Into Film Ambassadors

Dougray Scott is an Emmy and BAFTA-winning Scottish actor and producer. He has built a distinguished career across both film and television. He is best known for the hit films Ever After, Enigma, and Hitman, as well as the second instalment in the hit Mission: Impossible franchise. Scott can also be seen in BBC's Emmy-winning and BAFTA-nominated Vigil, as Detective Inspector Ray Lennox in the television adaptation of Irvine Welsh's best-selling 2008 novel Crime, and in Sky drama A Town Called Malice, directed by Jason Flemyng.

Dornan is currently starring in the second season of the critically acclaimed drama The Tourist. The first season premiered to record ratings on the BBC and is currently on Netflix. Dornan's other credits include Barb and Star go to Vista del Mar, A Haunting in Venice, Heart of Stone, Anthropoid, and A Private War.

Amma Asante was the first Black director to win a BAFTA award for writing and directing a feature film, and was recently listed in the Top 100 most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent. She is currently directing a TV adaptation of the book, Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Eddie Redmayne is an Oscar®-winning English actor, who made his name with roles in films such as Les Misérables and My Week with Marilyn, and has gone on to be one of the most recognisable actors working today. He received huge critical acclaim for his role as Stephen Hawking in the moving biopic The Theory of Everything, and swept the board during award season, picking up the Oscar®, BAFTA®, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards for his nuanced, engaging and hugely affecting performance. Now one of the most in-demand actors of his generation, Redmayne is currently best known for his role as Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

Lashana made history as the first Black and female 007 in the latest Bond film, No Time to Die and was the winner of this year's EE BAFTA Rising Star Award. She can be seen next in Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Woman King, to be released in the UK on 4 October and in Matthew Warchus' Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical which opens both the London and Into Film Festivals and is released in the UK on 25 November. She will soon begin production on the Untitled Bob Marley biopic as the role of ‘Rita Marley' opposite Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Amani regularly visits youth and professional spaces sharing his heart-breaking lived experience of going from a child, nurtured and loved by his parents, to a bullied teenager who, after trying to fit in, was subsequently expelled from two schools, groomed to county lines and later attacked and stabbed seven times. He is a powerful example of someone who has turned his pain into purpose and is seeking to use his story to give hope to the current and future generations.

Amani is also a writer, director, and producer. His debut short film, the 2019 autobiographical, Amani, showcases his experience of surviving his stabbing attack and stars actor Joivan Wade (The First Purge, Bel Air and Shiro's Story). It received a million views in just four days on YouTube and has since passed 4 million views.

His 2023 follow-up film, Save Me, was co-produced with young people from Enfield. It advocates for active community bystanders and seeks to raise awareness about youth exploitation and grooming. It is now being used nationally as a tool to spark conversation and challenge biases around the experiences of young people.

Thaddea Graham is a Northern Irish performer who starred in hit BBC3 drama Wreck, has appeared in BBC dramas Us and Doctor Who, and just finished filming the latest series of Sex Education.

Jack Lowden is one of the brightest acting talents to emerge from Scotland in recent years, starring in films such as Dunkirk and Fighting with My Family, and winning a Scottish BAFTA for his performance in crime thriller Calibre.

Lynwen Brennan was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales. She is General Manager and EVP of Lucasfilm, where she has worked for 20 years overseeing all businesses including Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, and Skywalker Sound. She is responsible for the development and execution of Lucasfilm's business strategy and implementation of the company vision. Lynwen oversees the Star Wars Franchise groups including Marketing and Integrated Planning, Games, Publishing and Consumer Products, Public Relations, Asset Management and Content Strategy. She also looks after Lucasfilm Studio operations, including Human Resources, Finance and Legal.

In 2016, Lynwen was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions in support of the UK's visual effects industry. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Sir Kenneth Branagh is a noted Shakespearean actor and director, and is a hugely experienced and influential member of the British film industry. From acting in films such as Hamlet, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Dunkirk, to directing features such as Thor, Cinderellaand Murder on the Orient Express, Sir Kenneth's film credentials over the past three decades speak for themselves. Born in Belfast, Sir Kenneth is a passionate supporter of Into Film Northern Ireland, and the work Into Film does in schools from disadvantaged areas.

Katie Leung is a Scottish actress who famously starred as Cho Chang in the beloved Harry Potter franchise, and has garnered international recognition with critically acclaimed performances across film, television and theatre. Leung was recognised as a prestigious BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2014, and has had a hugely varied and exciting TV and theatre career, taking lead roles in BBC2's television drama miniseries One Child, Mia Chung's You For Me For You at The Royal Court Theatre, and the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Snow in Midsummer. She starred in ITV1 series White Dragon in 2018, and animated TV series Moominvalley in 2019. She has also appeared in several prominent films, including The Foreigner with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.

Rhys Ifans was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1967. After attending youth acting schools at Theatr Clwyd, Mold, and training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he did a lot of stage work and appeared in many Welsh-language television shows such as the comedy Pobol y Chyff. His first film role was in the Swansea based film Twin Town and he gained international exposure with his supporting part in Notting Hill.

Since then he has taken on a hugely diverse and exciting range of film roles including Enduring Love, Mr. Nobody, The Amazing Spider-Man, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as well as lead roles in films like Danny Deckchair and Mr. Nice. He most recently took on the role of Dylan Thomas in Dominion, which documents the last days of the iconic poet's life and features in the soon to be released Official Secrets.

Cornelius Walker is the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Black Sheep - a 30 minute autobiographical film about his traumatic younger life in which he was subjected to racial violence and subsequently became part of a gang. He has since been working with young people - primarily with teenage boys who have fallen out of the educational system and become involved in violence and crime themselves.

Cornelius co-founded the collective Young Once Creative Forever, through which he's made films for the likes of Google, and his most recent film is the gone-viral drama Take Me.

Michael Sheen is a Welsh actor of stage and screen, who has starred in films as diverse as sci-fi adventure Passengers and historical epic Kingdom of Heaven. Sheen is known for his roles in biopics, starring as Tony Blair in several feature films, including The Queen, and as renowned football coach Sir Brian Clough in The Damned United. Sheen is also known for his charity work and is a passionate campaigner for several causes, particularly in regards to his home country of Wales.

In a very short space of time, Ruby Barnhill has established herself as one of the best young actors working today. She rose to fame in 2016 when she was just twelve years old, as the star of Steven Spielberg's The BFG opposite Mark Rylance, and has since appeared in television series 4 O'Clock Club and as lead voice actor in Mary and the Witch's Flower. She is next to be heard lending her talents to another animation, Princess Emmy, where she will voice a young girl who can speak to horses.

Matthew Rhys is an acclaimed Welsh actor of film and television, having starred in films such as Patagonia, The Edge of Love and The Post, and won an Emmy Award for his role in acclaimed TV series The Americans. Rhys has been Into Film Ambassador for Wales since 2015.

Naomie Harris is an English actress who featured in James Bond films Spectre and Skyfall, as well as Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar® for her role in Moonlight, one of the most significant films of recent years.

Celyn Jones is a multi-talented actor, director and writer hailing from Holyhead, in North Wales, who works to support our work in Into Film Cymru. Jones played Swansea-born poet Dylan Thomas in the 2014 film Set Fire to the Stars, which he also co-wrote, and has starred in numerous television series. Jones is set to portray Winston Churchill in the upcoming true-life drama, Born a King.