Daniel Craig

Lore & Background

Daniel Wroughton Craig was born on 2 March 1968 in Chester, Cheshire, to an art teacher, Carol Olivia (née Williams), and Timothy John Wroughton Craig, a midshipman in the Merchant Navy and steel erector. Craig has an older sister named Lea (born 1965), and a younger half-brother named Harry (1991). He is of part Welsh and distant French descent. His middle name, Wroughton, comes from his great-great-grandmother, Grace Matilda Wroughton.

When Craig's parents divorced in 1972, he and his sister moved to the Wirral Peninsula with their mother. He attended Hilbre High School in West Kirby and later Calday Grange Grammar School as a sixth form student. He played rugby union for Hoylake RFC. Craig began acting in school plays at the age of six.

At 14 in 1982, he played roles in Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella at Hilbre High School. In 1984, he was accepted into the National Youth Theatre. He entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1988, and graduated in 1991.

Reader's Guide

After training at the National Youth Theatre in London and graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1991, Craig began his career on stage. He began acting with the drama The Power of One (1992), and had his breakthrough role in the drama serial Our Friends in the North (1996). He gained prominence for his supporting roles in films such as Elizabeth (1998), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), Layer Cake (2004) and Munich (2005).

In 2006, Craig played Bond in Casino Royale, a reboot of the Bond franchise. Since then he has acted in many films, including The Golden Compass (2007), Defiance (2008), Cowboys & Aliens (2011), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Logan Lucky (2017). He has also played Benoit Blanc in the Knives Out film series since 2019. He starred in the romantic drama Queer (2024).

On stage, Craig starred in the Royal National Theatre's production of Angels in America (1993) on the West End. He made his Broadway debut in the play A Steady Rain (2009) and returned to Broadway in the revivals of Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2011) and William Shakespeare's Macbeth (2022). He starred as Iago in the New York Theatre Workshop production of Othello (2016).

Did You Know?

• Craig made his stage debut as Agamemnon in Troilus And Cressida.
• He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Casino Royale.