Grant was born at Hammersmith Hospital in London, England, the son of Fynvola Susan and Captain James Murray Grant. Genealogist Antony Adolph described his family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders and aristocracy." Grant is a descendant of the Grants of Glenmoriston from a long line of Scots military men, doctors and explorers, including William Drummond and Dr. James Stewart. John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Rt Hon. Sir Evan Nepean, and former British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval are a few of his notable maternal antecedents. Grant's grandfather, Major James Murray Grant, DSO, a native of Inverness in Scotland, was decorated for bravery and leadership at Dunkirk during WWII.

Grant's father, Capt. Grant, was trained at Sandhurst and served with the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya, Germany and Scotland. He ran a carpet firm, pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolouring, and raised his family in Chiswick, West London, where the Grants lived next to Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.

In September 2006, a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by the John Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his famous son, called "James Grant: 30 Years of Watercolours."

Fynvola Grant was the great-granddaughter of Sir Evan Colville Nepean, whose father, Rev. Canon Evan Nepean, served as the Canon of Westminster and was Chaplain In Ordinary to Queen Victoria. She worked as a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French and music for more than 30 years in the state schools of West London. She died at the age of 63, after an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer, in 2001.

Both his parents were children of military families, and Grant has referred to his own upbringing as very ordinary middle class. He spent his childhood summers in Scotland, shooting and fishing with his grandfather. Grant's elder brother, James "Jamie" Grant, is a successful banker as Managing Director, head of Healthcare, Consumer, & Retail Investment Banking Coverage, at JPMorgan Chase in New York.

Grant started his education at the pre-preparatory Wetherby School. From 1969 to 1978, he attended Latymer Upper School on scholarship and played 1st XV rugby, cricket and football for the school. In 1979, he won the Galsworthy scholarship to New College, Oxford where he studied English literature and graduated with a second-class honours degree. Viewing acting as nothing more than a creative outlet, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and starred in a successful touring production of Twelfth Night.

After making his debut as Hughie Grant in the Oxford-financed Privileged (1982) and deferring his place at the Courtauld Institute, Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs: he wrote book reviews, worked as assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club, tried his hand at tutoring, wrote comedy sketches for TV shows, and was hired by Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager. To obtain his equity card, he joined the repertory theatre Nottingham Playhouse and lived for a year at Park Terrace in The Park Estate, Nottingham. Bored of small acting parts, he created his own comedy revue called The Jockeys of Norfolk with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. The group toured London’s pub comedy circuit with stops at The George IV in Chiswick, Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Venice and The King's Head in Islington. Starting on a low note, The Jockeys of Norfolk eventually proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival after their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, garnered them a spot on the BBC2 TV show called Edinburgh Nights. During this time, Grant also appeared in theatre productions of plays such as An Inspector Calls, Lady Windermere's Fan, and Coriolanus.

Grant's first leading role came in Merchant-Ivory's 1987 Edwardian drama, Maurice, adapted from E.M. Forster's namesake novel. He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of Cantabrigian collegians Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Grant balanced small roles on television with rare film work, which included his performance in a supporting role in the film The Dawning (1988).

In July 1994, Grant signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and by October, he became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited. He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head of development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced two Grant vehicles in the 1990s and lost a bid to produce About a Boy to Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions.The company closed its U.S. office in 2002 and Grant resigned as director in December 2005. He has also served on the advisory board of Mark Milln and Kami Naghdi's U.K. Production company, Hogarth Pictures.

In 1996, Grant won substantial damages from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January of 1995. The company's now-defunct newspaper, Today, had falsely claimed that Grant verbally abused a young extra with a "foul-mouthed tongue lashing" on the set of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. Deriding British newspaper for having become a "little tittle-tattle industry," Grant has, on various occasions, claimed that the tabloids are keen to fabricate scandal on the slightest pretext and his own words are filtered through various media outlets before being misquoted numerous times.

Grant, once called the "unofficial mayor of London," is frequently referred in the press with phrases that describe him as a "human straight line" who is "bursting with charisma." He has been portrayed by acquaintances as a complicated man with an anarchic and sharp constitution. Grant is noted for his tendency of teasingly insulting everyone, which has earned him the public reputation of someone who can "put you down, put you on and put you off in the same sentence." There is "much of Hugh that is charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue," according to Mike Newell, "is maybe too clever for its own good."

Starting from 1987, Grant then had a long relationship with model Elizabeth Hurley, the latter half of which was spent in the global media spotlight due to Grant's growing fame. After 13 years together, the two made "a mutual and amicable decision" to split in May 2000.

With Grant a single man, according to Vogue, "by all accounts the women of London were practically stabbing one another with forks at social events to get close to him."

In 2004, he began dating socialite Jemima Khan under the intense scrutiny of British tabloids. Three years later, in February 2007, Grant's publicist announced that the couple had "decided to split amicably."

Grant is known by popular media to guard his privacy "jealously," rarely discussing his life in public and choosing instead to fend off personal questions with humour.

Grant is a supporter of Marie Curie Cancer Care, about which he spoke while promoting the charitable organizations's 2008 Great Daffodil Appeal in March 2008.

On 27 June 1995, Grant was arrested by L.A. Vice officers in a residential area not far from Sunset Boulevard for misdemeanour lewd conduct in a public place with Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown. He pleaded no contest to the charges. He was fined $1,180, placed on two years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an AIDS education program. In April 2007, Grant was arrested on allegations of assault made by paparazzi Ian Whittaker. Grant made no official statement and did not comment on the incident. Charges were dropped on June 1 by the Crown Prosecution Service due to "insufficient evidence."

Grant's athletic passions have often been profiled by newspapers and television media. A famous "golfing addict", he is a regular at pro-am tournaments with membership at the Sunningdale Golf Club, and is frequently pictured by the paparazzi at the famed Scottish golf courses in St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.

Hugh Grant's Photos