Michael Sheen Anthony Hopkins Luke Evans on screen

Here we highlight those actors and actresses and some of their confirmed projects for 2022.

Luke Evans

Luke Evans was born in Pontypool and grew up in Aberbargoed. He graduated from the London Studio Centre in 2000 and appeared in a number of West End productions. He is best known for his portrayal as Vlad in Dracula Untold, Owen Shaw in the Fast & Furious series and Gaston in the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast.

He has some upcoming projects in the works including Apple’s Echo 3. He will play the role of Bambi, brother to main character Amber Chesborough, a scientist who goes missing along the Colombia-Venezuela border. The series has been announced but is still in development.

He will also reprise his role as Gaston in the Disney+ Beauty & The Beast mini-series. He will be joined in the family comedy by Josh Gad who reprises his role as right-hand-man LeFou. The series is in pre-production.

He is also listed as playing villain The Coachman in Disney’s live adaptation of Pinocchio. He will be starring alongside Tom Hanks as Geppetto. The movie is currently in post-production and is hopeful to be released in 2022.

He will also be playing the character of Izzy in Bear Season which is in pre-production. The film revolves around a Polish family living in post-Second World War Detroit. Izzy is a former soldier who is the uncle of protagonist Chester. He struggles with adapting to civilian life and PTSD and tells stories of Chester’s father serving in the military alongside a legendary soldier bear.

Anthony Hopkins

Antony Hopkins was born in Margam but went to school in Pontypool. He is known for The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal – in which he played serial killer Hannibal Lecter. He also appeared in Hitchcock, Westworld, the Thor films, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Mask of Zorro among 70 years on the screen.

He is set to appear in The Son – set for release in 2022 -which is in post-production. He is also set to appear in Armageddon Time, again in post-production. In The Son, he stars alongside Hugh Jackman who plays lead character Peter, who’s life is thrown into disarray when his ex-wife turns up with his teenage son.

Armageddon Time is also set to star Anne Hathaway and follows people growing up in 1980s Queens in New York.

Richard Brake

Richard Brake was born in Ystrad Mynach. He has appeared in a number of films including Hannibal Rising, Doom, Batman Begins, and Halloween II. He also appeared as the Night King in Game of Thrones and Valin Hess in The Mandalorian.

He is set to play Darius in Vesper Seeds, in which he will play the father of 13-year-old Vesper. Vesper goes on a dangerous journey to help a woman find her missing companion after a jet crash and uncovers the key to creating an alternate future. The film is currently in post-production.

He is also set to play The Headmaster in Devonshire which is also in post-production. The story follows the child of a wealthy Manhattan family who is forcefully taken to Devonshire and put into a boarding school and in-patient therapy centre for misfit children.

He will star as Wrath in fantasy drama Extinction which has just been announced. He will also feature in the video game Squadron 42 which includes big names including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and Gillian Anderson.

He is set to play a wounded miner and is joined by fellow Caerphilly borough and Game of Thrones actor Ross O’Hennessy - more on him in a moment.

Michael Sheen

Michael Sheen was born in Newport and spent a decade on the stage. He has starred on the screen in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, The Queen, Frost/Nixon and recent series Staged. He also lent his voice to the live action Alice in Wonderland, in which he brought the White Rabbit to life.

He is set to star in The Price of Admission alongside Jeff Goldblum. It is in pre-production but is set to follow a playwright through his descent into madness.

He will also provide his voice to Heart of Darkness, which is also in pre-production. It is based on a novel by Joseph Conrad which follows the search for a mysterious figure who has control over life and death of a kingdom. The book is best known as being the inspiration for Apocalypse Now.

Caroline Sheen

Caroline Sheen was born in Newport and is the cousin of fellow actor Michael Sheen. She is best known for playing DI Meredith Hughes in Silent Witness and has appeared in Torchwood, Les Miserables and Four Kids and It.

Later this year she will appear in documentary Still Working 9 to 5. It looks at how, 40 years after popular comedy 9 to 5 – which starred Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda and looked at the role of women in the workplace – there is still inequality in work. The documentary explores why inequality in work was never a laughing matter.

She appears as herself in the documentary alongside Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, Bonnie Langford, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin among others.

Kieron Self

Kieron Self was born in Newport and studied English at Oxford University. He went on to study at the Welsh College of Music and Drama until 1993. When he left the college, he set up the Mappa Mundi theatre group with friends so they could produce their own version of classic plays.

He is best known as being dentist Roger Bailey in My Family and PC Clause Cox in High Hopes. He also appeared as William Sheppard in Aberfan: The Fight for Justice and as Mr Lomax in Still Open All Hours.

He will be appearing as Roland Watkins in Chariot, a comedy about a corrupt politician called Len Lewys-Jones (Robert Pugh) who is set to win an historic by-election in post-Brexit Wales and will do anything to get his position, including betraying those close to him. The film is crowdfunded in order for it to maintain ‘the integrity of the film and make sure it loses none of its ‘special sauce’.’

He is also set to play Noel in The Wrong Place which is currently in post-production. The Wrong Place follows two boys in an abandoned quarry – which isn’t as abandoned as they think as they stumble across a group dumping a dead body. When one of the two falls and dies, his surviving friend is taken captive by the group.

Another starring Kieron Self is The Canterville Ghost which is also in post-production. He plays Lord Monroe in the film which follows an American family moving into a London mansion which is haunted by a ghost.

He wrote the screenplay alongside Giles New for the film – based on a short story by Oscar Wilde. Also starring in the film is Freddie Highmore, Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton.

Suzanne Packer

Suzanne Packer was born in Abergavenny and is the elder sister of athlete Colin Jackson. She is best known for her role as Tess Bateman in Casualty. She also appeared as the character in the occasional Holby City episode and was in Brookside, Doctor Who and The Pembrokeshire Murders.

She is playing Nurse Anwar in Robin, a short film to be released this year which follows a hospital porter who, while lost in his own direction, unlocks an autistic patient immobilised by PTSD.

Ross O’Hennessy

Ross O’Hennessy was born in Pontllanfraith and is best known as Lord of Bones in Game of Thrones and Sir Locke in The Bastard Executioner. He also appeared in Da Vinci’s Demons and Jurassic Island.

He is set to star as Gary in The Jade Horse, Nik in Protein – which is in post-production and should be released this year. He will voice the President of Earth in Offworld, Leo McTavish in Graceworld, Father in Unit 19, Eli in The Huntsmen 2019, Frank Dean in Morris Men, Dave in The London Game, Edgar Evans in Terra Nova, Arnulf in Bring Me To The Light and Foundry Pirate #1 in the Squadron 42 video game.