Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received several accolades including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. He received an Honorary César in 2006. In 2022, Time Out magazine listed Grant as one of Britain's 50 greatest actors of all time. As of 2025^[update], his films have grossed over US$4 billion worldwide.

Grant made his feature film acting debut in Privileged (1982), followed by the romantic drama Maurice (1987) for which he gained acclaim as well as the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. He then acted in a string of successful period dramas such as The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Restoration (1995). Grant emerged as a star with Richard Curtis's romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He starred in further romantic comedies such as Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and its 2004 and 2025 sequels, About a Boy (2002), Two Weeks Notice (2002), Love Actually (2003) and Music and Lyrics (2007).

Grant began to take against-type parts earning nominations for two BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his roles as St. Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) and a haughty actor in Paddington 2 (2017). He has also acted in the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012), several Guy Ritchie action films including The Gentlemen (2019), the musical fantasy Wonka (2023), and the horror film Heretic (2024), which earned him another BAFTA nomination. He earned two nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor for his roles as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC miniseries A Very English Scandal (2018) and a man accused of murder in the HBO miniseries The Undoing (2020).

Grant has been outspoken about his antipathy towards the profession of acting, his disdain towards the culture of celebrity, and his hostility towards the media. He emerged as a prominent critic of the conduct of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation during the News International phone hacking scandal.

Grant was born on 9 September 1960 in Hammersmith Hospital, the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean (1933–2001) and Captain James Murray Grant (born 1929).^{[citation needed]} His grandfather, Colonel James Murray Grant, DSO, was decorated for bravery and leadership at Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II. Genealogist Anthony Adolph has described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders, and aristocracy." His ancestors include Sir Walter Raleigh; William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan; James Stewart; John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl; Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham; Sir Evan Nepean; and a sister of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.

Grant's father was an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany. He ran a carpet business and pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolour painting; he raised his family in Chiswick, West London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane. In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by The John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours". Hugh's mother worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French, and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of west London. She died at 67 of pancreatic cancer.

On Inside the Actors Studio in 2002, Grant credited his mother with "any acting genes that [he] might have." Both his parents were children of military families, but despite that background, he has said, his family was not always affluent as he grew up. He spent many of his childhood summers hunting and fishing with his grandfather in Scotland. Grant has an older brother, James "Jamie" Grant, a New York-based investment banker.

Grant started his education at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick, then moved to St Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith, followed by Wetherby School, an independent preparatory school in Notting Hill. From 1969 to 1978, he attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, at the time a direct grant grammar school. He was educated on a scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket, and football. He also represented Latymer Upper on the quiz show Top of the Form, an academic competition between two teams of four secondary school students each.