CRUSHWORTHY: Dominic Cooper

I heard through the grape vine that The History Boys was an amazing play and that the film adapation was worth a look. I checked it out a couple of weeks ago and I fell in love with the dialogue--how snippy their insults were and the little nuggets of interesting literature and history that they mentioned. But I was also reluctantly mesmerized by the character Dakin, played by Dominic Cooper (above). He was so obnoxious and overly confident that you couldn't help but laugh at and root for his classmate Posner (Samuel Barnett)--an amazing singer--who was in love with him, even though Dakin was straight. You understood Posner's infatuation and you thought it bold of him to even attempt openly serenading him in the middle of class and demanding for a longer hug when Dakin offered it as a going away present.

Cooper surely had a lasting impression in other minds as well. The 30-year-old British actor, who made his official debut as James McAvoy's bff in Starter for 10, has since starred in the Jane Austen miniseries "Sense and Sensibility" as Willoughby and will appear in this month's British caper The Escapist, alongside Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes (Shakespear in Love), and Damian Lewis ("Life").

But girls all over America will finally take notice of him July 18th when they see him in Mamma Mia! as Amanda Seyfried's (Mean Girls) fiancee. Coming up next, he'll appear in the adaptation of Nick Hornby's An Education, John Krasinski's directorial debut Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, the historical drama The Duchess with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes, and the magical drama David Copperfield with Colin Firth, Simon Pegg, and Rowan Atkinson