James Purefoy

Whilst playing the title role in "Henry V" in the first term of his final year at Central, James was seen by a casting director from the RSC and invited to join the company immediately. He left the RSC two years later having performed in eight productions.

Over the next six years, he divided his time between theatre and television. In the theatre, he worked with Matthew Warchus, Ken Stott and Jude Law on "Death of a Salesman" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; Iain Glen on "Hamlet" at Bristol Old Vic and with Simon Callow, Joseph Fiennes, Rupert Graves, and Helen McCrory, on "Les Enfants du Paradis", again for the RSC. Before returning to the theatre to play the rake "Ned Loveless" in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed production of "The Relapse" at the National Theatre in London.

As well as appearing in the BBC's, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall(1996), he has always chosen to do a wide variety of parts - from the psychopathic rapist in BBC1's Calling the Shots (1993) to the urbane observer "Nick Jenkins" in Channel 4's A Dance to the Music of Time (1997) to the sad stalker in Granada's series, Metropolis (2000).

His many feature credits include, Bedrooms and Hallways, Mansfield Park,Maybe Baby, A Knight's Tale, Vanity Fair and Fisherman’s Friends.

And recent television leads in Altered Carbon, Sex Education, The Following and Rome.