Early on in my blogging days, I wrote a post looking at places in my local area that have been used as filming locations, you can read it here. I thought I would do a follow up post, that looks at some famous movie people who come from ‘my neck of the woods’ (Somerset, UK).

This was actually quite fun to do, and I was genuinely surprised by some of the people who were born or grew up in my area. So here goes….

James Purefoy

Born in Taunton, Purefoy stars in films such as A Knight’s Tale, Ironclad and Churchill. Most recently, he’s starred in the British comedy, Fisherman’s Friends and the Netflix series, Sex Education,

Maisie Williams

Born in the tiny village of Clutton, Maisie Williams is best known for her performance as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones. She will hopefully next be seen in the long awaited Marvel film, New Mutants.

Fun fact: My Aunt and Uncle used to live in Clutton, so it’s possible that I knew Maisie when she was a baby, that’s my 5 second claim-to-fame!!

John Cleese

Best known for his Monty Python days, John Cleese was born in the coastal town of Weston-Super-Mare. He also appeared in some other well known franchises including Harry Potter (Nearly Headless Nick) and James Bond (as Pierce Brosnan’s Q).

However most of his latest work seems to be voice acting with roles in Shrek, Planes and Trolls.

Kris Marshall

Hailing from Bath, Kris Marshall is a comedy actor who played Nick Harper in the BBC series, My Family, and the loveable scamp, Colin in Love Actually. If you’re properly British, you may also remember him from the BT adverts that everyone, myself included, got a little too invested in.

Edgar Wright

Director Edgar Wright also makes an appearance in my filming locations post, as he used his home city of Wells as the back drop for his smash-hit film, Hot Fuzz, which is the second film in his ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ which also includes Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End. He is currently working on the sequel to his 2017 film, Baby Driver.

Sarah Parish

Born in Yeovil, most of Sarah Parish’s work consists of appearances in classic British television such as Peak Practice (1993) and Cutting It (2002) however she has had some dalliances on the big screen, including The Wedding Date and The Holiday.

Tom Hollander

Tom Hollander was raised in Oxford but born in Bristol. His focus was originally in theatre but he has had quite a successful big-screen career, with roles in Pirates of the Caribbean (“It’s just good business”), Valkyrie and Hanna. Most recently, he’s appeared in Netflix films, Bird Box and Mowgli, and the smash-hit Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Juno Temple

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This one is a little complicated, but Juno Temple was originally born in London but moved to America as a baby. At the age of 4, her family moved back to the UK and settled in Somerset, near Taunton.

Her career began with the 2002 film Pandaemonium, which was filmed in Somerset, but she has appeared in a wide variety of films since, including St Trinians, The Other Boleyn Girl, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and Unsane. Most recently, she appeared in the Netflix series, Dirty John.

Until next time… x