21 Celebrities I Was Flooooooored To Learn Are British
A quick note before we get going here. Obviously, many of you will already know some of these people are British. (And congrats if you do, you're clearly better than I am!) But whether you learn this stuff now, or already did in the past, let's just all agree it's still surprising information to find out! Enjoy.
1.Jerry Springer — best known as the host of his own tabloid-style talk show, Jerry Springer — was born in a London Underground station (which was being used as a bomb shelter) during WWII.
In an interview with the BBC, Springer explained, "My birth was a little bit out of the ordinary because I was born at the Highgate Tube station. The reason my mum told me I was born at the subway station, is because this was during the war. During the war, women who were in their ninth month [of pregnancy] would often spend the night in the subway stations because those were the bomb shelters." Springer and his parents eventually emigrated to New York in 1949, when he was five year old.
2.Slash — best known as the lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses — was born in Hampstead, London.
Slash, who was actually born Saul Hudson, was raised in England until moving to Los Angeles at the age of six. He explained about his upbringing to Noisecreep, "Just to set the record straight, I wasn't born in Stoke-on-Trent. I was actually born in Hampstead, London. But I was raised in Stoke-on-Trent until I was six and I loved it there. I'm actually from a small town within that called Blurton. Believe it or not, Stoke-on-Trent was famous for its pottery."
3.Steve-O — best known for his role as one of the members of Jackass — was born in London, England.
Steve-O, who was actually born Stephen Gilchrist Glover, and his family moved around the world a lot throughout his youth but ended up back in England when he was 13. In an interview with Loudwire, he talked about going to high school at the American School in London, which was "like the ultimate in privilege...literally, 80% of my senior class went to Ivy League colleges. I was considered a loser for going to the University of Miami, which is a pretty school as well."
4.Kelly Reilly — best known for her role as Beth Dutton on Yellowstone among many other acting credits — was born in Chessington, England.
In an interview with Netribution, Reilly talked about her background and her inspiration to get into acting, saying, "My dad’s a police officer and my mum’s a secretary. We’re a kind of two-up, two-down, very normal suburban household. I went to a normal secondary school. [...] I went to school and I had two brilliant drama teachers and that was it. They gave me plays to read and I just kind of felt that that was it for me. It wasn’t like, this is what I want to do but it was the only thing that pushed my buttons and I was good at it."
5.Cynthia Erivo — best known for her award-winning Broadway career and role as Harriet Tubman in Harriet, among many other acting credits — was born in Stockwell, London.
Speaking with Broadway.com, Erivo talked a bit about her background, "It’s [her surname] actually Nigerian, which is where both my parents are from, though I grew up in Stockwell, South London. Even a couple of Nigerians have gone, 'Your name sounds Italian or Mediterranean'; no one believes me when I tell them where it’s from [laughs]."
6.Mischa Barton — best known for her role as Marissa Cooper on The O.C., among many other acting credits — was born in Hammersmith, London.
According to Hello, "Born on January 24, 1986, in the west London borough of Hammersmith to a Mancunian father and Irish mum, Mischa moved to New York as a 5-year-old. US citizenship was only granted to her ten days after her 20th birthday."
7.Kiefer Sutherland — best known for his role as Jack Bauer on 24, among many, many other acting credits (especially several small, but iconic, ones throughout the '80s) — was born in London, England.
In an appearance on Inside the Actors Studio, Sutherland explained that, while both his parents are/were Canadian (actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas), they had been living and working in England at the time he was born.
8.Naomi Watts — best known for her role as Betty/Diane in Mulholland Drive, which brought her major acclaim among a long list of several other high-profile acting credits — was born in Shoreham, Kent, England.
Although most people associate Watts with being from Australia, she was born in and spent most of her youth in the UK. She did not move to Australia until she was 14 years old.
9.Delroy Lindo — best known for his role as Adrian Boseman in The Good Fight, among a very long and award-winning acting career including several collaborations with Spike Lee — was born in London, England.
According to NPR, "Born in London to Jamaican parents, Delroy spent his childhood moving from place to place. As a teenager, he moved with his family to Toronto and then San Francisco, where he began studying acting at the American Conservatory Theater."
10.Laura Fraser — best known for her role as Lydia in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul — was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
According to The Scotsman, "After stints of living in London, Brooklyn, West Cork, and her home city, Glasgow, Fraser and her husband, actor-writer Karl Geary, and the couple’s seven-year-old daughter, Lila, are now based in a ramshackle house in upstate New York."
11.Mia Goth — best known for her recent breakthrough performances in X and its prequel Pearl, among many other acting credits — was born in London, England.
According to an interview with iNews, although she was born in London, Goth spent the first five years of her life growing up in Brazil. Goth's mother, for the record, is Brazilian and had moved home to get help from her family in raising Mia.
12.Andrew Lincoln — best known for his role as Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, among many other acting credits — was born in London, England.
Lincoln spent his formative years around various parts of England outside of London like Hull and Bath. And he actually had a number of roles on British television before The Walking Dead. However, it was his high-profile turn as Rick Grimes on the super-popular show that really launched him to stardom.
13.Lennie James — best known for his role as Morgan on The Walking Dead, among many other acting credits — was born in Nottingham, England.
According to the Guardian, "Born in Nottingham, James was raised in care after the death of his mother. Having studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he wrote and appeared in the drama Storm Damage, which won a Royal Television Society award in 2001."
14.Rebecca Hall — best known for her role as Christine Chubbuck in Christine, among many other acting credits — was born in London, England.
In an interview with the Guardian, Hall explained, "I had these high-profile parents, and Dad had a house in Chelsea, but it's not like I grew up enormously wealthy. My dad's done theatre all his life. He's not even done an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, for God's sake! My mum has no understanding of the class system in England and is totally American culturally."
15.Kim Cattrall — best known for her role as Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, among many other iconic credits throughout the years — was born in Liverpool, England.
Cattrall did not live in England for very long, however. Her family moved to Canada when she was just three months old. Although she did return to Liverpool briefly for a year when she was 11.
16.Wentworth Miller — best known for his role as Michael Scofield in Prison Break, among many other acting credits — was born in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England.
Miller's parents, who are American, were in England for his birth because his father was studying at Oxford at the time. They moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn when he was just one year old.
17.Daniel Kaluuya — best known for his breakthrough role as Chris in Get Out and also his Oscar-winning role as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah — was born in London, England.
In a piece for Vice, Kaluuya wrote, "My mom is from Uganda. She came to London to give birth to me. I lived in hostels until I was two years old, and then she got a home in Camden, where I grew up."
18.Charlie Hunnam — best known for his role as Jax on Sons of Anarchy, among many other acting credits — was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
According to the Detroit Free Press, "The actor is originally from Newcastle, England, a working-class town. As a kid, he moved to the Lake District, where fighting was common. He is one of two sons of what he has described as a 'tough-guy' father and a 'bohemian' mother. They split up when he was 2 years old."
19.Ruth Wilson — best known for her role as Alison in The Affair, among many other acting credits, including several theatre awards — was born in Ashford, Surrey, England.
According to the Guardian, "She grew up the youngest of four children in Surrey, her mum a probation officer, her dad an investment banker."
20.Will Poulter — best known for his role as Gally in The Maze Runner, among many other acting credits — was born in London, England.
Speaking with the Guardian, Poulter explained that he grew up in Hammersmith, London and that the city is his "favorite place in the world" and that he's unlikely to ever leave his hometown permanently.
21.Finally, Christian Bale — best known for his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the Dark Knight trilogy, among mannnnny other iconic roles — was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Bale and his family left Wales when he was just two years old and lived in Portugal, then Oxfordshire, and finally settled in Bournemouth, England by the time he was 15. He moved with his sister and father to Los Angeles when he was 17.
