London Native Robert Pattinson

Biography

London native Robert Pattinson, 22, is what some call a double threat an actor and musician. Bitten by the acting bug at age 15, Pattinson started performing at the Barnes Theatre Company in London. This opened the door to his earlier roles such as Giselher in the television production of Ring of the Nibelungs and Rawdy Crawley in the film Vanity Fair. His role in Vanity Fair led to Pattinson being cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Following Harry Potter, Pattinson developed his talent further by playing in two U.K. television films. In the first film, The Haunted Airman, Pattinson was cast as lead character Toby Jugg, a disabled and traumatized World War II airman. Jugg proved to be a complex character who suffered from hallucinations, which ultimately leads to his own mental undoing.

In the second film, The Bad Mother's Handbook, he played a minor role as nerdy Daniel Gale. Pattinson brought his own sense of eccentricity, which added a truth to the character.

Pattinson continued to mold his acting career by appearing in two other U.K. projects: short film The Summer House, directed by Daisy Gili and feature film How to Be, directed by Oliver Irving.

In How to Be, he is able to tap into his musical talents by playing Art, a troubled 20-something who lives at home with a dysfunctional family.

After filming smaller roles, Pattinson signed on to play the role of vampire Edward Cullen in the film Twilight, which is based on the book of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. Pattinson told Teen Hollywood.com in August about his lack of prior knowledge to the Twilight.

He said: "I read them after my screen test. I'd never even heard of them before. Then, we were doing the movie and it got exponentially bigger and bigger and bigger, and everybody knew about it, so it was kind of strange and unexpected."

When fans of the book first discovered that Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen, there was an immediate backlash. The criticism extended from his appearance being wrong for what they envisioned to him to being involved in the rival Harry Potter series. However, after the release of the first teaser trailer, fan remarks began to turn positive. The release of the second teaser trailer pushed the frenzy of support behind Pattinson.

But even after the tides obviously changed, Pattinson remained modest about the project when asked by FearNet.com about being in one of the most highly anticipated projects of the year.

He said: "I still can't really come to terms with it. It's just strange. I'm always just sort of terrified I'm just a good freaker-outer."

Pattinson's continued modesty seems to make fans more interested in his upcoming roles. Taking a look at Pattinson's body of work thus far, it might be unexpected