Ed Skrein is a British actor, rapper, film director, and screenwriter. He was born Edward George Skrein on 29 March 1983 in Camden, London, England, and was raised there as well as in two other London boroughs, Haringey and Islington. He graduated from Byam Shaw School of Art, a public tertiary art school, with a BA Hons degree in fine art painting.
In 2004, Skrein released the three track EP Mind Out / Once Upon A Skrein / The Youth under the record label Dented Records. In 2007, he released his first album, The Eat Up. He has collaborated with a variety of artists including Foreign Beggars, Asian Dub Foundation, Plan B, Dubbledge, and Doc Brown. Later in 2007, Skrein released a collaborative EP, Pre-Emptive Nostalgia, with the group A State of Mind. In 2009, Skrein and rapper Dr Syntax released their collaborative album Scene Stealers under the name Skreintax.
Skrein made his acting debut in 2012, in Plan B's short film Michelle which was released online and acted as a pilot for the feature film Ill Manors in which Skein also stars. In 2013, he appeared as Anthony Walsh in three episodes of British-French crime drama series The Tunnel, and he became known for portraying Daario Naharis in the third season of the acclaimed fantasy television series Game of Thrones. In 2015, Skrein went on to replace Jason Statham in the action film The Transporter: Refueled. In 2016, he rose to greater recognition portraying the villain Francis Freeman/Ajax in the superhero comedy film Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds. In 2018, Skrein starred in the psychological revenge thriller In Darkness, alongside Natalie Dormer and Stacy Martinand. In 2019, he portrayed the cocky bounty-hunting cyborg Zapan in the cyberpunk action film Alita: Battle Angel, and starred as Lt. Dick Best in Roland Emmerich's blockbuster war film Midway. In 2022, he starred as Vince in Netflix's musical comedy-drama film I Used to Be Famous.
Skrein made his directing debut by directing and writing the short drama film Little River Run which he released on 20 July 2020 at his Instagram.
