Tom Riley

“I went to university in the north of England at University of Birmingham to do an English literature degree, and I knew I could do extracurricular stuff with theater and drama. I started a theater company, called Article 19, and I did it with a bunch of friends. I wrote and directed plays. I had a radio show.”

“University was a chance to people-watch and to mix with people from all various walks of life, which as an actor is a great experience because you get to observe people.”

“The thing about 'Doctor Who' is it's chased around the world, so there's 50 fans hanging out at every location.”

“What you don't get necessarily at drama school is a gigantic mix of people. At university, there's people from every social background, and you get to go through that period of being naive and not quite sure who you're going to be.”

“I feel like the experience I gained at university has really helped to inform me as far as who I wanted to become as an actor and what I wanted to do.”

“Performing on stage is my first love - it's why I wanted to be an actor in the first place - and 'Arcadia' is the highlight of my career so far. I love the intimacy of a live theatre audience - you can really squeeze every last drop out of each scene.”

“I'm just terrible at auditions. I don't know how anyone does it.”

“In America, celebrities who go to see your show will come backstage and introduce themselves. Meeting Annette Bening and Ethan Hawke that way was amazing, but when Tom Hanks came, it was really special - I've loved him since I first saw him in 'Big!'”

“I love to run. When the weather's bad, I should get on the treadmill in the basement gym of my apartment building, but I lack the motivation.”

“I remember clearly watching a 'Sooty Show' at a theatre and telling my mum I wanted to be up with the puppets, not in the audience.”

“New York is fantastic, and I've done several films in Los Angeles which I really enjoyed, but I don't think that America is the be-all and end-all. I'll follow the good work wherever it may be.”

“I'm quite lucky in that at certain angles I look all right, and at others I don't look so good, which enables me to play some leading roles and some stranger, more 'character'-type parts. I wouldn't say I'm the conventional handsome Hollywood leading man.”

“I loved Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's 'Inside No 9.' The way that they constrained each episode to a single location, then tasked themselves with including completely new characters every week, within a single half-hour.”

“I worked in restaurants, bars, record stores; I did anything and everything to pay my way through university and LAMDA.”

“I can jump on to a kitchen worktop from standing, like Tigger. It was something my dad could do, and I copied it from him.”

“Even though Da Vinci was a genius, it's important to remember he was just a man.”