Edward John David Redmayne OBE born 6 January 1982 is an English actor and model He is the recipient of various accolades including an Academy Award a Tony Award a Golden Globe Award a Screen Actors Guild Award and a British Academy Film Award He began his professional acting career in West End theatre before making his screen debut in 1996 with guest television appearances His first films were Like Minds 2006 The Good Shepherd 2006 and Elizabeth The Golden Age 2007 On the stage Redmayne starred in the productions of Red from 2009 to 2010 and Richard II from 2011 to 2012 The former won him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play Redmaynes film breakthrough came with the roles of Colin Clark in the biographical drama My Week with Marilyn 2011 and Marius Pontmercy in Tom Hoopers musical Les Misérables 2012 He garnered consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayals of physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything 2014 and transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl 2015 winning for the former In 2016 he began starring as Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts film series