MacFadyen, Matthew (1974– )

English actor. He has appeared on stage, television and film from the 1990s. After earning critical recognition as a Shakespearean stage actor, he reached wide popularity in the UK with his role as an MI5 agent in the BBC drama series Spooks (2002–04). Film roles include Mr Darcy opposite Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Bennet and Rosamund Pike's Jane Bennet in an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (2005).

Spooks was also picked up by US cable television and gained a significant following in the USA. Other television work includes an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (1998), the Bosnian war drama Warriors (1999), the Sherlock Holmes mystery Murder Rooms (2000), the comedy Perfect Strangers (2001), the period drama The Way We Live Now (2001), and the political drama The Project (2002). Other films include the Ben Elton romantic comedy Maybe Baby (2000), the World War II thriller Enigma (2001), the drama Morality Play/US title: The Reckoning (2003), and the thriller In My Father's Den (2004).

He was born in Great Yarmouth, England, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), graduating in 1995. He has appeared on stage in Battle Royal, The School for Scandal, Much Ado about Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, and Henry IV.