Alexander Amin Caspar Keynes (born 5 September 1991) is an English political adviser and former actor. Best known for starring as Edmund Pevensie in The Chronicles of Narnia film series, he appeared in all three installments: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Early life
His mother, Zelfa Hourani, is Lebanese; and his father, Randal Keynes, is a British author. He has an older sister, Soumaya, a journalist and economist, who is currently the Britain economics editor at The Economist magazine. They grew up in Islington, London.
Ancestry
On his father's side, Keynes is of English descent, and is the grandson of physiologist Richard Keynes, the nephew of two Cambridge professors, the historian Simon Keynes, and the neuroscientist Roger Keynes, the cousin of Catholic writer and apologist Laura Keynes, and the great-great-nephew of economist John Maynard Keynes. His great-great-great-grandfather was naturalist Charles Darwin. Keynes' great-grandparents were Nobel Prize laureate Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian and Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian.
On his mother's side, Keynes is of Lebanese and distant Persian and Turkish descent. His maternal grandfather was Lebanese writer Cecil Fadlo Hourani, who was an advisor to the late Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba. The Hourani family were immigrants to Manchester from Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon. Cecil's two brothers were Albert Hourani, a historian of the Middle East, and George Hourani, philosopher, historian, and classicist. Lebanese nationality law states that citizenship is passed on patrilineally, so Keynes is legally a foreigner in the country he considers his second home.
Education
Keynes attended the Anna Scher Theatre School, after going to Thornhill Primary School. He then studied at the all-boys City of London School where he was awarded the Merit prize in the 2006 European Kangaroo competition, the City of London Corporate Scholarship (2008), The Geoffrey Clark Prize for Services to Drama (2009), and The Bennet Brough Prize for Chemistry (2010). He passed his A-level exams in spring 2010 with A*s and As in biology, chemistry, mathematics, further mathematics and history.
In October 2010, Keynes began his degree in Arabic, Persian and Middle Eastern History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He consistently attained first-class results. Thus, in first year he was awarded the Marie Shamma'a Frost Prize in Oriental Studies (Arabic) and the College Scholarship; in second year the College Prize and the Foundation Scholarship which made him an elected member of the Faculty Board of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (2011-2012); and in senior year the EG Browne Prize in Oriental Studies. He spent his third year studying in Lebanon to perfect his colloquial Arabic and wrote about his experiences on a weekly column in The Tab. His dissertation presented a comparison between the teaching of history in Iran and Saudi Arabia which required him to translate school textbooks from both countries. Achieving Firsts in both Parts of the Tripos, Keynes graduated with a Double First Class Honours BA degree in Middle Eastern Studies (Arabic and Persian) in June 2014. He was listed as one of Business Insider's "16 Incredibly Impressive Students At Cambridge University".
