NICOLE KIDMAN (Marisa Coulter)
DAKOTA BLUE RICHARDS (Lyra Belacqua)
SAM ELLIOTT (Lee Scoresby)
EVA GREEN (Serafina Pekkala)
DANIEL CRAIG (Lord Asriel)
TOM COURTENAY (Farder Coram)
DEREK JACOBI (Magisterial Emmissary)
BEN WALKER (Roger)
ADAM GODLEY (Pantalaimon)
SIMON McBURNEY (Fra Pavel)
NONSO ANOZIE (Iorek Byrnison)
JIM CARTER (John Faa)
CLARE HIGGINS (Ma Costa)
JACK SHEPHERD (Master of Jordan College)
MAGDA SZUBANSKI (Mrs. Lonsdale)
IAN McSHANE (Ragnar Sturlusson)

ABOUT THE CAST

NICOLE KIDMAN (Marisa Coulter) first came to the attention of American audiences with her critically acclaimed performance in the riveting 1989 psychological thriller “Dead Calm.” She has since become an internationally recognized award-winning actress known for her range and versatility. In 2003, Kidman won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award and a Berlin Silver Bear for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. In the year prior, she was honored with her first Oscar nomination and second Golden Globe Award for her work on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! She was awarded her first Golden Globe for her portrayal of the wickedly ambitious Suzanne Stone in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, and has been Golden Globe-nominated four other times for her performances in Birth, Cold Mountain, The Others and Billy Bathgate.

In 2005, Kidman starred in Sydney Pollack’s thriller The Interpreter, and with Will Ferrell in Nora Ephron’s Bewitched. She narrated the 2006 Sundance Grand Jury Award and Audience Award-winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and was recently seen in Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, directed by Steven Shainberg, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and the RomeFilmFest. She also recently portrayed the voice of Norma Jean, the mother of the penguin Mumble, in George Miller’s Academy Award-winning animated film, Happy Feet.

Upcoming films for Kidman include Oliver Hirschbiegel’s thriller The Invasion, with Daniel Craig, and Noah Baumbach’s as-yet-untitled feature, also starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black.

Kidman is also the narrator in the forthcoming film biography of Simon Wiesenthal, I Have Never Forgotten You. Early next year, she will reunite with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann and fellow Australian actor Hugh Jackman to film an epic love story set in Australia’s outback.

Kidman’s additional film credits include Robert Benton’s The Human Stain; Lars von Trier’s Dogville; Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut; The Peacemaker, with George Clooney; Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady; Batman Forever; Malice; and Ron Howard’s Far and Away.

In January of this year, Kidman was awarded Australia’s highest honor, the Companion in the Order of Australia. She was also named Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), a role that will focus on raising awareness of the infringement on women’s human rights around the world. For the past nine years, Kidman has served as the UNICEF Ambassador for Australia. Three years ago, she became the first Chair of the Women’s Health Fund at UCLA, at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

DAKOTA BLUE RICHARDS (Lyra Belacqua) was born in London in 1994. When her mother named her Dakota Blue, she couldn’t have imagined the impact that name would have just over a decade later when she was cast in the leading role of Lyra in The Golden Compass.

Richards was a fan of Philip Pullman’s books and her mother read His Dark Materials to her when she was nine. She also saw the National Theatre production in London and told her mother that she wanted to be Lyra, the fiercely loyal and high-spirited heroine of The Golden Compass.

She lives with her mother in Brighton, in the UK. The Golden Compass marks her feature film acting debut.

SAM ELLIOTT (Lee Scoresby) most recently appeared in co-starring roles in Ghost Rider, Thank You for Smoking and Lies and Alibis. He also provided the voice of the patriarch in the recent animated comedy Barnyard and starred opposite Joan Allen in Off the Map, which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Festival. He also starred in Hulk, We Were Soldiers, The Contender, The Hi-Lo Country, The Big Lebowski, Tombstone, and Gettysburg.

On television, he was nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role Buffalo Girls. Other television credits include Fail Safe and You Know My Name, a movie for TNT that won the first Golden Boot “Best of the West” Award.

Elliott gained cult status some years ago with his performance in the title role Lifeguard. Since then he has gone on to star in such films as Mask, Fatal Beauty, Prancer, and Rush, and miniseries such as Murder in Texas, Gone Texas, The Sam Houston Story, The Yellow Rose, and Fugitive Nights.

Described by Oscar®-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci as “so beautiful it’s indecent,” EVA GREEN (Serafina Pekkala) made her film debut in Bertolucci’s critically acclaimed The Dreamers, a triangular love story set against the Paris riots of 1968, starring opposite Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel.

Born in Paris, Green studied at the St. Paul Drama School. This was followed by a course at the London Weber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

She began her acting career on stage, appearing in 2001 in two plays: “Turceret” directed by Gerard Descartes, and “Jalousie En Trois Fax” directed by Didier Long. The latter was highly acclaimed and earned her a nomination for Les Molieres, France’s most prestigious theatre award, in the category of Best Female Newcomer.

In 2003, she starred alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Romain Duris in Jean-Paul Salome’s French-language film Arsène Lupin and, in 2005, she made her Hollywood film debut as the female lead in Ridley’s Scott’s Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson.

She most recently starred opposite her co-star from The Golden Compass, Daniel Craig, in Casino Royale, in which she played Treasury officer Vesper Lynd.

DANIEL CRAIG (Lord Asriel) recently made his first appearance as 007 agent James Bond of British Secret Service MI6 in the blockbuster Casino Royale, the 21st film in the series, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and directed by Martin Campbell.

Craig was born in Chester, England, and brought up in Liverpool, leaving there to join the National Youth Theatre in London at the age of 17. He continued his training at the prestigious London Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1991.

He made his film debut in 1992 in the South African boxing drama The Power of One, but came to the attention of critics and casting directors in the much lauded 1996 television drama serial Our Friends in the North, playing the role of Geordie Peacock. In 1998, Craig played the role of George Dyer, painter Francis Bacon’s working-class boyfriend, in John Maybury’s powerful biopic Love is the Devil. In 2000, he was recognized as one of European Films’ “Shooting Stars.” This was followed by roles in the Hollywood blockbuster Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, in which he played Lara Croft’s boyfriend; the ensemble black comedy Hotel Splendide; and The Trench, written and directed by acclaimed author William Boyd.

In 2002, Craig starred in Sam Mendes’s film, Road to Perdition, receiving critical acclaim for his portrayal of Connor Rooney, the troubled son of crime boss John Rooney, played by Paul Newman. The following year he starred in The Mother, a powerful drama directed by Roger Michell in which he played a young man who has an affair with a 60-year-old woman. This was followed by the role of Ted Hughes, starring opposite Gwyneth Paltrow, in Sylvia, the story of poets Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

In 2004, Craig took leading roles in Enduring Love, directed by Roger Michell and adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel, and Layer Cake, Matthew Vaughn’s successful directorial debut about the contemporary criminal drug scene.

A role in John Maybury’s thriller, The Jacket, starring alongside Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley, was followed by the lead in the television adaptation of Robert Harris’ bestselling novel Archangel and a leading role in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar®-nominated Munich. Craig played a South African mercenary, part of a team hand-picked by the Mossad to eliminate the terrorists whose attack at the 1972 Olympic Village resulted in the death of 11 Israeli athletes.

Recent film work includes Infamous, in which he played Perry Smith, opposite Toby Jones as Truman Capote (writer of the best-selling novel In Cold Blood detailing the murders committed by Smith and Dick Hickock) and The Visiting, a horror thriller directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, in which Craig stars opposite Nicole Kidman.

In addition to his film work, Craig is acknowledged as a highly accomplished stage actor. His credits include leading roles in “Hurlyburly” with the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic and “Angels in America” at the National Theatre. In 2002 he was nominated for a London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for his performance in “A Number,” in which he played three roles and appeared opposite Michael Gambon.

Born in Hull, Yorkshire in 1937, TOM COURTENAY (Farder Coram) trained at RADA and made his stage debut in 1960 in Chekov’s “The Seagull” at the Old Vic. On the West End stage he starred as “Billy Liar,” later recreating the role in John Schlesinger’s film version in 1963.
Courtenay’s film debut was Tony Richardson’s acclaimed The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and he gave memorable performances in King and Country with Dirk Bogarde, and Bryan Forbes’s prison-of-war drama, King Rat. He won an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor for his revolutionary Pasha in David Lean’s Dr. Zhivago, as well as making a life-long friend of Rod Steiger.

On the stage he won recognition for his work both in drama (his admired “Hamlet” at the Edinburgh Festival of 1968) and comedy, the lead in Alan Ayckbourn’s celebrated trilogy, “The Norman Conquests.” He created “The Dresser,” with Albert Finney as the aging legendary actor, and both men recreated their roles in Peter Yates’s screen version of the Ronald Harwood play. Both Finney and Courtenay were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances.

On television with Joanna Lumley, Courtenay and Finney starred in the award-winning “A Rather English Marriage” in the late 90s. Courtenay played an undertaker in “Last Orders,” an adaptation of Graham Swift’s Booker winning novel.

He became Sir Tom Courtenay in the 2001 New Year Honours, the knighthood in recognition of his contribution to acting.

Called one of the finest actors of his generation, DEREK JACOBI (Magisterial Emmissary) has earned a singular place in the affections of theatre goers both in Britain and America, and attracted a far wider audience when he played the Roman emperor Claudius in the BBC’s award winning production of Rupert Graves’ “I, Claudius” in the mid ‘70s.

A Cambridge graduate (fellow students included Ian McKellen and Trevor Nunn), he joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and was invited by Laurence Olivier to be a founder member of the National Theatre.

He was a celebrated “Hamlet,” touring extensively with the play in the wake of his “I Claudius” success, and is also to be frequently found in London’s West End from his debut in “Breaking the Code” and “Becket” up to recent successes, Schiller’s “Don Carlos” and John Mortimer’s “A Voyage Round my Father”.

Film credits include The Day of the Jackal, Henry V, Dead Again, Up at the Villa, Gladiator, Gosford Park and Nanny McPhee.

On television he played Augusto Pinochet in Pinochet in Suburbia, and achieved a career dream playing a villain in Doctor Who just prior to making his appearance in The Golden Compass.

Born in 1993, BEN WALKER (Roger) has appeared in London’s West End in the hit show “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” directed by Adrian Noble, and appeared with Ray Winstone in the BBC production of Sweeney Todd, shown on television at Christmas 2006.

ADAM GODLEY (Pantalaimon) recently starred in the films Nanny McPhee, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Love, Actually, and Armadillo.
On the stage, he recently appeared in Mike Leigh's “Two Thousand Years” at the Cottesloe in the UK. His previous work for the National Theater includes Martin McDonagh's “The Pillowman” and Terry Johnson's “Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick.” His extensive theatre work also includes “The White Devil” and “A Midsummer Night's Dream” for the RSC, “Cabaret at the Donmar,” and “Private Lives,” “An Inspector Calls,” and “The Revengers' Comedies” in the West End.

Born in Cambridge, and trained at the Jacques le Coq school in Paris, SIMON McBURNEY (Fra Pavel) is founder and artistic director of Theatre de Complicite. Founded in 1983, Complicite is known as being daring and inventive.

McBurney won the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for best choreography of the 1997 season for “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” at the National Theatre’s Olivier stage. He was nominated for a Tony on Broadway as best director for the 1998 revival of Eugene Ionesco’s “The Chairs.” His play, “Mnemonic” at the Riverside Theatre in London, won the Critics’ Circle award for best new play in 1999.

McBurney’s film credits include Kafka, Tom & Viv, Cousin Bette, Onegin, Bright Young Things, The Manchurian Candidate and The Last King of Scotland.

NONSO ANOZIE (Iorek Byrnison) played “King Lear” for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Academy directly following his graduation from drama school. At the age of 25, he starred in the title role of “Othello,” which he performed with the British company Cheek by Jowl on a world tour that took him to Sydney, Shanghai, Istanbul, Moscow, and Prague. The role gleaned him an Ian Charleson award and the 2004 Magnolia Stage Performance Award in China. He also became the youngest actor in history to star in the title role of “King Lear.”

On television, Anozie starred in the most recent production of Prime Suspect: The Final Act. Upcoming films include Joe Wright’s Atonement, and Doug Lefler’s The Last Legion.

In a film and television career stretching over 26 years, JIM CARTER’s (John Faa) credits include over 100 film and television projects, beginning with Flash Gordon in 1980 and encompassing such titles as A Private Function, The Singing Detective, Haunted Honeymoon, A Very British Coup, A Month in the Country, The Rainbow, Lipstick on your Collar, The Madness of King George, Richard III, Brassed Off, Shakespeare in Love, 102 Dalmatians, The Way We Live Now and Ella Enchanted.

A diary entry by playwright Alan Bennett, who wrote A Private Function, recalled that Carter amused himself on set between takes by doing conjuring tricks. In the finished film he performed a magic trick as Inspector Noble. In Shakespeare in Love he is seen juggling.

Jim Carter is married to actress Imelda Staunton and they have a daughter, Bessie.

CLARE HIGGINS (Ma Costa) is one of the most remarkable stage actresses of her generation, a popular triple Olivier award winner (for “Sweet Bird of Youth” at the National Theatre in 1995; “Vincent in Brixton” at the National Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre in 2002; “Hecuba” at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006).

Born in Norwich, she trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and enjoyed early success in Manchester at the Royal Exchange theatre in leading roles in many plays including “Measure for Measure” and Stella in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Making the move to London, she found her theatrical home at the National Theatre where she has been much in demand, often working with director Richard Eyre.

In 2005 she starred with Woody Harrelson in “Night of the Iguana.”

Her infrequent film appearances include the sinister Julia in Hellraiser, repeated in its sequel, Hellraiser II, B Monkey, Richard Eyre’s Stage Beauty and Bigger than the Sky.

Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, JACK SHEPHERD (Master of Jordan College) studied Fine Art at Kings College, Newcastle, and studied acting at the Central School and helped found the Drama Centre in London.

He worked at the prestigious Royal Court Theatre for four years in the ‘60s, and was involved in the first production of Edward Bond’s “Saved,” “Narrow Road to the Deep North” and “Early Morning”. In 1967 he was named most promising actor of the year for his performance in David Storey’s restoration of Arnold Middleton.

He ran a drama studio with Richard Wilson during the ‘70s, providing workshops for professional actors to develop their skills. He wrote a number of plays produced by the BBC during this time. A member of the National Theatre from the late ‘70s until the mid ‘80s he appeared in many admired productions and won best actor for “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

He also worked extensively in television, and is remembered for Wycliffe mysteries in which he played detective superintendent Charles Wycliffe. In the theatre he has also directed – notably “Two Gentlemen of Verona” for the opening season of the restored Globe Theatre.

Among his films are The Virgin Soldiers, The Last Valley and Charlotte Gray.

MAGDA SZUBANSKI(Mrs. Lonsdale) is best known for her role as Mrs. Hoggett in the Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning family adventure Babe and its sequel, Babe: Pig in the City. Recently she provided the voice for Miss Viola in Szubanski’s third project with director George Miller, Happy Feet. Her other film credits include The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, alongside the late Steve Irwin, and Son of the Mask, with Jamie Kennedy and Alan Cumming.

She most recently completed shooting the role of Mrs. Plonk in the latest Rolf de Heer comedy, Dr. Plonk. On stage, Szubanski has starred in the Melbourne Theatre Company production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” for which she was nominated for a Hellman Award; the national tour of “Grease: The Arena Spectacular,” with John Farnham; and “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice,” for the STC. In 2002, she won the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award for Best Supporting Actress in the hit TV comedy Kath & Kim, and was nominated twice more for the same role in the following years. She has also won several Logies, Australia’s People’s Choice Awards and Writers Guild Awards. Szubanski’s other television credits include the Dogwoman telefilms, Big Girl's Blouse and Something Stupid, all of which she wrote, co-produced and starred in.

IAN McSHANE (Ragnar Sturlusson) won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama and earned Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his performance as the charismatic Al Swearengen in the second season of HBO’s hit series Deadwood. For his work during the series’ 2004 debut season, McShane received the Television Critics Association Award, with a second nomination for the 2005 season, and was named one of GQ Magazine’s Men of the Year.

McShane has starred in over 25 films over a long and distinguished career, including The Battle of Britain, The Last of Sheila, Villain, co-starring Richard Burton, Exposed and Agent Cody Banks. In Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Sexy Beast, he gave a riveting performance as the sinister gangster Teddy Bass, opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone.

Recently, he joined the ensemble cast of writer-director Rodrigo Garcia’s drama Nine Lives, McG’s We Are Marshall, and co-starred in the Woody Allen film, Scoop. He will next lend his vocal talents to the upcoming animated feature Shrek The Third, as Captain Hook; the animated fantasy Coraline, and the animated comedy Kung Fu Panda, with an all-star voice cast including Jackie Chan. Among his upcoming screen appearances are the action comedy Hot Rod, and the thriller Case 39, opposite Renée Zellweger.

McShane has also enjoyed a long career in both British and American television, including a role in David Wolper’s seminal 1970s miniseries Roots. Last season, he was seen on both BBC and BBC America’s comedy series Trust. A starring turn in Whose Life Is It Anyway?, for Granada TV, the role of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights for the BBC, and Harold Pinter’s Emmy-winning The Caretaker are among his other television highlights. He has also portrayed Judas in NBC’s Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Franco Zeffirelli; Prince Rainer in the network’s The Grace Kelly Story; and the title role in Masterpiece Theatre’s Disraeli. His additional miniseries credits include Charlie the Kid, A.D., The Great Escape II, Marco Polo, Evergreen and Dan Curtis’s War and Remembrance.

In the late 1980s, he formed McShane Productions, which produced the much-adored Lovejoy for the BBC and A&E, a project that gave him a vehicle in which to star as well as produce and direct. He followed by producing and starring in the lead role of Madson in the comedy drama Soul Survivors, for BBC and Showtime.

In 2000, McShane returned to London’s West End for his musical stage debut in Cameron Mackintosh’s successful production of “The Witches of Eastwick,” as Darryl Van Horne. His stage career has included roles as Hal in the original cast of “Loot,” the title role of “The Admirable Crichton” at the Chichester Festival, Tom in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” and Charlie in “The Big Knife.” He co-starred with Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen in “Promise,” which successfully played London before moving to Broadway. In Los Angeles, he starred in three productions at The Matrix Theatre, including the world premiere of Larry Atlas’ “Yield of the Long Bond” and two others for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award: “Inadmissible Evidence” and “Betrayal.”