Despite launching a television career back in 1993 Michael Sheen really only grabbed the attention of film fans back in 2003 when he played Tony Blair for Channel 4's The Deal.
This weeks sees him return to the big screen in another real-life character as he takes on the role of Brian Clough in The Damned United, which looks at the manager's forty four day reign at Leeds United football club.
After studying acting at the National Youth Theatre of Wales he went on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, RADA, and here he landed a role in When She Danced opposite acting legend Vanessa Redgrave.
He went on to star in Amadeus at the Old Vic before taking the role to Broadway.
He moved into television in the early nineties with a Ruth Rendell adaptation of Gallowglass but he did predominantly stay on the stage.
Underworld brought the actor his first big budget blockbuster as he starred alongside Kate Beckinsale in Underworld, he did reprise this role in flashbacks in 2006.
However in recent years he has become known for taking of real characters as he took on the part of Tony Blair in The Deal back in 2003.
Directed by Stephen Frears and depicted the Brown-Blair deal where Brown would not stand for Labour leadership election in 1994 so that Blair could become the party leader.
He reprised the role of Tony Blair in The Queen in 2006 alongside Helen Mirren. The project reunited him with director Frears and followed the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana.
That same year he also took on the role of Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa for BBC 4. A Bafta nominations came his way for The Queen, Best Supporting Actor in a Film, and Best Television Actor for Fantabulosa but he missed out on both awards.
He went back to the stage in to take on the role of David Frost in Frost/Nixon before taking the production to Broadway.
2008 was a busy year for the actor as he reprised the role of Frost in Ron Howard's big screen adaptation of the hit stage production.
The film was a huge success and it went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas. He went back to the big budget blockbuster as he reprised the role of Lucian in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, a prequel to the previous Underworld movies.
Later this year he will star in Unthinkable alongside Samuel L.Jackson and Carrie-Ann Moss. The film follows an FBI anti-terrorism team and a black-ops agent are assigned to interrogate an American Muslim man (Sheen) claiming to have nuclear bombs planted in three U.S. cities.
He will also take on the role of The White Rabbit in Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland which will also star Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp.
The Damned United is released 27th March
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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