Ioan Gruffudd had an immediate role model for his portrayal of Colin Smith, Kevin’s teacher. Gruffudd based his performance on his father, Peter, who was headmaster of the Welsh comprehensive that Ioan attended.

“I absolutely loved, respected and admired my father. He was a totally committed teacher, and it was a never a problem having him as head, in fact it was good to know he was there. From the moment I got the script for THE KID I found all I could think of when I read about Colin Smith was my father. He really was a Colin Smith type character. And I kind of channelled his image.”

Gruffudd was particularly keen to work with Moran on THE KID.

“I had seen the play of TELSTAR and been blown away by it, I just thought it was something so eccentric and different. And when I read the script for THE KID I knew I really wanted to be part of Nick's new project. This was a story that needed to be told.”

Gruffudd first found fame in the UK in the title role of the hugely popular ITV series HORNBLOWER in the 1990s. Internationally he is best known for the FANTASTIC FOUR films, based on the Marvel comic book super-heroes.

Gruffudd’s key film credits include: W. (2008) in which he played Tony Blair opposite Josh Brolin’s George W. Bush, THE SECRET OF MOONACRE (2008) with his THE KID co-stars Natascha McElhone and Augustus Prew, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2008) with Jessica Alba, AMAZING GRACE (2006), FANTASTIC FOUR (2005), KING ARTHUR (2004) opposite Keira Knightly and Clive Owen, Ridely Scott’s BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001), 102 DALMATIONS (2000) with Glenn Close, the multi-Academy Award winner TITANIC (1997) and WILDE (1997) with Stephen Fry.
Television credits include: CENTURY CITY, THE FORSYTE SAGA, MAN AND BOY, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, HORNBLOWER, POLDARK.