Gerard Butler

Actor and producer Gerard Butler has impressed audiences worldwide with his performances across a spectrum of movie genres.

He and his manager Alan Siegel formed the production company G-BASE. Their debut feature was the psychological thriller Law Abiding Citizen, directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Mr. Butler opposite Jamie Foxx. In addition to London Has Fallen, their more recent producing credit is Septembers of Shiraz, a thriller depicting a prosperous Jewish family in Tehran shortly after the revolution. Directed by Wayne Blair, the film stars Academy Award winner Adrien Brody and Academy Award nominees Salma Hayek and Shoreh Aghdashloo.

Among the other popular movies that he has starred in are Zack Snyder's smash 300, as King Leonidas; The Bounty Hunter, directed by Andy Tennant; Robert Luketic's The Ugly Truth; Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin's Nim's Island, with Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin; Richard LaGravenese's P.S. I Love You, opposite Hilary Swank; Joel Schumacher's film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, in the title role; Jan de Bont's Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life; and the predecessor to London Has Fallen, Olympus Has Fallen. The latter, directed by Antoine Fuqua, introduced Mr. Butler in the role of Mike Banning with him and Mr. Siegel producing. He has also voiced Stoick in the two How to Train Your Dragon animated features, both Academy Award-nominated blockbuster hits.

Mr. Butler executive-produced Marc Forster's Machine Gun Preacher, starring as real-life activist Sam Childers, and Michael Apted and Curtis Hanson's Chasing Mavericks, starring as real-life surf legend Frosty Hesson. Among his other films as actor are Ralph Fiennes' Coriolanus; Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla; Shona Auerbach's Dear Frankie, with Emily Mortimer; Élie Chouraqui's Harrison's Flowers; John Madden's award-winning Mrs. Brown, starring Dame Judi Dench; and Michael Cacoyannis' film version of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. He can be seen starring in Alex Proyas' Gods of Egypt and Dean Devlin's Geostorm.

Born in Scotland, Mr. Butler made his stage debut at the age of 12 in the musical Oliver!, at Glasgow's famous Kings Theatre. As a young man, his dreams of acting were temporarily deterred and he went on to study law for seven years before returning to the stage in London. In 1996, he landed the lead role in the acclaimed stage production of Trainspotting. He later starred on the U.K. stage in such plays as Snatch and the Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, opposite Rachel Weisz.

His charitable efforts have included a feeding trip in Liberia with Mary's Meals, an organization founded with the simple mission to serve one meal a day to a child in school. The program included 16 countries, feeding over 800,000 children. Mr. Butler is also a board member of Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ), established in 2009 as a fundraising mission that encourages peace and social justice, and addresses issues of poverty and enfranchisement in communities around the world.

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