One of Britain’s finest actors features in a new exhibition of photography at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Rising star Richard Madden, 26, from Elderslie, began his acting career at Paisley’s famous PACE youth theatre, and has gone on to take lead roles on stage, in television and film.

And now a portrait of him by K K Dundas is among a number of famous names that can be seen in the photographer’s show “Leading Lights”.

Hanging alongside him at the prestigious gallery are portraits of Bill Paterson, Billy Boyd, Elaine C Smith and Ruby Wax – all, like Richard, graduates of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

In 2010, to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Conservatoire commissioned Glasgow-based Dundas, who specialises in theatre and portrait photography, to take portraits of past and present students from the school of drama.

These images, presented in collaboration with the Conservatoire, features some of the institution’s most illustrious alumni, from old hands to more recent graduates.

Richard got his acting break at the age of 11 when he appeared in a film adaptation of Iain Banks’s hit novel Complicity. Then came a lead role in kids’ TV series My Barmy Aunt Boomerang, before he quit acting for a while.

But he returned to the profession with a vengeance when he was 17.

Richard said: “I got to the point when I was being asked to choose what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do more. I went back to PACE and spent a year being one of the oldest ones, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but I had to get back into acting.”

Richard then earned a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and jobs with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe Theatre, in London, followed.

He later gained the lead role of Dean McKenzie in the 2009 BBC series Hope Springs, followed by his roles as Ripley in the 2010 film Chatroom, and as Theatre of Hate singer Kirk Brandon in the 2010 film Worried About The Boy.

Since 2011, he has been starring as Robb Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones, the Channel 4 series Sirens and in the BBC series Birdsong.

Leading Lights runs until Sunday, March 3, 2013.

(source)