Bio
Ray Stevenson is an Irish actor best known for his roles as Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome (2005–2007), as Dagonet in the 2004 feature film King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone, in 2008.
Stevenson was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He moved with his family to Lemington, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England in 1972 at the age of eight, and later to Cramlington, Northumberland, where he was raised.
The second of three sons of a Royal Air Force pilot father and an Irish mother, as a child he dreamed of becoming an actor. He pursued his other love, art, and went to art school instead.
He was an interior designer with an architectural firm in London when he at 25 decided to try out acting. Eventually he attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating at the age of 29.
At the beginning of 90s, he began his career in films. He appeared in a few TV films, one of them being The Return of the Native (1994), opposite Clive Owen, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Steven Mackintosh.
He also filmed The Theory of Flight (1998), Greenwich Mean Time (1999), Green-Eyed Monster (2001) and a lot of TV guest roles in series.
His international breakout role came in King Arthur (2004), as quiet, but loyal knight Dagonet, again with Clive Owen (who played Arthur), Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Mads Mikkelsen, Ray Winstone and Stellan Skarsgard.
He found real fame with HBO's Rome (2005 - 2007), as the heroically fearless legionary Titus Pullo, opposite Kevin McKidd.
Other well-known roles include the action horror Outpost (2008) and the comic book dark hero The Punisher/Frank Castle in Punisher: War Zone (2008), opposite Dominic West, Doug Hutchison, Colin Salmon, Wayne Knight, Dash Mihok and Julie Benz.
Stevenson also worked on stage, playing the part of Christ in the York Mystery Plays in 2000 at York Minster. In 2001 he took the part of Roger in the play Mouth to Mouth by Kevin Elyot, at the Albery Theatre in London with Lindsay Duncan and Michael Maloney.
His most well-known part is perhaps that of the Cardinal in The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster with Janet McTeer at the Royal National Theatre in 2003.
Stevenson and his girlfriend Elisabetta Carccia have a son, Sebastiano Derek Stevenson, who was born in 2007. Besides acting, he loves art and has a passion for water colour painting.