List of Famous people born in England, United Kingdom
Ben Whishaw
Benjamin John Whishaw is an English film, television and theatre actor. After winning a British Independent Film Award for his performance in My Brother Tom (2001), Whishaw was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of the title role in a 2004 production of Hamlet. This was followed by television roles in Nathan Barley (2005), Criminal Justice (2008) and The Hour (2011–12) and film roles in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008) and Bright Star (2009). For Criminal Justice, Whishaw received an International Emmy Award and received his first BAFTA Award nomination.
Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She has served as Shadow First Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. Rayner ideologically identifies as a socialist and as part of Labour’s soft left.
Ella Purnell
Ella Summer Purnell is an English actress best known for the films Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and Churchill (2017). She starred in the lead role of the American television series Sweetbitter, based on the novel of the same name.
Diana Rigg
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg was an English actress of stage and screen. Some of her notable roles were as Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017) and in her performance as Medea on Broadway and in the UK.
Phoebe Dynevor
Phoebe Harriet Dynevor is an English actress. She began her career as a child actress, appearing in the BBC school drama Waterloo Road (2009–2010). She is known for her starring role in Bridgerton (2020), a Netflix period drama. Her other work includes recurring roles in the BBC series Prisoners' Wives (2012–2013) and Dickensian (2015–2016), the TV Land comedy-drama Younger (2017–2021), as well as a main role in the Crackle crime series, Snatch (2017–2018).
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor is an English singer, songwriter and model. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s, as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded, Ellis-Bextor went solo, achieving success in the early 2000s. Her music is a mixture of mainstream pop, disco, nu-disco, and 1980s electronic influences.
Richard Madeley
Richard Holt Madeley is an English journalist, television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley presented This Morning and the chat show Richard & Judy. Madeley's solo projects include the ITV series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway and standing in on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show for BBC Radio 2.
Kell Brook
Ezekiel "Kell" Brook is a British professional boxer. He held the IBF welterweight title from 2014 to 2017, and has challenged once for the unified WBC, IBF, and IBO middleweight titles in 2016 and has challenged for WBO welterweight on November 2020. At regional level he held the British welterweight title from 2008 to 2010. In May 2017, Brook was ranked as the world's best active welterweight by The Ring magazine. As of August 2020, he is ranked as the world’s third best active light-middleweight by BoxRec.
Pixie Lott
Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott is an English singer and songwriter. Her debut album, Turn It Up, released in September 2009, reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and sold over 1.5 million copies. It also spawned six consecutive top twenty singles on the UK Singles Chart, including two #1 singles, "Mama Do " and "Boys and Girls". Her second album, Young Foolish Happy (2011), spawned the #1 hit "All About Tonight", as well as the top ten singles "What Do You Take Me For?" and "Kiss the Stars". Lott's self-titled third studio album, released in 2014, had the lead single "Nasty", which peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart, making it her sixth Top 10 single in the United Kingdom.
Joan Collins
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins, is an English actress, author, and columnist. She made her stage debut at the age of nine, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, entered British films in 1951 and went to Hollywood under contract to 20th Century Fox in 1955. In 1981, she landed the role of Alexis Colby in the soap opera Dynasty, which made her an international superstar and brought her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Drama in 1982. In 2015, Collins was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to charity.