British actor Adrian Lester was born on August 14, 1968 in Birmingham, England. He began his love for performing at the age of ten, when he became part of youth choirs. He later acted at the Birmingham Youth Theatre, attended Joseph Chamberlain VI Form College and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic arts in London.
Adrian Lester is best known in the United Kingdom for his role of con-artist Mickey Bricks in the first three seasons of BBC’s Hustle. By the fourth season, he was written out of the series and was replaced by Ashley Walters. He later decided to return to the show, and filmed its fifth season as well. Lester has been seen on a number of films in the United States as well. He played a campaign manager in the 1998 Mike Nichols film Primary Colors, and later earned recognition for it. Lester was nominated for a Chicago Film Critics Association award as “Most Promising Actor.”
His next project became Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s work, Love’s Labour’s Lost. Despite the poor reception of the film, Lester received a British Independent Film Awards nomination for his performance. The actor has also done extensive stage work. He was in the musical Company, got the title role of Hamlet, and played Rosalind in Cheek by Jowl’s 1991 production of As You Like It. He soon got a minor role in the blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, and in 2002 to 2003 was seen on the sitcom Girlfriends.
In 2005, Adrian Lester landed a major guest starring role in Channel 4’s police drama The Ghost Squad. He later worked on 2007’s Spider-Man 3, but his scenes were cut from the theatrical release of the film. The next year, he was cast in the series Bonekickers, which focuses on a team of archaeologists.