A native of the western English county of Devon, Goode was born April 3, 1978, to a geologist father and nurse mother. He was raised in the city of Exeter where he was encouraged to act by his mother, a local theater director who often cast him in productions as a child. Goode’s talent took him to the University of Birmingham where he studied drama, and onto classical training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Goode’s professional acting career began on the London stage with roles including Ariel in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” He expanded into television with “Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”(2002), alongside established stars Stockard Channing and Jonathan Pryce. Affable, cheeky and boyishly handsome, the actor appeared in the film “Al sur de Granada” (2003) and the BBC TV adaptation of “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: A Suitable Vengeance” (2003) before scoring his international breakout in 2004. That year, Goode was introduced to American audiences as the bodyguard/love interest of the president’s daughter (Mandy Moore) in the teen romantic comedy “Chasing Liberty” (2004). The virtually unknown actor triumphed over dozens of other British actors for the part, and as a result, became an overnight commodity in Hollywood.
Before shooting his next big American vehicle, Goode appeared in a pair of British productions that were already in the can – a BBC miniseries of Anthony Trollope’s “He Knew He Was Right” (2004), and the TV movie of Agatha Christie’s “Marple: A Murder is Announced” (2005). Then filmmaking icon Woody Allen cast Goode as a posh Londoner and fiancé of an American actress (Scarlett Johansson) in the critically hailed “Match Point” (2005). Following the success of Allen’s against-type thriller, Goode landed a starring role as a man who loses his wife (Piper Perabo) to another woman in Ol Parker’s romantic comedy “Imagine Me & You” (2006) and had a supporting role in “Copying Beethoven” (2006), a panned biopic of the famous composer. Defying his pretty-boy image, he gave an affecting performance as a criminal low-life who takes advantage of a brain damaged bank janitor to facilitate a robbery in “The Lookout” (2007). He returned to period wardrobe to play a young incarnation of author Laurence Durrell in “My Family and Other Animals” (BBC/PBS, 2007), a TV movie based on the bestselling childhood memoir of Gerald Durrell.
Goode returned to theaters to star alongside Emma Thompson in a big screen adaptation of “Brideshead Revisited” (2008), a film that suffered from endless comparisons to the landmark British miniseries version of 1981, then lent his sophisticated air to the character of vigilante superhero Ozymandias (alter ego of Adrian Veidt) in the comic book adaptation “Watchmen” (2009). Continuing to prove his versatility and appeal in an even wider range of roles, Goode landed a supporting role in Tom Ford’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel “A Single Man” (2009) and found himself hotly pursued by Amy Adams in the Dublin-set romantic comedy “Leap Year” (2010).