Ed Speleers

Edward John Speleers (born 7 April 1988) is an English actor and producer. He is best known for playing the title role in the 2006 film Eragon, the antagonist character Stephen Bonnet in the TV series Outlander, as well as James "Jimmy" Kent in the TV series Downton Abbey. Speleers has been nominated for both the Saturn Awards, as Best Young Actor, and the British Academy Film Awards, for a short film he co-produced. Speleers was born at St Richard's Hospital, Chichester, West Sussex, England. He is of Belgian descent. His parents divorced when he was three, with his mother residing in Spain and his father in London. He has two older half brothers. While still in school, Speleers performed in school productions such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard III. In addition to acting, Speleers wrote a play that was performed at Eastbourne College, in Sussex, where he attended. Extraordinarily controversial, Retribution dealt with the subject of paedophilia and was met with stunned reactions. Speleers completed his education in 2006. Speleers' first professional role in 2006 was the lead in 20th Century Fox's screen version of Christopher Paolini's hit book Eragon. Before landing the role of Eragon, he auditioned for various roles, including Peter Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which he lost to William Moseley. His next role, in 2008, was Jimmy Penwarden on the British prime time series Echo Beach. He also appeared in the comedy Moving Wallpaper and an episode of Moving Wallpaper: The Mole, which many saw as a parody of Echo Beach.