American actor Lee Pace was BOTD in 1979. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma to a middle-class family, he grew up in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked for an oil company. His family settled in Texas, where he attended high school, before being accepted into Juilliard School’s drama programme in 1997. After appearing in off-Broadway productions, he rose to prominence playing trans activist Calpernia Addams in the 2003 TV biopic Soldier’s Girl, followed by small roles in James Ivory‘s 2005 film The White Countess and the Truman Capote biopic Infamous. He also starred in the short-lived 2007 dramedy series Pushing Daisies. He made his Broadway debut in the 2011 revival of Larry Kramer‘s AIDS drama The Normal Heart, followed by Terrence McNally‘s play Golden Age. In 2014, he played a bisexual tech genius in TV drama series Halt and Catch Fire, remaining with the show for four seasons. He returned to Broadway in 2018 for an acclaimed revival of Tony Kushner‘s AIDS epic Angels in America. His film work includes playing an elf in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, the Abraham Lincoln biopic Lincoln, and the Marvel comic franchise films Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel and Ronan the Accuser. Pace was accidentally outed as gay in 2012 by his Hobbit co-star Ian McKellen. He eventually confirmed his sexuality in 2018 during press interviews for Angels in America. He lives in upstate New York with his husband Matthew Foley.