Ralph Fiennes

Career Trajectory

After graduating from RADA in 1985, Ralph Fiennes made his professional stage debut as Curio in Twelfth Night at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, launching a career that would establish him as one of the English-speaking world's preeminent classical actors. His work with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company throughout the late 1980s and 1990s built a reputation for intellectual precision and emotional depth, culminating in his Tony Award-winning performance as Prince Hamlet on Broadway in 1995. Simultaneously, he became a major film actor, delivering career-defining roles in Schindler's List (1993) and The English Patient (1996), while continuing to return to the stage for landmark interpretations of the Shakespearean canon and contemporary drama, most recently in Straight Line Crazy (2022).