Dan Stevens was born at Croydon in Surrey on 10th October 1982. His parents are teachers. He was educated at Tonbridge School and trained in acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. He studied English Literature at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Whilst he was a Cambridge undergraduate, he acted in several student drama productions. He played the title role in the Marlowe Dramatic Society's production of 'William Shakespeare broadcast between Sunday 28th December 2008 and Sunday 11th January 2009. A month later he played Duval in the BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour drama, 'The Lady of the Camellias'. This was broadcast between Monday 2nd and Friday 6th February 2009.
Studied English Literature at Cambridge University.
Was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for his portrayal of "Orlando" in William Shakespeare s "As You Like It", for the Peter Hall Company in 2005.
Father of Willow (b. December 2009), Aubrey (b. August 2012), and Eden (born 2016).
He was a judge for the Man Booker Prize for Literature in 2012. He had to read 148 novels in eight months.
Is good friends with his Cambridge University schoolmates Rebecca Hall , Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston.
Is close friends with Benedict Cumberbatch.
He is Editor-at-Large, co-founder and a regular contributor to "The Junket", an on-line literary quarterly that features essays, short fiction and poetry by various writers. The quarterly was founded in 2011, by Stevens and a group of his University of Cambridge friends, to encourage each other to continue writing.
The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity; moving beyond it,necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and,conquers fears.
We take so many of our freedoms for granted nowadays - I can travel,where I like, I can have a baby when I like, I can do any job I want -,but I do think chivalry has been lost a little bit.
The female attention I have to struggle hardest with is from my,two-year-old daughter.
Books are my weakness.
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.
You can be romantically interested in someone and love them and still, I,think, be really interested in things and a certain lifestyle that,person might provide.
I always wanted to be an actor.
I was a pretty difficult teenager.
At 13, in my first year of Tonbridge, I went up for the part of Macbeth.
I was up against the 17- and 18-year-olds, but for some reason I got,the part. It made me incredibly unpopular with my peers, but it was the,English and drama teachers who stepped in to save me when others wanted,me kicked out of the school.
When it is good, theatre takes a lot of beating both to watch and,perform.
I never quite toed the line.
I was never very happy at school.
I would like to do something modern and possibly funny.
What was interesting was talking to older gay men about what it was like,being gay in the Eighties.
[2012] At Cambridge I wore hoodies and trainers and looked like a,skateboarder. This whole dandy business is quite new to me.
They are strange things, boarding schools. A peculiarly English thing.
There is great worth in holding universal truths and timelessly beautiful words in your heart, which will stay there forever, infusing your thoughts and speech…,It’s not a bad lesson to learn in the bleaker months: how you view a storm is a question of perspective; provided you find the right rock to watch it from, it could be the most incredible thing you’ll ever witness.
We take so many of our freedoms for granted nowadays - I can travel where I like, I can have a baby when I like, I can do any job I want - but I do think chivalry has been lost a little bit.
None of us had any idea of how successful Downton was going to be. I thought I was signing up for another period drama that had a slightly modern feel. It had a freedom about it because it was coming out of the head of Julian Fellowes. Anything could happen and generally did. .
