2011 Tony Awards Nominees: 'Leading Actor in a Play'

Brian Bedford ("Lady Bracknell" in The Importance of Being Earnest)
Brian Bedford: Internationally acclaimed actor Brian Bedford studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where his classmates include Peter O'Toole, Albert Finney and Alan Bates. At age 21, he played Hamlet for the Liverpool Repertory Company, followed by successful performances in London and Stratford-upon-Avon, working with, among others, Sir John Gielgud and Peter Brook. Gielgud's production of Peter Shaffer's first play, Five Finger Exercise, brought him to New York in 1959. Since then he has starred in many Broadway productions, receiving six Best Actor Tony nominations and winning the award for Molière's The School for Wives. Other honors include Obie, Outer Critics Circle, L.A. Drama Critics and six N.Y. Drama Desk Awards. Mr. Bedford has directed and acted at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and for 27 seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. His one-man Shakespeare show The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet and his Oscar Wilde evening Ever Yours, Oscar have taken him around the world. Mr. Bedford has made numerous appearances on television and film, and supplied the voice of the title character in Walt Disney's Robin Hood. In 1997 he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Bobby Cannavale ("Jackie" in The Motherf**ker with the Hat)
Bobby Cannavale is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company. He made his Broadway debut in 2008 in Theresa Rebeck's Mauritius (Tony nomination). He also received rave reviews in the 2005 Off-Broadway revival of Hurlyburly. Cannavale's many television appearances include NBC's "Will & Grace" (Emmy Award), HBO's "Six Feet Under" and the starring role in ABC's "Cupid." His film credits include The Station Agent (Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival; SAG Award nomination), The Other Guys, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, Diminished Capacity, Fast Food Nation, The Night Listener, Snakes on a Plane, Haven, Shall We Dance, Happy Endings, Romance & Cigarettes, Gloria, The Bone Collector and Washington Heights. Upcoming films include Roadie, the independent film Weakness and the Sundance Film Festival hit Win Win, which reunites Cannavale with The Station Agent writer/director Tom McCarthy. "For my brother."

Joe Mantello ("Ned Weeks" in The Normal Heart)
Joe Mantello: Directing credits include Other Desert Cities, The Pride, Pal Joey, 9 to 5, November, The Receptionist, The Ritz, Blackbird, Three Days of Rain, The Odd Couple, Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony® nomination), Laugh Whore, Assassins (Tony Award®), Wicked, Take Me Out (Tony Award®), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune, A Man of No Importance, Design for Living and Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony® nomination). As an actor: Angels in America (Tony® nomination) and The Baltimore Waltz. He is recipient of Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Clarence Derwent, Obie and Joe A. Callaway awards. He is a member of Naked Angels and an associate artist at Roundabout Theatre Company.

Al Pacino ("Shylock" in The Merchant of Venice)
Al Pacino: Broadway: Salome, Hughie (appeared in and directed), Chinese Coffee, American Buffalo, Richard III, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (Tony® Award), Camino Real, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? (Tony® Award). Off-Broadway: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui; The Indian Wants the Bronx (Obie, Theatre World Awards); The Connection; Tiger at the Gates; The Local Stigmatic; Hello, Out There; Orphans. Mr. Pacino is an Academy Award and two-time Emmy winner who has appeared in more than 35 films.

Mark Rylance ("Johnny 'Rooster' Byron" in Jerusalem)
Mark Rylance last appeared on Broadway in La Bête and Boeing-Boeing. In America he has acted with the Theatre for a New Audience, St. Ann's Warehouse, the Guthrie Theater, ART, the Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Little Theatre (Milwaukee). In London, Mark was the artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (1996-2006). During his 31-year career Mark has acted in 48 productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. He is an ambassador of Survival International, the movement for tribal people worldwide. Once he wrote a play, some poems and acted in some films. He is married to Claire von Campen. Mr. Rylance thanks his trainer Derrick Odem and his chiropractor Dr. Trish Dean.