Ed Skrein

Ed Skrein was a rapper and actor born Edward George Skrein in Camden, England. He received a Bachelor's degree in fine arts from Central Saint Martins, pursuing a musical career after graduating. He MCed music festivals and began making his own music-rap albums under the name The Dinnerlady P.I.M.P. He released his debut album under that name in 2007, but then became more interested in acting. He was cast in his best friend, Rapper Plan B's crime film called "iLL Manors" (2012). He appeared briefly in the third and fourth seasons of "Game of Thrones" (HBO 2011-) as honorable playboy Daario Naharis before leaving for a lead role in the reboot of the "Transporter" movies and other prospects. These included a major role in the British remake of the Scandinavian hit show "The Bridge" (SVT1 2011-), this time called "The Tunnel" (Sky Atlantic 2013). In the detective drama, Skrein played a pimp. In 2014 and 2015, he appeared in a variety of action movies and thrillers, including historical action dramas "Northmen - A Viking Saga" (2014) and "Sword of Vengeance" (2015), and thriller "Tiger House" (2015). Skrein made a major international leap forward when he starred in the franchise reboot "The Transporter Refueled" (2015) and played a major supporting role in the comic action blockbuster "Deadpool" (2016). In 2017, Skrein was cast as Marine captain Ben Daimio in a reboot of "Hellboy" (2018). Amid online controversy about the practice of "whitewashing," or hiring white actors to play characters of other ethnicities (Daimio is Japanese-American in the Hellboy comic books), Skrein quit the film, apologizing publicly for taking the role and asking that it be recast.