all I have to say is Matthew Rhys' from Wales. Even though someone already beat me to it.

"It sounded fake because I'm used to his American accent." It sounded fake because it was a really awful British accent! He was playing an American doing a really bad fake British accent, not speaking in his usual British voice. Not sure if you can watch this if you're in the US, but you can see a great show about The Wire, called Tapping the Wire, here:

http://www.fxuk.com/series/thewire

You can hear his real accent on it in the interview.

(Oh, and Rachel Griffiths from Six Feet Under is another Australian.)

I think it's also because British actors are raised on American TV. They've been hearing the American accent all their lives. I would guess that very few American children see many BBC shows or movies.

Also, @ 22: I do recall in one of the early episodes that Stewart said "schedule" as "shedule" (without the 'k' sound). But I think the producers decided that it would confuse Americans.

Natascha McElhone from Californication is British.

What about Rose Byrne from Damages? Another Australian.

**American actors lose roles to Canadian actors too; so many shows are filmed there anymore.**
American shows filming in Canada are required to employ a percentage of Canadian actors in order to keep all the various unions and guilds happy. Plus it makes sense from the economic standpoint to hire people that already live there versus flying people up there all the time.

>>American actors lose roles to Canadian actors too; so many shows are filmed there anymore.

Don't forget Eddie Izzard & Minnie Driver in The Riches.

The John Barrowman example above doesn't make sense - he's an American playing an American, not really the same thing

I think in some cases it's because British people are used to the nuances of regional (us being a tiny island) & international variations on the language.

I could probably distinguish between a lot of American & Australian regions in the same way I know the difference between the various people in Britain (where I'm from) but I know that a lot of Americans I've met can't tell the difference between an English & an Australian accent & couldn't tell the difference between my accent (Yorkshire) & someone from Liverpool.

One thing that bugs me & has done since it was on telly was when English actors use Americanisms when talking like an Englishman - the prime example being Patrick Stewart whose otherwise great role as Picard was spoiled when he pronounced things American.

Also on the flip side: the first inkling I had that Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays Mohinder Suresh on Heroes wasn't actually from India (or at least not from the U.S.) was when I heard him speaking on the season one DVD commentaries.

The first time I heard him I thought "who the heck is that?" Took me a moment to figure it out.

On the flipside, David Anders (Sark in Alias; Takezo Sensei in Heroes) sounds completely British, yet is from Oregon. So weird to hear him WITHOUT an accent.