One of Hollywood's rising stars of the 21st century, Hugh Dancy certainly has firmly placed himself among the likes of Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Chiwetel Ejiofor, also Rhona Mitra in representing the presence and strength of young British thespians in the world of cinema. Coming from an academic family of a philosophy professor and a publisher, Hugh was born on June 19, 1975 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK to Jonathan and Sarah Dancy as the eldest of their three children. He spent his younger years studying at the all-male Winchester College where he gradually developed an interest in acting after being involved in a couple of the school's stage productions. Even so, he wisely chose to finish his education first and thus enrolled in the prestigious Oxford University upon his high school graduation, taking major in English Language and Literature.

Successfully obtained a degree there, Hugh afterwards put full concentration to materialize his long desire of pursuing a career in show business and got his first stint in a theatrical production under Sam Mendes' direction before landed his screen debut in a TV movie feature of �Trial & Retribution II� (1998). Other parts soon followed, notably that of the title role in BBC's �David Copperfield� (1999) which garnered him more attention as it was also aired in U.S. through TNT network, paving his way to join the cast of Ridley Scott's �Black Hawk Down� (2001) alongside Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, plus Eric Bana. To his delight, this war flick strived to be a box office hit with domestic income of more than $108 million, subsequently provided him enough buzz to encounter larger access in Hollywood.

Kept sticking to big screen projects, like �The Sleeping Dictionary� (2003) and �Ella Enchanted� (2004), Hugh finally came to his breakthrough when he gained the fifth billing to play Galahad in Antoine Fuqua's �King Arthur� (2004). Amazingly collected over 203 million U.S. dollar internationally, the picture unmistakably propelled him to the world's recognition while gave him a solid base to maintain his career in film industry. Moved further to star in �Shooting Dogs� (2005), this dark-haired guy smoothly continued his path with at least 2 projects slated to be released in 2006, namely �Basic Instinct 2� opposite Sharon Stone and a fantasy horror movie entitled �Blood and Chocolate� in which he portrayed a young lover of a female werewolf played by Agnes Bruckner.