Born in England, Paddy Considine worked as a photographer before turning to acting full-time. In 1999, he made quite a worthwhile film debut in the comedy drama A Room for Romeo Brass, directed by Shane Meadows. He played Morell, the strange and dangerous character who comes between the two 12-year-old leads (Andrew Shim and Ben Marshall). In 2000, he turned to more intimate drama in Pawel Pawlikowski's Last Resort. He won festival acclaim for his role of Alfie, an arcade owner in Northern England who befriends a Russian immigrant (Dina Korzun) and her son (Artiom Strelnikov). Considine returned to lighter material for his next few films: the relationship comedy Born Romantic, the strangely dark crime comedy Happy Now, and the poorly received nightmare-vacation film The Martins. By 2002, he had started to gain a little more international exposure outside of the U.K. He portrayed New Order manager Rob Groton in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People, a funny biopic about the Manchester music scene that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. After starring in Nick Willing's crime thriller Hypnotic (also released as Doctor Sleep), he got his first major leading role in Jim Sheridan's semi-autobiographic drama In America. Considine adopted an Irish accent to play Johnny, Sheridan's fictional counterpart. An out-of-work actor, Johnny immigrates to New York City with his wife (Samantha Morton), daughters (Emma and Sarah Bolger), and a lot of emotional baggage. Considine also appeared in the Coldplay music video for "God Put a Smile on Your Face".