It’s St. David’s Day! So, grab your dragons and daffodils and join us as we celebrate our favorite Welsh actors on the big and small screen.
And just what is St. David’s Day? Well, it’s a public holiday in Wales, honoring their patron saint, Saint David — though it’s mostly been adopted as a day of Welsh pride. It falls on March 1 every year, widely believed to be the date of Saint David’s death, and is celebrated in the usual Welsh style — with loads of traditional food, daffodils, and dragons.
Don’t believe us? Just check out Google doodle from 2016, which prominently featured two of those listed items.
We thought we’d join in with the festivities this time around by celebrating our favorite Welsh actors on the big and small screen.
Tom Ellis
Where you know them from: Merlin, Miranda
Where you can find them next: Lucifer
It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of Merlin on Hypable, and though Tom Ellis played a formidable foe in Cendred, we’re still pretty fond of him. That may have been helped by his time as Gary Preston on Miranda, but who’s to say, really? (If he didn’t bring a tear to your eye in the final ever episode of Miranda, well… we don’t know what to say to you.)
He’s currently playing the titular role in Fox’s Lucifer and we still can’t get enough of his devilish demeanor. Who knew that being bad could be so good? He also appeared as Dr. Todd in the romantic comedy movie, Isn’t It Romantic, starring Rebel Wilson.
Erin Richards
Where you know them from: Being Human, Merlin
Where you can find them next: Gotham
Another Merlin alum, Erin mostly appeared sporadically on a few of our favorite shows before joining Gotham as Barbara Kean.
Sure, she may have changed a little since she was first introduced to us in season 1, but we certainly got a kick out of her villainous turn. With Gotham coming to an end in 2019, it will be interesting to see what project Richards will turn her hand to next.
Luke Evans
Where you know them from: The Hobbit, Fast & Furious, Beauty and the Beast
Where you can find them next: Anna
Confession time: We really love the Fast & Furious franchise. We’re not even guilty about it! Sure, we loved Luke Evans as Bard in the latter two Hobbit movies, but he makes a pretty compelling antagonist in Owen Shaw. Evans also starred as Gaston in Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
The next we’ll see Evans is in Luc Besson’s Anna, an English-language, French crime thriller — though there are little to no details about the specific role Evans will be playing.
Pam Ferris
Where you know them from: Matilda, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Call the Midwife
Where you can find them next: Tolkien
Ah, Pam Ferris. You terrified us as children as the horrid headmistress Miss Trunchbull. No, really. It was enough to fuel our nightmares for an eternity, but it takes one hell of an actor to strike that much fear into our hearts. Ferris also played the gruff and tough love doling, Sister Evangelina, in the phenomenal BBC period drama Call the Midwife.
Ferris will make an appearance as Mrs. Faulkner in the upcoming Tolkien biopic, which stars Nicholas Hoult in the title role.
Ioan Grufudd
Where you know them from: Titanic, Hornblower, King Arthur, Fantastic Four
Where you can find them next: Harrow
Ioan Grufudd has had some incredible roles over the last decade, not least as Horatio Hornblower and Lancelot in King Arthur — and, let’s be real, we’d have swooned and succumbed to his charms as well. And, even though the Fantastic Four movies are largely panned, Grufudd did make a pretty memorable Reed Richards.
With Harrow being renewed by NBC for a second season, you’ll soon be able to catch him on your screen once again as Dr. Daniel Harrow, a forensic pathologist, with a gift for solving the most bizarre of cases.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Where you know them from: The Mask of Zorro, Chicago, RED 2
Where you can find them next: Queen America
We absolutely can’t get enough of Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is perhaps best known for her more kick-ass, femme fatale-esque roles. In true Welsh fashion, she also has one heck of a singing voice, which was on full display in Chicago, where she played showgirl turned murderess Velma Kelly.
Currently, Zeta-Jones is starring in the Facebook watch series Queen America. Zeta-Jones plays Vicki Ellis, a ruthless beauty pageant coach who can turn any girl into a Miss America winner.
John Rhys-Davies
Where you know them from: Everything Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, The Shannara Chronicles
Where you can find them next: Starbright
We really weren’t kidding when we said that John Rhys-Davis has been in everything, but he will always be Gimli in our hearts. From the moment he stepped on screen in Fellowship, we knew we’d never forget the axe-wielding dwarf.
Which made it quite the strange experience to see him cast as King Eventine in The Shannara Chronicles. His enthusiasm for the part was infectious, and we quickly got over the transition from dwarf to elf. It was a good thing too, because he absolutely killed it on the show.
Rhys-Davies will next be starring in Starbright, a fantasy movie which follows an orphan as she escapes the realities of her life by entering a fairy tale world.
Alexandra Roach
Where you know them from: The Iron Lady, Utopia, The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Where you can find them next: The Kid Who Would Be King
From tackling the difficult task of bringing a young Margaret Thatcher to the big screen, to her role as Becky in the critically acclaimed Utopia, Alexandra Roach certainly has some incredible range.
Roach’s most recent role was as Miss Foster in The Kid Who Would Be King, a fantasy adventure movie which serves as a modern retelling of the King Arthur story.
Iwan Rheon
Where you know them from: Misfits, Game of Thrones
Where you can find them next: Berlin, I Love You, The Dirt
Well, we certainly love to hate him for his turn as Roose Bolton’s bastard-turned-legitimate son Ramsey, but we fell in love with Rheon during his time as social outcast Simon on Misfits.
Rheon recently appeared in the romantic comedy movie, Berlin, I Love You,, but also stars in The Dirt, a musical biopic centered around glam metal band Mötley Crüe. Rheon is playing Mick Mars, the lead guitarist of the band.
Eve Myles
Where you know them from: Doctor Who/Torchwood, Broadchurch
Where you can find them next: Keeping Faith
As much as Miracle Day broke our hearts, we still love the no-nonsense Gwen Cooper with all the fragments of it we managed to piece back together. And, well, we’d say more about her role on Broadchurch, but that’s really something you should experience for yourself.
Myles is currently filming the second season of Keeping Faith, a hugely popular British thriller, which was filmed concurrently in both Welsh and English. Season 2 is slated to premiere in 2019, and with several cliffhangers at the end of its freshman season, we’re eagerly anticipating what will happen to Myles’ titular Faith Howells next.
Matt Ryan
Where you know them from: Constantine, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Legends of Tomorrow
Where you can find them next: Er… Constantine?
Okay, there may be more than a little bias here. But, whatever you thought of NBC’s short-lived Hellblazer adaption Constantine, most everyone agrees that Matt Ryan was perfect for the titular role. So much so, that he reprised John multiple times on Arrow, and also on a more regular basis on Legends of Tomorrow.
A recently surfaced rumor suggests that Ryan’s next project might just be a Constantine revival, thought there is no official confirmation of that just yet. (But, rest assured, that should it return in any capacity, we will be covering it here on Hypable.)