For Peter Capaldi, becoming Doctor Who is likely to be a dream-come-true.
A lifelong fan of the show, the 55-year-old even wrote a letter to the Radio Times about the Daleks when he was a teenager.
Capaldi is not only an award-winning actor, but also a film maker, and has enjoyed an illustrious career in both film and television.
Growing up in Glasgow, he attended the Glasgow School of Art and it was while studying there that he secured his first breakthrough role in Local Hero (1983).
He has also had roles in Dangerous Liaisons, The Crow Road, The Devil’s Whore and Torchwood: Children of Earth.
Capaldi, who won an Academy Award in 1994 for the best short film (Live Action) for Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, is the first Oscar winner to take on the famous role of “the doctor”.
He also wrote Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, which won the audience award at the London Film Festival, as well as writing and directing Strictly Sinatra.
Capaldi’s stage credits include Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, which saw the play transfer to the Gielgud Theatre in London.
But it is probably for his performance as foul-mouthed spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker in BBC comedy series The Thick of It that he is best known.
In 2010 he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role and the BPG Best Actor Award and in both 2010 and 2012, he won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.
Capaldi has also written several shows including a documentary about 500 years history of Scottish portrait painting and Cricklewood Greats – a spoof about the heyday of the British film industry.
He appeared on Doctor Who in 2008, playing Caecilius in the episode “The Fires of Pompeii” and will film his first scenes this autumn.
It comes off the back of a busy year for the Glasgow-born actor, who has already been seen on screen in the film World War Z and in BBC Two drama series The Hour, for which he was BAFTA nominated.
He is currently filming new BBC One drama series The Musketeers, in which he plays Cardinal Richelieu which will launch in early 2014, and will appear in forthcoming films The Fifth Estate and Disney’s Maleficent.