Not a lot of people would think that I spent most of my early years totally rebelling against anything I could, getting suspended from school, going on demonstrations.

While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights alongside Stefan Golaszewski Tim Key and Mark Watson and the Marlowe Society; he also gained acting experience with the National Youth Theatre. In June 2009 he returned to the West End playing Septimus Hodge in an acclaimed revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia at the Duke of York's Theatre. Stevens went on to read English Literature at Emmanuel College Cambridge and narrowly missed out on a first due to devoting much of his time to theatre during his final year.

He is best known for his portrayal of Matthew Crawley on ITV's Downton Abbey. Daniel Jonathan "Dan" Stevens (born 10 October 1982) is an English actor.