“I’m one of those pesky Brits, I apologise,” grinned Lewis, collecting his Emmy last year for his portrayal of marine sergeant Nicholas Brody in hit spy thriller Homeland. Across the US, meanwhile, viewers exclaimed: “Waiddaminute, that guy is English?” It’s a tribute to the Old Etonian’s talents that many fans had no idea until they heard his acceptance speech. London-born and RSC-trained, the ginger smoothie honed his American accent in Steven Spielberg’s second world war miniseries Band of Brothers. Lewis is so at home stateside, he has even dined at the White House Photograph: Everett/Rex Features
Much of HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones is filmed in Northern Ireland and its cast is crammed with medieval-looking British character actors, notably Richard Madden (who plays Robb Stark), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) and Charles Dance (Lord Tywin Lannister). Tywin’s daughter, the power-crazed and incestuous Queen Cersei, is played by Yorkshire lass Headey – a haughty blonde on-screen but a hard-partying brunette off it. This isn’t Headey’s first big gig on US TV. She was previously the gun-toting titular heroine in The Sarah Connor Chronicles , the underrated spin-off from James Cameron’s Terminator franchise which ran for two series Photograph: PR
Essex boy Moyer was a jobbing actor until 2007, when he landed the role of brooding vampire Bill Compton in True Blood – a southern gothic horror set in the swampy smalltown of Bon Temps. About to start its sixth season in the US, it’s HBO’s top-rated show since The Sopranos. Big bad Bill’s a 173-year-old bloodsucker who rises to Vampire King of Louisiana and was last seen merging with goddess Lilith to become “Billith”. Moyer even got a family out of the show – he started dating co-star Anna Paquin while shooting the pilot, they married in 2010 and now have nine-month-old twins. Aww Photograph: Everett/Rex Features
Macdonald is the soul and moral centre of HBO’s handsome prohibition drama Boardwalk Empire. She plays Margaret Schroeder, an Irish widowed mother who marries corrupt Atlantic City kingpin Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and tries to use her newfound influence for good, helping out the church and educating local women about reproductive health. The Glaswegian actress is no stranger to playing strong women, from schoolgirl seductress Diane in Trainspotting to Maggie Smith’s maid in Gosford Park and feisty bow-wielding Princess Merida in Pixar’s Brave. Winningly, Macdonald dismisses her growing celebrity status as “a wee bit silly”. Photograph: Everett/Rex Features
The latest Brit to hit the US network big time is a Welshman playing a Russian playing an American. Cardiff-born Rhys stars in spy thriller The Americans, which arrived on ITV last week, as a sleeper KGB agent in 80s suburban Washington. Rhys has been part-based in Santa Monica for the past six years, thanks to his previous role in soapy family saga Brothers & Sisters. Come Christmas, he’ll be back in Blighty and stepping into Colin Firth’s riding boots, breeches and wet shirt as Mr Darcy in a BBC production of PD James’s Pride & Prejudice sequel, Death Comes to Pemberley Photograph: PR
He has now escaped what he called “the gilded cage” of US TV to become a blues musician. But for eight years, Laurie was the best-paid small-screen actor of all time for his role as misanthropic, pill-popping diagnostician Dr Gregory House. He earned £250,000 per episode and was the world’s most watched leading man, with House distributed to 66 countries and tallying over 80m viewers. The Eeyore-ish Etonian won a legion of female fans and two Golden Globes – success which few who remember him as two British TV thickos (Bertie Wooster and Blackadder the Third’s Prince Regent) would have predicted Photograph: Everett /Rex Features
To viewers of British TV during the 1990s, he’s Egg from saucy solicitor drama This Life. In the 00s, he was work-shy, gaffe-prone teacher Simon in Teachers. To a whole new generation, though, London-born Lincoln (real surname: Clutterbuck) is zombie-slaying sheriff Rick Grimes from AMC’s post-apocalyptic horror series The Walking Dead. Lincoln drew on Gary Cooper’s marshal in High Noon for his portrayal and although sceptics felt his southern accent was dodgy to start with, he improved fast and now inhabits the part superbly. He’s joined on the show by scouser David Morrissey, who plays eyepatch-wearing tyrant the Governor Photograph: PR
He returns soon in BBC detective drama Luther but this east Londoner made his name in The Wire. Actor-cum-DJ Elba moved to New York at the turn of the millennium in search of work and soon landed the role of drug baron, bookworm and aspiring legit businessman Russell “Stringer” Bell in HBO’s critically adored Baltimore epic. As second-in-command of the Barksdale heroin empire, Bell was a cunning strategist with ambitions to move into property development until he was shot at the climax of season three – leaving Detective Jimmy McNulty (fellow Brit Dominic West) strangely bereft without his adversary Photograph: BBC/HBO/BBC/HBO
From Lovejoy to Judas Iscariot in Jesus of Nazareth, Lancastrian McShane has made a career out of playing rogues. In HBO’s dirty western drama Deadwood, he chewed up the 1870s scenery as scheming Al Swearengen, a murderous, luxuriantly mustachioed brothel-keeper and saloon-owner who lived up to his surname with extensive use of profanity. He won a Golden Globe and the show gathered a loyal cult following but got cancelled after three seasons, much to McShane’s displeasure: “It was the best gig I ever had. Even now, I’ll catch it on TV and get drawn in. It wasn’t good, it was fucking brilliant” Photograph: PR
A Geordie whose breakthrough role was as gay schoolboy Nathan on Russell T Davies’s landmark Channel 4 drama Queer As Folk, these days Hunnan plays red-blooded Californian biker Jackson “Jax” Teller on FX’s biggest ever hit, Sons of Anarchy. After a five-series power struggle with craggy Clay (Ron Perlman), blond-bearded, heavily tattooed mechanic Jax has now finally taken his rightful place as president of the Harley-riding outlaw gang founded by his father. Hunnam’s first ever acting job was on yoof soap Byker Grove – which, despite how its title sounds, was nothing to do with motorcycles Photograph: PR
