Stephen Rea is a Northern Irish actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his lead performance as Fergus in The Crying Game movie. Stephen Rea was born in Belfast in a family with four children. Stephen Rea attended Belfast High School and the Queen`s University of Belfast. Stephen Rea tooked a degree in English.

During the broadcasting ban on Sinn Fein imposed by Margaret Thatcher`s government, in order to cut the oxygen of publicity,  Stephen was one of many actors contacted to provide an actor`s voice to get around that problem.