Paul Blackthorne

After spending his youth on English military bases thanks to his father's career, Paul Blackthorne struggled in the early days of his acting career. He got by primarily appearing in commercials in the United Kingdom, landing a few campaigns that were majorly popular.

His career as an actor kicked in late, as it wasn't until he was 30 years old that he started appearing in film and television on a regular basis. He appeared in a minor capacity in a few TV shows and shorts in the late 1990s, but his first major film role kicked his career to another level.

Blackthorne co-starred in the Oscar-nominated Bollywood film "Lagaan" (2001), which required him to learn Hindi for six months before filming began. Following the success of "Lagaan," he started to appear more often in mainstream projects, including multi-episode guest roles on popular shows such as "ER" (NBC 1994-2009) and "24" (Fox 2001-2010) in 2004.

He landed a starring role on the science-fiction show "The Dresden Files" (Sci Fi 2007). While it lasted only one season, Blackthorne's portrayal of the title character was well received. After "The Dresden Files" was cancelled, he next appeared as a series regular on the short-lived "Lipstick Jungle" (NBC 2008-09).

Once again, the show didn't last long and Blackthorne was back out searching for another full-time role as he guested on a variety of shows. He finally found another series regular role in 2012 when he joined the main cast of the superhero show "Arrow" (CW 2012- ) as the hard-nosed Detective Quentin Lance.