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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuted this week. The fantasy series, which boasts an impressive cast, follows the adventures of hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), who aspires to become Westeros's greatest knight, alongside his squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), reports the Daily Star.

Viewers of the Game of Thrones spin-off are eager to discover more about the programme's two protagonists, especially young actor Ansell.

The emerging talent was born on September 16, 2014 in Leeds, Yorkshire.

He is presently 11 years old, though he would have been 10 whilst shooting the first series of the HBO fantasy saga.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms marks not Ansell's debut performance, yet it represents his most prominent role to date and is set to thrust him into the limelight.

Before the Game of Thrones spin-off, the young performer launched his acting journey on ITV soap Emmerdale in two separate characters: initially as Jimmy King's son Carl Holliday from January to May 2016, followed by Lucas Taylor from 2019 to 2021.

He subsequently secured a role in the Sky science-fiction thriller The Midwich Cuckoos, before featuring in the uplifting Christmas film Christmas on Mistletoe Farm.

Following this, Ansell featured in The Moor, an instalment of Hullraisers, and took on the pivotal role of young Coriolanus in the Hollywood blockbuster The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes alongside Viola Davis and Rachel Zegler.

He has also featured in the film Robin and the Hoods, which starred Harry Potter actor Mark Williams, James Bond star Naomie Harris, and Game of Thrones performer Gwendoline Christie.

Notably, Christie's Game of Thrones character Brienne of Tarth is confirmed to be a descendant of Ser Duncan the Tall in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

More recently, Ansell featured in the film Here alongside Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Paul Bettany.

The young actor is currently working on series two of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms after HBO renewed the show before the opening episode had even aired.

He is also set to appear in the forthcoming film 500 Miles with Bill Nighy, Roman Griffin Davis, Michael Socha, Clare Dunne, and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams.

Beyond his own acting achievements, Ansell comes from a showbusiness family. His mother Debbie Ansell previously presented the British gameshow Quizmania, whilst his father Jonathan Ansell is one quarter of the opera pop group G4 who initially rose to prominence on The X Factor. He also has an elder sister Siena Ansell.

Discussing shaving his head for the part of Egg, who is bald, Ansell revealed: "It was unbelievable. I was quite nervous when I was going to shave my hair because I was like, 'What if I don't have a good-shaped head?' I don't know what I was going to feel."

He continued to hint at his character in the HBO video: "The character of Egg, he's very cheeky. Egg really wants to be a squire, but when he sees Dunk, he's like, 'Should I? This could be the only knight I could squire for.'".

"But he also thinks, 'Your belt's made of rope. You don't look like a very good knight.' All the other knights, they're 10 times bigger than Egg. They're massive, strong men. You're just a little child. But Egg realises you don't actually need to be strong as long as you're a helping hand to your knight."

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs on HBO on Sundays in the USA and on Mondays on NOW in the UK

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