Ioan Gruffudd

Profession: Actor
Place/Date of Birth: Cardiff, 06 October 1973

The Wales Screen Commission takes the place of the separate regional commissions, and it is hoped that the body will make Wales a one-stop shop for film-makers. So we can hopefully expect to see Hollywood celebs strolling around our high streets fairly soon - come on Brad Pitt! (But leave Jen at home yeah?)

Ioan Grufford & Matthew Rhys headline charity ball - 26/10/02
Top Welsh actors Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys headed the guest list at a charity ball to help people with spinal injuries.

The charity, called Trust PA, was being launched at a gala ball in the Coal Exchange in Cardiff Bay, in memory of a young rugby player who was paralysed in a rugby match and later died.

Paul Andre Blundell - known as PA - was a former Wales under-19 player who died in January five months after suffering spinal injuries while playing in a rugby game.

The Trust PA charity was set up in July and the family is hoping it will work alongside others carrying out spinal research. Ioan and Matthew knew PA well.

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Biography

Ioan Grufford was born on October 6, 1973 in Cardiff to teachers, Peter and Gillian Gruffudd.

Ioan started his acting career as a child star in the Welsh soap opera Pobol Y Cwm from 1989 to 1994. He then left home to attend the prestigious Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts in London, England in 1992. Graduating in June of 1995, he almost immediately got work.

His first big break came when fellow Welsh thesp and writer Ed Thomas, spotted his talent and cast him as Karl Stranger in a 1996 "A Mind to Kill" episode titled Strange Territory.

1997 was the year when the world sat up and started taking a real interest in Ioan. He put in two very strong performances in supporting roles in two huge blockbuster films. The first was his role as John Grey in Wilde and the second as Fifth Officer Lowe in Titanic. Fifth Officer Lowe was the only man to go back and look for survivers (and so in this role Iaon got to rescue Kate Winslet!)

Title roles in films and TV series soon came flooding in, he was the title role in Horatio Hornblower, Soloman in Soloman and Gaenor and a grown up Pip in Great Expectations. He was recently on our screens in The Forsythe Saga as talented architect and unintentional heartbreaker Phillip Bosinney.
January 2008