The son of Dame Maggie Smith and the late Sir Robert Stephens, Toby Stephens was to the theatrical manor born. An accomplished actor in his own right, Stephens, who bears a distinct resemblance to his mother, was born in April of 1969. After his parents' divorce when he was four years old, Stephens and his brother (actor Chris Larkin) grew up traveling back and forth across the Atlantic with their mother for her numerous acting engagements.

After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Stephens began his professional career as a stagehand at the Chichester Theatre Festival. He had his film debut with a bit part in Sally Potter's 1992 adaptation of Orlando, but it was on the stage that he first made a name for himself. At the age of 25, Stephens won a Sir John Gielgud Best Actor Award and an Ian Charleson Award for his title role in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1994 production of -Coriolanus. He went on to perform in a number of plays with the RSC, including -Measure for Measure, -A Midsummer Night's Dream, and -Antony and Cleopatra.

In 1996, Stephens attracted the attention of an international film audience with his role as the melancholy Duke Orsino in Trevor Nunn's lush adaptation of Twelfth Night. That same year, he starred alongside Rupert Graves and Tara Fitzgerald in the acclaimed television adaptation of Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, further earning a reputation as a man who could actually make frock coats look sexy. More period attire -- this time early 1900s -- followed in 1997, when Stephens starred as a jaded, grieving photographer who captures a supernatural phenomenon with his camera in Photographing Fairies. That same year, he could again be seen doffing a frock coat for his role in Cousin Bette. The film featured him as Jessica Lange's nephew; coincidentally, he had played Stanley Kowalski to her Blanche DuBois a year earlier in Peter Hall's London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

In 1999, Stephens again stepped back a few eras -- this time to the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire Period -- to play Vladimir Lensky, hot-blooded best friend of Ralph Fiennes' Evgeny Onegin in Martha Fiennes' adaptation of Onegin. In addition to his screen work, he continued to perform on the stage, winning particular acclaim for his work opposite Diana Rigg in both -Phedre and -Britannicus in London and New York.

After making his Broadway debut playing twins in the farcical "Ring Around the Moon" in 1999, the actor was tapped to portray the young incarnation of director-star Clint Eastwood's astronaut in "Space Cowboys" (2000). That same year, he tried to embody F. Scott Fitzgerald's elusive titular character in the A&E version of "The Great Gatsby", but while he cut the proper dashing figure, something was missing in his interpretation of the role. He fared better in his homeland playing a supporting role in the critically-acclaimed BBC2 presentation "Perfect Strangers" (2001) and a return to the stage alongside Dame Judi Dench in "The Royal Family". Director Neil LaBute tapped Stephens to play a self-serving academic in "Possession" (2002) before the actor landed a part that reach his wide audience yet-- the villainous Gustav Graves in "Die Another Day" (2002), the 20th James Bond film. Stephens held his own against Pierce Brosnan as 007, proving one of the more charismatic of the recent Bond bad guys and demonstrating a flair for physical combat in the action-packed fencing sequence with Brosnan.

In 2003 Stephens went on to perform in Cambridge Spies, Five little Pigs and an episode of 'Poirot'. And in 2004 he went on to perform in Terkel in trouble and London. Stephens later went on to act in The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey, and episode of Waking the dead: The Subterraneans, and The Queen's Sister in 2005. 2006 was the peak of his career as he appeared in several TV shown episodes in that year including: The Best man, Sharpe's Challenge, Dark Corners, Severance and his most known role as Mr Edward Fairfax Rochester in Jane Eyre. Stephens later went on to appear in The Wild West as General Custer and a short film of One Day as Mr Buckel. He has also been in the production of Betrayal at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre alongside Sam West and Derval Kirwan and is later set to star in a production of The Country Wife at the Haymarket Theatre in London in September 2007.