Richard Madden

1.1. Early life and education

Richard Madden was born on 18 June 1986 in Elderslie, a town outside Glasgow, Scotland, where he grew up alongside his two sisters. His mother was a primary school teacher, and his father worked as a firefighter. To help overcome his natural shyness, Madden joined the PACE Youth Theatre at the age of 11. During his childhood, he also struggled with body insecurities and experienced bullying, particularly in high school, which he attributed partly to his early acting roles.

Madden attended Castlehead High School. He pursued higher education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, then known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 2007.

1.2. Early acting career (1999-2010)

Richard Madden began his screen acting career at age 11, appearing as young Andy in a 2000 film adaptation of Iain Banks' novel Complicity. From 1999 to 2000, he took on the lead role of Sebastian Simpkins in the children's television series Barmy Aunt Boomerang. In 2002, he appeared in an episode titled "Watertight" of the television series Taggart.

During his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Madden performed with The Arches and the Glasgow Repertory Company. He also starred in Franz Xaver Kroetz's play Tom Fool at the Citizens Theatre, a production that later transferred to London's Bush Theatre after receiving positive reviews. His performance caught the attention of a team from Shakespeare's Globe. In his final year at the conservatoire, he was cast as Romeo Montague in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the modern Globe Theatre in London, followed by a tour in the summer of 2007. Critics noted his portrayal as "gravelly Glaswegian" and "almost childlike".

In 2007, Madden played Callum McGregor in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses, which ran into early 2008. He then starred as Mark McNulty in the National Theatre of Scotland's 2009 production of Be Near Me, an adaptation of the Andrew O'Hagan novel, which garnered him further positive reviews from publications like The Daily Telegraph and The Observer. The same year, he secured the lead role of Dean McKenzie in the 2009 BBC comedy-drama series Hope Springs. His early film work also included the role of Ripley in Chatroom and Theatre of Hate singer Kirk Brandon in the 2010 television film Worried About the Boy. Additional theatre roles during this period included Mahmood in I Confess and Florizel/Cleomenes in The Winter's Tale (both 2005-2006), and Michael in Four Play (2015).

1.3. Breakthrough and rise to prominence (2011-2018)

Richard Madden achieved widespread recognition for his role as Robb Stark in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, which aired from 2011 to 2013. This role propelled him to prominence, and he later shared that before his casting, he was nearly broke and considered moving back in with his parents. The ensemble cast of Game of Thrones received Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2011 and 2013. During this period, he also appeared in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Sirens (2011) and the BBC drama series Birdsong (2012). In 2014, Madden obtained his Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card for his role as Bill Haskell, a real-life adventurer in the Klondike Gold Rush, in the miniseries Klondike.

Madden starred as Prince Kit in the 2015 romantic fantasy film Cinderella, a live action adaptation of the animated classic. Despite initial apprehension about playing a fairy tale character, he appreciated the freedom to create a "real young man" due to the limited existing information about the prince. Released in March 2015, Cinderella was a critical and commercial success, grossing over 542.00 M USD worldwide. The following year, Madden reunited with his Cinderella co-star Lily James and director Kenneth Branagh to portray Romeo in a West End production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre. While some critics praised his articulation, others found his speeches "flat and regimented." He had to depart the production in July after suffering an ankle injury.

In 2016, Madden appeared as an American pickpocket, Michael Mason, in the thriller film Bastille Day, also known as The Take. He then took on the lead role of Cosimo de' Medici, a prominent member of the House of Medici banking family during the Italian Renaissance, in the first season of the Italian-British television drama series Medici, subtitled Masters of Florence. In 2017, he appeared in the first episode of Electric Dreams, an anthology series based on Philip K. Dick's works, where his performance was lauded as "brutally effective." Madden also played a DJ named Leo West in the 2018 Netflix romantic comedy film Ibiza, where he was described as a "fine and believable romantic lead" by The Daily Telegraph.

Madden received critical acclaim for his performance as Sergeant David Budd, a war veteran and police officer suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in the 2018 BBC thriller series Bodyguard. To prepare for the role, he consulted members of the armed forces who had experienced PTSD to ensure a nuanced and complex portrayal of the disorder. Critics praised his self-possession and ability to convey Budd's "superb instincts, his cool head under fire, and his complex psyche." The series finale became the most watched UK television drama episode since current records began, and Netflix released Bodyguard worldwide in October 2018. For his performance, Madden won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama.

1.4. Continued success and recent work (2019-present)

In 2019, Richard Madden continued his film success by portraying music manager John Reid in the Elton John biopic Rocketman, which was released in May. He also appeared as Lieutenant Blake, a World War I soldier, in Sam Mendes' war film 1917, released in December. Both films received positive reviews and were box office successes.

From December 2020 to January 2021, Madden lent his voice to the science fiction podcast series From Now, in which he played a survivor of a spaceship that reappears 35 years after vanishing. In 2021, he starred as Ikaris in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals, directed by Chloé Zhao. The film received mixed responses from critics and audiences.

Madden then starred alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Mason Kane in Citadel, an action thriller series on Amazon Prime Video that premiered in 2023. With a production budget of 300.00 M USD, its six-episode first season is considered one of the most expensive television shows ever produced. Madden described working on Citadel as "incredibly physically demanding." Critics had mixed opinions on the series, with Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter noting Madden was "adequately intense and sometimes funny." Madden is next set to star in Killer Heat, a thriller directed by Philippe Lacôte, where he will play Leonides / Elias Vardakis.

3.1. Film

3.2. Television

3.3. Theatre

3.4. Other works