Alan Rickman, one of the most important British film, TV and stage actors, started his theatrical training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He soon graduated to the Royal Shakespeare Company, and in 1985 created the role of the Vicomte de Valmont in
Les Liaisons Dangereuses. When the play moved to Broadway, Rickman came with it and was honored with a Tony nomination.
Producer Joel Silver had noticed Rickman as Valmont, and offered him the role of uber-terrorist Hans Gruber, opposite Bruce Willis, in Die Hard. Soon after came Anthony Minghella's small treasure, Truly, Madly, Deeply. In 1991 came Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, with Kevin Costner and Rickman's unforgettable performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham, for which he won a well deserved BAFTA award.
In 1995 he was Colonel Brandon, loving Kate Winslet from afar in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. He next appeared in the television film Rasputin, taking both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as the mad zealot. Rickman then turned to comedy, appearing as Metatron in Kevin Smith's Dogma and as Dr. Lazarus in Dean Parisot's Galaxy Quest. Onstage, he played Mark Anthony to Helen Mirren's Cleopatra at the National Theatre, and as Eliot in Private Lives, both in London and on Broadway, winning a second Tony nomination.
More recently, Rickman starred in Richard Curtis' Love Actually and the critically acclaimed HBO movie Something the Lord Made, opposite Mos Def. Rickman's appearances as Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies continue to keep us all young at heart. This year also sees the release of Nobel Son with Mary Steenburgen, Bill Pullman and Danny DeVito, and also Snow Cake, in which Rickman co-stars with Sigourney Weaver and which was the opening night film of the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.
Rachel Hurd-Wood was born in London in 1990 and was already on stage at her school theatre at the age of 7. The ambitious young actress was presented to a wider audience for the first time in her role as Wendy in P.J. Hogan's film adaptation of Peter Pan. She was nominated for the Saturn Award and the Young Artist Award for this performance. She most recently starred alongside Hollywood veterans Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland in the mystery thriller An American Haunting, directed by Courtney Solomon (Dungeons & Dragons).
On television, Hurd-Wood was most recently seen as Imogen in the British TV production, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking alongside Rupert Everett and Ian Hart.
