My Journey: Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig was 16 when he left Wirral to audition for the National Youth Theatre. He was accepted, left school and moved to London, where he waited tables part-time to pay for his training. In 1986, he starred in Nightshriek by Trisha Ward. In 1988, he starred in Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1989, he starred in Marat Sade by Peter Weiss. He also performed with NYT on tours to Valencia and Moscow. After his time at NYT he trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Decades later, the actor best known as James Bond remains part of the NYT family as a Patron. In September 2026 he returned to the stage as a surprise guest at the company’s 70th anniversary gala.
It became my life, the youth theatre.Daniel Craig
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Daniel Craig in Marat Sade 1989
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Daniel Craig in Blood Wedding 1988
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Daniel Craig at Letters 2026
Daniel Wroughton Craig was born in Chester on 2 March 1968. His father, Timothy, was a merchant seaman turned steel erector who later ran the Ring O’ Bells pub in Frodsham. After his parents separated in 1972, he was raised by his mother, alongside his older sister Lea, in Liverpool and then Hoylake on the Wirral.
His mother encouraged his interest in acting, taking him to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. He first appeared on stage at six, in a primary school production of Oliver!, and by 14 was playing roles in Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella at secondary school.
His screen debut came in The Power of One (1992). In 1993 he played Joe Pitt in the National Theatre’s Angels in America, and in 1994 he appeared in Aphra Behn’s The Rover. Supporting film roles in Road to Perdition, Sylvia and Munich followed, alongside leading roles in Enduring Love and Layer Cake.
The first Bond film he saw in a cinema was Live and Let Die, with his father. He went on to play Bond himself in five films, from Casino Royale (2006) to No Time to Die (2021), and starred as Iago in Othello at New York Theatre Workshop in 2016. In 2022 he was appointed CMG for services to film and theatre. At the NYT’s 70th anniversary he read a letter by fellow alumnus James Graham, including the line that he did not want any future that was inevitable.
