My father and I used to tussle about me becoming an actor. He's from strong, Presbyterian Scottish working-class stock, and he used to sit me down and say, 'You know, 99 percent of actors are out of work. You've been educated, so why do you want to spend your life pretending to be someone else when you could be your own man?'

He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and he rose to prominence through a number of TV roles and more recently major film roles. His Donmar Warehouse credits include Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Shakespeare's Othello alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor to critical acclaim and later Lvov in their West End revival of Chekhov's Ivanov. He reprised his role as the supervillain Loki in the 2012 movie The Avengers.

He played author F. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and he rose to prominence through a number of TV roles and more recently major film roles. Scott Fitzgerald in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris (2011).