Last updated: 21 May 2010
Rising Welsh star of stage and screen Iwan Rheon has recently won a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in Spring Awakening and is recognisable to fans of Welsh soap opera Pobol Y Cwm and E4 hit .
Born in May 1985, Rheon moved to Cardiff with his family as a five-year-old. He began acting in school production and at the age of 17 took on the role of Macsen White in Pobol Y Cwm.
He left the Welsh soap to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). During his time at the academy he took on roles in The Misanthrope, Measure For Measure, The Seagull and Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Rheon's first stage appearance was in 2008 in Eight Miles High at the Royal Court, Liverpool. Following this he took on the role of Moritz Stiefel in Spring Awakening - a musical adaptation of German playwright Frank Wedekind's controversial play of 1890/1.
Photograph of Iwan Rheon in Spring Awakening © Helen Maybanks.
In February 2010 Rheon was nominated for an Olivier Award in the category of best supporting performance in a musical or entertainment for his role as Moritz.
He beat Sheila Hancock, Maureen Lipman and Kelly Price to the coveted gong in a ceremony in London's Grosvenor House Hotel on 21 March 2010.
His co-star in Spring Awakening and fellow Welsh actor, Aneurin Barnard, also won an Olivier Award in the best actor in a musical or entertainment category.
Rheon has recently starred in E4 drama hit Misfits, a blend of Skins and Heroes, as character Simon - who has the superpower of invisibility.
He is also a singer/songwriter and performs with his band .
Rheon has recently starred in the National Theatre Wales' production of John Osborne's The Devil Inside Him, after the play was discovered in the archive of the Lord Chamberlain.
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Musical theatre
A song and dance
From Maria to the Phantom, how Welsh stars have brought song to the stage.
