Laura Fraser

Starting her career young, Laura Fraser began acting in the Scottish Youth Theatre before attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. While there, she accepted a role in the movie "Small Faces," a drama about small-time hoods set in her own hometown, but her workload was so intense that Fraser's family convinced her to take time off from school. She took up residence in London where she landed her breakout role in "Neverwhere," a BBC miniseries created by Neil Gaiman, the best-selling fantasy writer.

It wasn't long before she picked up parts in such high-profile historical epics as "The Man in the Iron Mask," which starred a sword-swinging Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh off "Titanic," and Julie Taymor's colorful adaptation of Shakespeare's blood-soaked "Titus." Even as the century turned, Fraser remained in the past, costarring with Heath Ledger in the medieval comedy-adventure "A Knight's Tale." But she also appeared in Cameron Crowe's very modern psychological thriller "Vanilla Sky" with Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz. She took on a starring role in "Coney Island Baby," an indie dramedy that screened at the Newport International Film Festival and boasted as its other romantic lead Fraser's future husband, the Irish-American actor Karl Geary. Bouncing between media, Fraser has balanced movie roles with TV ones, such the eponymous nurse in "Florence Nightingale" on BBC One.