Adam Rayner

With his darkly handsome good looks, it's no wonder that British actor Adam Rayner got his big break in television playing a boy-toy. But lucky for him, Rayner didn't spend his entire acting career playing the same kind of frothy characters he did in his early years. Growing up during the early 1980s in an English village near Norwich, Rayner didn't really consider acting until he got involved with a drama group while attending Durham University.

His first real break came in 2002 when he was a stand-in for Matt Damon during a run of "This is Our Life" at a London theatre. When Damon left to do publicity for his upcoming film "The Bourne Identity" (2002), Rayner had his chance to shine. In 2003 he got his first role in a television series on the British dramatic comedy "At Home with The Braithwaites" (BBC 2000-03). The next few years saw a series of small roles in various British TV shows including an appearance on the reboot of the famed sci-fi series "Dr. Who" (BBC 2005- ).

In 2008 Rayner had his big break, a regular role in the steamy series "Mistresses" (BBC 2008-10) as the hunky Dominic. Although the series highlighted his good looks and charisma, it also gave him an opportunity to show on a weekly basis just what he was capable of delivering. This led to international roles on such shows as the American hospital drama "Hawthorne" (TNT 2009-2011) and the British-American spy drama "Hunted" (BBC/Cinemax 2012).

When Rayner was offered the script to a new American drama that centered on the life of a 40-year old Arab returning to his Middle Eastern roots, he was tempted to turn it down, having no Middle Eastern heritage of his own, but let his agent talk him into it. The critically-acclaimed series, "Tyrant" (Fox 2014-16) starred Rayner as Barry al Fayed, the conflicted son of a dangerous ruler, earning him the strongest reviews of his career.