Michael Sheen
Born Michael Christopher Sheen in Newport, Monmouthshire in Wales, on the 5th February 1969, to Irene and Meyrick Sheen.
When he was 3, his family moved to Wallasey, in Liverpool where he started school at St George’s Primary School. After a few years his family, along with his younger sister Joanne, moved back to Wales, to the village of Baglan, near Port Talbot, in South Wales. He attended Blaenbaglan Primary school until 1984, when he moved onto Glan Afan Comprehensive School.
As a child in Liverpool, he was bitten by the football bug, and regularly played on a Saturday for Baglan Boys Club. He has admitted that he would play every evening after school until it was too dark to see the ball.
At 12 years old, while on a family holiday at Pontins in the Isle of Wight, he played against ex-Arsenal player, Tony Adams who was 16 at the time. Michael and his family were approached by Arsenal and he was offered a place in thier youth team. Michael’s father turned him down saying he was too young and it would mean the family relocating to London.
At the time Michael was very disappointed, but later found other interests, although, he is still a keen football supporter and player, and has taken part in several charity matches including Britweek, and Soccer Aid.
His interest in acting was kindled by studying for school plays, and his parents were also known to dabble in amateur dramatics. Even now, his father enjoys some success impersonating Jack Nicholson. His cousin, Caroline is also a celebrated West End actress.
He would talk to stage veterans backstage, and was obviously impressed by tales of life behind the footlights. Meyrick and Irene would later claim this experience was the one that finally pushed their son towards an acting career.
At 14 he joined the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company, and at 16 he joined the National Youth Theatre of Wales which has trained young actors and entertainers for over 30 years including Matthew Rhys, Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon.
While attending many courses in Swansea, he would stay in a residential centre called Dan-y-Coed by the sea at Mumbles. Leaving Glan Afan Comprehensive, Michael would move on to Neath College doing A-levels in English, Drama and Sociology. He passed the Oxbridge entrance exam but, finding the Oxbridge world too far removed from his own.
He gained a place at Warwick, but he would drive home late at night to pursuade his parents that he wanted to go to drama school. Eventually, his parents relented and, to earn extra cash, Michael got a job at Burger Master, a drive-through burger bar. He’d work early mornings and late at night, cleaning, flipping burgers and serving. In the meantime, he applied to 8 different drama colleges, including his first choice, RADA, and was accepted by all.
At RADA, he was schooled in speech, dance, movement, and stage fighting – everything he would later need to know. He proved to be an excellent student, winning a Laurence Olivier Bursary in his second year. So excellent was he, that even before he graduated he was offered a role opposite Vanessa Redgrave in ‘When She Danced’ at London’s Globe. He soon established himself as one of the most promising talents on the theatrical scene and continued to impress theater audiences throughout his twenties.
He appeared in his first TV roles in 1993, Gallowglass and Maigret, but remained primarily a stage actor. In 1996 he co-founded with Helen McCrory and Robert Delamere, a writing production company called ‘Foundry’ and also ran ‘Thin Language’ a Welsh theatre company co-jointly with Simon Harris. He had a few small film roles in Othello, and Mary Reilly leading to much larger roles in Wilde and Heartlands. 2003 however, was a pivotal year for Michael.
Not only did he appear in his first two blockbuster movies (Timeline and Underworld), but also appeared on TV in Peter Morgan’s The Deal as Tony Blair which started a working relationship that was to bring about other hits such as The Queen, Frost/Nixon and The Special Relationship.
It was during the filming of Underworld that he went through a very public separation from his long term girlfriend, british actress Kate Beckinsale. They met while performing opposite each other in a production of The Seagull in 1995, and have a daughter together, Lily Mo Sheen, born in 1999. Kate left when she fell for the film’s director Sam Wiseman. He continues to split his time between the US and London as he shares custody of his daughter with Kate.
On the 15th July 2008, Sheen was awarded the freedom of the borough of Neath Port Talbot, making him one of the youngest people to receive the honour and putting him amongst a very elite group of people including Sir Anthony Hopkins. There is also a Michael Sheen suite in Port Talbot’s town centre Blanco’s Hotel.
He was awarded an OBE in the 2009 honours list for services to drama.
Michael has gained a reputation for playing the part of real-life characters. He has played Blair three times, Art Honeyman in Music Within, Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa!, also David Frost in Frost / Nixon and more recently Brian Clough in Damned United.
His career has not only centred around the stage and screen. He has also recorded several audio books, mostly for Naxos Audio Books, as well as BBC plays and Radio serialisations and he does not seem to be running out of work any time soon as his career goes from strength to strength.
When he was 3, his family moved to Wallasey, in Liverpool where he started school at St George’s Primary School. After a few years his family, along with his younger sister Joanne, moved back to Wales, to the village of Baglan, near Port Talbot, in South Wales. He attended Blaenbaglan Primary school until 1984, when he moved onto Glan Afan Comprehensive School.
As a child in Liverpool, he was bitten by the football bug, and regularly played on a Saturday for Baglan Boys Club. He has admitted that he would play every evening after school until it was too dark to see the ball.
At 12 years old, while on a family holiday at Pontins in the Isle of Wight, he played against ex-Arsenal player, Tony Adams who was 16 at the time. Michael and his family were approached by Arsenal and he was offered a place in thier youth team. Michael’s father turned him down saying he was too young and it would mean the family relocating to London.
At the time Michael was very disappointed, but later found other interests, although, he is still a keen football supporter and player, and has taken part in several charity matches including Britweek, and Soccer Aid.
His interest in acting was kindled by studying for school plays, and his parents were also known to dabble in amateur dramatics. Even now, his father enjoys some success impersonating Jack Nicholson. His cousin, Caroline is also a celebrated West End actress.
He would talk to stage veterans backstage, and was obviously impressed by tales of life behind the footlights. Meyrick and Irene would later claim this experience was the one that finally pushed their son towards an acting career.
At 14 he joined the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company, and at 16 he joined the National Youth Theatre of Wales which has trained young actors and entertainers for over 30 years including Matthew Rhys, Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon.
While attending many courses in Swansea, he would stay in a residential centre called Dan-y-Coed by the sea at Mumbles. Leaving Glan Afan Comprehensive, Michael would move on to Neath College doing A-levels in English, Drama and Sociology. He passed the Oxbridge entrance exam but, finding the Oxbridge world too far removed from his own.
He gained a place at Warwick, but he would drive home late at night to pursuade his parents that he wanted to go to drama school. Eventually, his parents relented and, to earn extra cash, Michael got a job at Burger Master, a drive-through burger bar. He’d work early mornings and late at night, cleaning, flipping burgers and serving. In the meantime, he applied to 8 different drama colleges, including his first choice, RADA, and was accepted by all.
At RADA, he was schooled in speech, dance, movement, and stage fighting – everything he would later need to know. He proved to be an excellent student, winning a Laurence Olivier Bursary in his second year. So excellent was he, that even before he graduated he was offered a role opposite Vanessa Redgrave in ‘When She Danced’ at London’s Globe. He soon established himself as one of the most promising talents on the theatrical scene and continued to impress theater audiences throughout his twenties.
He appeared in his first TV roles in 1993, Gallowglass and Maigret, but remained primarily a stage actor. In 1996 he co-founded with Helen McCrory and Robert Delamere, a writing production company called ‘Foundry’ and also ran ‘Thin Language’ a Welsh theatre company co-jointly with Simon Harris. He had a few small film roles in Othello, and Mary Reilly leading to much larger roles in Wilde and Heartlands. 2003 however, was a pivotal year for Michael.
Not only did he appear in his first two blockbuster movies (Timeline and Underworld), but also appeared on TV in Peter Morgan’s The Deal as Tony Blair which started a working relationship that was to bring about other hits such as The Queen, Frost/Nixon and The Special Relationship.
It was during the filming of Underworld that he went through a very public separation from his long term girlfriend, british actress Kate Beckinsale. They met while performing opposite each other in a production of The Seagull in 1995, and have a daughter together, Lily Mo Sheen, born in 1999. Kate left when she fell for the film’s director Sam Wiseman. He continues to split his time between the US and London as he shares custody of his daughter with Kate.
On the 15th July 2008, Sheen was awarded the freedom of the borough of Neath Port Talbot, making him one of the youngest people to receive the honour and putting him amongst a very elite group of people including Sir Anthony Hopkins. There is also a Michael Sheen suite in Port Talbot’s town centre Blanco’s Hotel.
He was awarded an OBE in the 2009 honours list for services to drama.
Michael has gained a reputation for playing the part of real-life characters. He has played Blair three times, Art Honeyman in Music Within, Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa!, also David Frost in Frost / Nixon and more recently Brian Clough in Damned United.
His career has not only centred around the stage and screen. He has also recorded several audio books, mostly for Naxos Audio Books, as well as BBC plays and Radio serialisations and he does not seem to be running out of work any time soon as his career goes from strength to strength.