outside Glasgow. Raised alongside two sisters by his mother, a primary school teacher, and his father, a firefighter, he joined the PACE Youth Theatre at age 11 to help overcome shyness. He made his screen debut as young Andy in the film adaptation of Complicity, released in 2000, and starred as Sebastian in the children's television series Barmy Aunt Boomerang from 1999 to 2000. Madden attended Castlehead High School and studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2007.

During his studies, Madden performed in stage productions with The Arches, the Glasgow Repertory Company, and the Citizens Theatre in Tom Fool. In 2007, he toured with Shakespeare's Globe company as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. He subsequently appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Noughts & Crosses from late 2007 to early 2008 and the National Theatre of Scotland's Be Near Me in 2009. His television and film work during this period included the BBC comedy-drama Hope Springs (2009) and the feature films Chatroom (2010) and Worried About the Boy (2010).

Madden achieved widespread prominence with his breakthrough role as Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, in which he appeared from 2011 to 2013, garnering Screen Actors Guild Award ensemble nominations. He followed this with roles in the television series Sirens, Birdsong, and Klondike (2014). Madden starred as Prince Kit in the live-action fantasy film Cinderella (2015), a major box office success. In 2016, he reprised the role of Romeo in a West End production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre.

That same year, Madden appeared in the thriller film Bastille Day and portrayed Cosimo de' Medici in the first season of the drama series Medici. Following roles in the anthology series Electric Dreams (2017) and the romantic comedy Ibiza (2018), he achieved critical acclaim for his performance as Sergeant David Budd in the BBC thriller series Bodyguard (2018). His portrayal of a police officer with post-traumatic stress disorder earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama.

Madden subsequently portrayed music manager John Reid in the biopic Rocketman (2019) and appeared as Lieutenant Blake in the war film 1917 (2019). He starred in the science fiction podcast series From Now from December 2020 to January 2021 before playing Ikaris in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals (2021). Madden later played a spy in the action thriller series Citadel, which premiered in 2023, and starred in the thriller film Killer Heat (2024).

In 2019, Madden was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. That same year, he received the GQ Men of the Year Award for Hugo Boss Most Stylish Man and was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.