Jamie Dornan attends the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2023 © Getty

Jamie Dornan - Biography

Actor Jamie Dornan is known for his role in Fifty Shades of Grey and is married to actress Amelia Warner

Parenting Editor
Updated: June 16, 2023

Dashing Irish actor and former model Jamie Dornan shot to fame for his role as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015, later starring in hit TV series The Tourist. 

Jamie is married to Amelia Warner, an actress, singer and songwriter. The couple wed on 27 April, 2013, in Somerset and became parents to a baby girl seven months later, named Alberta.

Actor Jamie Dornan

Jamie Dornan's early life

The actor was born in Holywood, County Down in Northern Ireland on 1 May 1982. His parents were Jim Dornan, an obstretician, who has delivered 6,000 babies and whom his son describes as" the most energetic man I know"  and a nurse called Lorna. With two older sisters, he is the baby of the family.

 He could have had a career on the sports field as he excelled at rugby and played for the Belfast Harlequins, but decided to pursue acting instead. 

When he was 16, his childhood was devastated by the death of his mother from pancreatic cancer. Then, a year later four friends from his grammar school Methodist College in Belfast died in a car crash. Jamie describes the time as "a horrific period", adding: "These are events that form your identity I think".

MORE:  Jamie Dornan's private Gloucestershire home with wife Ameila is a haven of fun 

Jamie Dornan's modelling career

Jamie modelled for the likes of Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein in the early 2000s before landing his first acting roles.

He previously said of modelling: "There's massive stigma attached to it" in the film industry. "You spend a few years as a model, leaning against walls and looking depressed while someone takes photographs of you, but God forbid you can also act..... I am always going to fight against that."

Jamie also had a brief flirtation with a music career in the folk band Sons of Jim.

Jamie with his wife Amelia

Jamie Dornan's acting career

Jamie landed a role in Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette opposite Kirsten Dunst, and played serial killer Paul Spector in controversial BBC Two drama The Fall. He starred opposite Gillian Anderson and the show was so successful it was commissioned for a second series.

His wife was heavily pregnant when Jamie received a 2am call from LA to confirm that he'd bagged the lead in Fifty Shades of Grey, so he merely snuck into bed quietly to avoid waking her and went to sleep himself. 

The movie was a box office hit, despite being panned by critics, and the star reprised his role in the second and third installments of the Fifty Shades film franchise. Jamie has since starred in independent films, drama movie Belfast and TV series The Tourist.

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