English actor Dan Stevens has been confirmed to be joining the season two cast of Showtime series Dexter: Resurrection – but how much do you know about him?
The cast for the eagerly-anticipated second season of sequel serial killer drama Dexter: Resurrection is rapidly coming together. After the announcements that Uma Thurman is returning as former special ops officer Charley and Brian Cox joining as the mysterious Don Framt, The New York Ripper, Deadline has now revealed that Dan Stevens is also joining the cast as a regular character.
Dan will be playing a serial killer called ‘The Five Borough Killer’ who taunts police with calls threatening to murder innocent people – then making good on those threats. How he interplays with Michael C Hall’s Dexter remains to be seen.
But how much do you know about Dan Stevens? Here are some facts you might not know.
He was adopted at birth
When Dan was just a week old, he was adopted. His adoptive parents, both teachers, raised him in Wales, then Southeast England. He also has an adoptive younger brother from different biological parents.
He started acting in school
Dan’s interest in acting developed when he attended Tonbridge School, a private school in Kent, including starring in a production of Macbeth. His acting talent was quickly spotted and from the age of 15 he spent his summers training and performing with the National Youth Theatre in London.
He was in a prestigious university society
But while Dan’s interest in acting was growing, he didn’t take up the profession until after he had completed his university studies. Dan studied English Literature at the prestigious Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
In his three years at Cambridge, he became part of the favous Footlights, a student sketch comedy troupe, which has many famous comedians and actors among its alumni, including Monty Python stars John Cleese and Graham Chapman, Julian Fellowes – who wrote Downton Abbey, the show that provided Dan with his big acting break.
He once read 148 novels in eight months
Dan’s love of literature has continued after his rise in the acting business. In 2012, at the height of his Downton Abbey fame, he was asked to be a judge for the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Literature. For this, it meant Dan had to read 148 novels in just eight months – that’s more than 18 books a month for eight months. Some of those novels aren’t short either.
He is fluent in German and starred in a German-language film
Dan is also fluent in French and German. Indeed, Dan played a robot called Tom in the German language sci-fi romance movie I’m Your Man in 2021. Tom is introduced to the main character, Alma, who is contracted to evaluate robots in a dance club. As the movie progresses, so does Alma and Tom’s relationship.
The movie was well received and has a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
He founded his own magazine
As mentioned, Dan retains a love of literature and writing and in 2011 he founded The Junket, an online quarterly magazine that features essays, short fiction pieces and poetry, that is said to exist as ‘an excuse for writing’. Despite Dan’s huge success in Hollywood, he is still listed as The Junket’s editor-at-large.
