ROWAN ATKINSON (Bean/Original Character Created by)

EMMA DE CAUNES (Sabine)

JEAN ROCHEFORT (Maître D’)

KAREL RODEN (Emil)

WILLEM DAFOE (Carson Clay)

ROWAN ATKINSON (Bean/Original Character Created by) was born on the 12th night of Christmas 1955. His middle name is Sebastian.

A budding electrical engineer with degrees from the University of Newcastle and Oxford University, Atkinson attracted wide critical notice at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1977. After mounting his own revue at London’s Hampstead Theatre in 1978, he became a founding member of the BBC’s Not the 9 O’ Clock News team. This was an experiment that turned into rather a success—with four series, platinum and gold LPs, many best-selling books, a Silver Rose at the Montreux Film and Television Festival, an International Emmy, the British Academy Award and an award as BBC Personality of the Year.

In 1981, Atkinson became the youngest performer to have a one-man show in London’s West End; the sellout season at the Globe Theatre won him the Society of West End Theatre’s award for Comedy Performance of the Year. In 1983, Atkinson embarked with writer Richard Curtis on their situation tragedy Blackadder for the BBC. Over the ensuing five years, the four series won three British Academy Awards, an International Emmy, three ACE Awards and personal awards for his performance—including Best Entertainment Performance. Once again, Atkinson was voted BBC Personality of the Year.

Onstage, in 1985, he took the lead in Larry Shue’s The Nerd at the Aldwych Theatre. The following year, he mounted a new one-man show in the West End and, after a sellout season, the show was transferred to Broadway. There, it was described by the New York Post as “hilarious” and by The New York Times as “stunningly predictable.” This show went on to tour successfully in Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and the U.K. In 1988, he undertook a six-month run in the West End, starring in The Sneeze, a collection of humorous one-act plays by Anton Chekhov.

Atkinson’s next major television undertaking was the creation of the silent comedy series Mr. Bean for ITV and HBO. The pilot program won the Golden Rose at Montreux and was nominated for an International Emmy. Subsequent episodes continued to win plaudits, including an International Emmy, two BANFF Awards and an ACE Award for Best Comedy in 1995. The programs have been sold to more than 200 territories. It was the highest-rated comedy show of the decade on commercial television; and it was produced by the production company Tiger Aspect, of which he is a partner and for which he has also appeared in a number of highly successful documentary programs—on subjects ranging from comedy to his passion, the motorcar.

In 1995, Atkinson starred as the lead role, Inspector Raymond Fowler, in the first series of Tiger Aspect’s No. 1-rated situation comedy The Thin Blue Line, written by Ben Elton. A second series was produced in summer 1996.

For HBO and the BBC, Tiger also produced Rowan Atkinson on Location in Boston, a one-hour special featuring highlights from his stage shows. The production won an ACE Award in 1993. He has appeared in a number of films, including Never Say Never Again, with Sean Connery; The Tall Guy, with Jeff Goldblum; Nicolas Roeg’s The Witches; and The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, for HBO, which won the 1989 Oscar® for Best Short Film. Other film appearances include Hot Shots! Part Deux, Four Weddings and a Funeral and as the voice of Zazu in The Lion King.

He also co-produced and appeared in 1997’s Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie. The Polygram film, produced by Working Title in association with Tiger Aspect, was a huge hit, second only to Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill as the highestever grossing U.K. film internationally.

Throughout 2000, Blackadder Back & Forth, a 35-minute film shot on 70mm, was shown at the Millennium Dome. With Atkinson portraying Edmund Blackadder for the first time in a decade, the comedy featured all the other stars of the original television series and proved to be the most popular attraction at the Dome.

In 2001, Atkinson appeared as Enrico Polini in the Paramount film Rat Race, also starring, amongst others, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr. and John Cleese; it was directed by Jerry Zucker. He also appeared in the 2002 Warner Bros. Live-action movie Scooby-Doo, playing the villain Mondavarious.

Following this, Atkinson completed production on the Mr. Bean animated series for Tiger Aspect Productions and the feature Johnny English, in which he starred in the title role. Johnny English was written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (James Bond), directed by Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors) and produced by Working Title Films.

Rowan appeared as Rufus the jewelry salesman in Working Title’s 2003 romantic comedy hit Love Actually, directed by Richard Curtis, with an ensemble cast including Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightly and Chiwetel Ejiofor. In 2005, he played the Reverend Walter Goodfellow in the Tusk Production Keeping Mum, directed by Niall Johnson and starring opposite Maggie Smith and Kristin Scott Thomas.

EMMA DE CAUNES (Sabine) has filmed more than 20 films in France, establishing herself as a leading lady in cinema.

Born and raised in Paris, de Caunes is no stranger to acting; her mother and father have been in the business since she was a little girl. Her big break was at age 10, in the film Remarquable Imitation de Lio. In 1997, her role as Sophie in the film Un Frère won her a César for Most Promising Actress. In 2002, she received the Romy Schneider Prize for Best Promising Young Actress in French film.

de Caunes starred in her first English-language role in Short Order, a musical about how love and wisdom come together over one night in the culinary underbelly, where life is a buffet and everything is short order. In 2006, de Caunes starred in Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep, opposite Gael García Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Most recently, she filmed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for director Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls).

de Caunes currently resides in Paris.

JEAN ROCHEFORT (Maître D’) is one of France’s best-known character actors. He has appeared in more than 100 movies.

Rochefort was born in Dinan, France. He was 19 when he entered the Centre d’Art Dramatique de la rue Blanche. Later he joined the Conservertoire National. After his national service in 1953, he worked with the Compagnie Grenier Hussenot as a theater actor for seven years. There, he was noticed for his ability to play both drama and comedy. He then became a television and cinema actor; he has also worked as director. His films include numerous collaborations with director Patrice Leconte including Tandem, The Hairdresser’s Husband, Tango, Ridicule and L’Homme du Train. Other credits include Betrand Tavernier’s L’Horloger de Saint-Paul; Le Fantôme de la liberté, directed by Luis Buñuel in 1974; and Prêt-à-Porter, directed by Robert Altman. He has won three César awards: in 1976, Best Supporting Actor for Que la fête commence…; and in 1978, Best Actor for Le Crabe-tambour. He has also received an honorary César for his life’s work.

Czech-born actor KAREL RODEN (Emil) is best known outside his native country for his character roles in Hollywood films. He played Grigori Rasputin in Hellboy and Gretkov in The Bourne Supremacy; and also starred in Bulletproof Monk; Blade II; and as the Czech villain Emil in the action-thriller 15 Minutes, directed by John Herzfeld and starring Robert De Niro.

Recent releases include Wayne Kramer’s Running Scared, The Last Drop, Summer Love, and the horror film The Abandoned from Spanish director Nacho Cerdà. Roden will be seen in the forthcoming Bathory, directed by Juraj Jakubisko, and is currently filming the romance Bestiar, directed by Czech director Irena Pavlásková. In 1998, Roden received the Alfréd Radok Award for his performance in the role of Bruno in Le Cocu Magnifique, by Fernand Crommelynck. Other notable theater roles include the role of Don Juan in Grabbe’s Don Juan and Faust. Roden also appeared in two plays with his brother, Marian.

In 1979, WILLEM DAFOE (Carson Clay) was given a small role in Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, from which he was fired. His first feature role came shortly after in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Loveless. From there, he went on to perform in more than 50 films—in Hollywood (Spider-Man trilogy, The English Patient, Finding Nemo, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Clear and Present Danger, White Sands, Mississippi Burning, Streets of Fire); in independent cinema in the U.S. (The Clearing, Animal Factory, Basquiat, The Boondock Saints, American Psycho); and abroad (Lars von Trier’s Manderlay, Yim Ho’s Pavilion of Women, Yurek Bogayevicz’s Edges of the Lord, Wim Wenders’ Faraway, So Close! and Brian Gilbert’s Tom & Viv).

He has chosen projects for diversity of roles and opportunities to work with strong directors. He has worked in the films of Wes Anderson (The Life Aquatic), Martin Scorsese (The Aviator, The Last Temptation of Christ), Paul Schrader (Auto Focus, Affliction, Light Sleeper), David Cronenberg (eXistenZ), Abel Ferrara (New Rose Hotel), David Lynch (Wild at Heart), William Friedkin (To Live and Die in L.A.), and Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon).

He was nominated twice for an Academy Award® (Platoon, Shadow of the Vampire) and once for a Golden Globe. Among other nominations and awards, he received a Los Angeles Film Critics Award and an Independent Spirit Award. Recent projects include Spike Lee’s Inside Man, Paul Weitz’s American Dreamz, Giada Colagrande’s Before It Had a Name (co-written by Dafoe) and the Nobuhiro Suwa segment of Paris je t’aime.

Other upcoming films include Fireflies in the Garden, starring opposite Julia Roberts; Henry Miller’s Anamorph; Paul Schrader’s The Walker and Adam Resurrected; and Abel Ferrara’s Go Go Tales and the Lionsgate release Daybreakers.

Dafoe is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New Yorkbased experimental theater collective. He has created and performed in the group’s work since 1977, both in the U.S. and internationally.