Damian Lewis, 28

(publication unknown), probably 2000

Trained: Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Big break: Critics eulogised his performance in 1999's award-winning BBC drama, Warriors, and the public were gripped watching him as Dervla Kirwan's cuckolded husband in the recent BBC series, Hearts and Bones.

Next up: Lewis, pictured left, is currently filming the long-awaited Steven Spielberg-produced Band Of Brothers with David Schwimmer and Donnie Wahlberg. The most expensive TV project to come out of Hollywood, the 10-hour Second World War series follows the plight of a company of paratroopers and looks set to make Lewis a star.

"I don't know why, but I seem constantly to be cast as a soldier. Damian Lewis, rent-a-soldier! The ironic thing about my part in Band Of Brothers is that I would have been a really terrible paratrooper because I hate heights."