A younger brother of fellow actor Ralph Fiennes, he is known for his Shakespearean background.
His roles include:
- Shakespeare in Love (1998) - William Shakespeare
- Elizabeth (1998) - Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
- Enemy at the Gates (2001) - Commissar Danilov
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) - Prince Proteus
- Luther (2003) - Martin Luther
- The Merchant of Venice (2004) - Bassanio
- The Darwin Awards (2006) - Michael Burrows
- The Red Baron (2008) - Captain Roy Brown
- Camelot (2011) - Merlin
- American Horror Story: Asylum (2012-13) - Monsignor Timothy Howard
- Hercules (2014) - King Eurystheus
- Risen (2016) - Tribune Clavius
- The Handmaid's Tale (2017-) - Commander Fred Waterford
Tropes in his works:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He did Camelot because he liked the idea of a Darker and Edgier King Arthur storyline.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Lost 21 lbs in order to play a prisoner of war in The Great Raid.
- Fake American: The Handmaid's Tale as The Commander, Running With Scissors as Neil, The Great Raid as Major Gibson and Flash Forward as Mark.
- Hollywood Hype Machine: A defied example. After the double whammy of Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth, he started getting hyped up by the press and made it to People's list of sexiest men alive in 1999. But he turned down a lot of roles in order to focus on stage work - notably The Pianist, A Good Woman, Quills - and declined the offer to sign a five picture deal with Miramax.
- Playing Against Type: Flash Forward is a non period-piece, and a sci-fi thriller series at that. He plays an FBI agent as opposed to his usual hammy writers or lotharios.
- Romance on the Set: He met his wife Natalie Mendoza while filming The Great Raid.
- Star-Making Role: Shakespeare in Love.
- Typecasting: He's heavily associated with Elizabethan era period pieces. Both his two most remembered roles - William Shakespeare and Robert Dudley - were cheating on their wives with the female lead.
