Luke Evans | British

Luke George Evans was born in Pontypool, Wales, and grew up in Aberbargoed, in the south of Wales. He is the son of Yvonne (Lewis) and David Evans. He moved to Cardiff at the age 17. He then won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre, and graduated in 2000. In 2008, he landed his most significant theatre role playing Vincent in the play Small Change written and directed by Peter Gill at the Donmar Warehouse. For his performance he gained recognition from film casting directors and US agencies and was nominated for the Evening Standard Award for best newcomer. Later that same year he did his second show at the Donmar Warehouse, Piaf, in which he played Yves Montand.

In his early 20s in an article in the U.K.’s Gay Times, Evans stated that people would approach him in gay pubs to tell him that they could not believe that he was gay. In a subsequent 2002 interview in The Advocate in the U.S. he said that although his (then) part (in Taboo) was that of a straight man “everybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London I never tried to hide it”. By his late 30s, he was less willing to discuss his sexuality with the press, asserting his private life to be private. Little is reported about his private life, and he deliberately shields his family from the press. He stated in response to a question about the opinion that “Hollywood” might have of his sexuality that his private life was not connected to “Hollywood”, and that “Talent, success, what you do in your personal life.