Kit Harington

A London native raised in the English Midlands, Harington was still a young drama student when he was cast in 2007 as the youthful protagonist in the theatrical spectacle "War Horse," going on to star in the production through 2009. He followed that up with a run in "Posh" in 2010 before being tapped as one of a regiment of British and Irish actors populating a sweeping new HBO epic series called "Game of Thrones," playing Jon Snow, the angst-ridden bastard son of a noble family. With only a few credits to his name, Harington's rugged-yet-accessible onscreen élan made him one of the most buzzed-about new stars in Britain and much discussed as someone bound for motion picture stardom.

He was born Christopher Catesby Harington on Dec. 26, 1986, in London, U.K., one of two sons of Deborah Catesby, a playwright and teacher, and David Harington, a book shop proprietor. His parents called him by the shorthand "Kit" from his first days, curiously resulting in the boy later learning his full name to be Christopher when a teacher so informed him. The family moved to Worcester when he was 11, and Harington developed a communicative bent while attending Chantry High School in nearby Martley. He also benefited from his mother's dramatic proclivities, taking trips with her to attend professional stage productions at Shakespeare's onetime home, Stratford-upon-Avon. Upon graduating from Martley in 2003, he studied theater at Worcester Sixth Form College for two years, before moving back to the nation's capital, where he studied at the University of London's Central School of Speech and Drama. While still in school, Harington landed the starring role in a new play being staged off-West End at the Royal National-Olivier Theatre in South Bank, London. "War Horse" premiered in October 2007 with the newcomer playing Albert, an English youth whose horse - an on-stage creation of imaginative three-man puppetry - is sold to the British Army's cavalry, prompting an odyssey to track him down amid the horrors of World War I's Western Front.

The play proved a major hit, wining two Olivier Awards, and in March 2009 transferred to the New London Theater in the West End, where its phenomenal run continued. With only one major credit to his name, Harington saw offers for auditions roll in. He was next cast in the Royal Court Theatre's spring 2010 production of Laura Wade's black comedy assault on upper class privilege, "Posh," as one of an ensemble of young men playing the members of an exclusive Oxford University "dining club" wherein scions of the nation's aristocratic elite hobnob and commit wanton acts of destruction. In the meantime, he also joined a small army of Irish and British thespians cast in a much-anticipated HBO series, "Game of Thrones." The epic fantasy adventure, based on George R.R. Martin's series of novels under the rubric A Song of Ice and Fire, followed a vast cross-section of a fictional island confederation of fiefdoms thrown into political intrigue and eventually war upon the death of its high king Robert Baratheon, pitting the wealthy draconian aristocrats, the Lannisters, against the brothers of the fallen king, the Iron Islands-dwelling Greyjoys, and the more largely sympathetic northern house, the Starks, among others. Harington played Jon Snow, the soft-spoken, courageous but melancholic bastard son of the Lord of House Stark, Ned Stark (Sean Bean), sent to join the army of social castoffs who guard the kingdom from monstrous threats from the frigid north at a monumental fortress, The Wall.

The show debuted in spring 2011 to rave reviews, developing a tsunami of pop cultural buzz and seeing ratings climb throughout the season to reach an impressive-for-cable three million-plus viewers on initial airing and an average of nine million viewers per episode. The show earned 13 Emmy nominations in 2011 and made Harington a foremost heartthrob among a cast now much in demand for media interviews and photo sessions amid fanatical sci-fi/fantasy circles. The initial airing of the show's season two premiere drew nearly four million viewers. By this time, Harington found himself in some star-studded company in some high-profile genre features, between seasons shooting the horror film "Silent Hill: Revelation" (2012), co-starring Bean, Carrie Ann Moss and Malcolm McDowell; and cast alongside Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges in the much-anticipated big-budget fantasy/horror outing "The Seventh Son" (2013).

By Matthew Grimm