Jamie Campbell Bower
as Young Oxford

Rhys Ifans
as Edward de Vere

David Thewlis
as William Cecil

Joely Richardson
as Princess Elizabeth Tudor

Vanessa Redgrave
as Queen Elizabeth I

Sebastian Armesto
as Ben Jonson

Rafe Spall
as William Shakespeare

Edward Hogg
as Robert Cecil

Xavier Samuel
as Earl of Southampton

Sam Reid
as Earl of Essex

Jamie Campbell Bower
as Young Earl of Oxford

Paolo De Vita
as Francesco

Trystan Gravelle
as Christopher Marlowe

Robert Emms
as Thomas Dekker

Tony Way
as Thomas Nashe

Julian Bleach
as Captain Richard Pole

Derek Jacobi
as Prologue