David Matthew Macfadyen (/məkˈfædiən/; born 17 October 1974) is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005). He currently stars as Tom Wambsgans in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–present), for which he has received a Primetime Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Macfadyen is also known for his roles in films such as Death at a Funeral (2007), Frost/Nixon (2008), Anna Karenina (2012), The Assistant (2019), and Operation Mincemeat (2021). He made his television debut in 1998 as Hareton Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights. He portrayed Tom Quinn in the BBC One spy series Spooks (2002–04, 2011), and Inspector Edmund Reid in the BBC mystery series Ripper Street (2012–2016). He also starred as Henry Wilcox in Kenneth Lonergan's miniseries Howards End and Charles Ingram in the Stephen Frears' limited series Quiz (2020).

Early life

Macfadyen in 2007
Macfadyen was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of Meinir (née Owen), a drama teacher and former actress, and Martin Macfadyen, an oil engineer. His paternal grandparents were Scottish and his maternal grandparents were Welsh. Macfadyen was brought up in a number of places, including Jakarta, Indonesia, as a result of his father's occupation. He attended schools in England (including in Louth, Lincolnshire), Scotland and Indonesia, and went to Oakham School in Rutland, before being accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at 17. As a student, he was inspired by Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, which he thought was "n example to follow – an example of people acting with each other...", and "eatured just the most extraordinary acting I'd ever seen".