- Ioan Gruffudd is a famous actor
- He starred in the 'Titanic'
- Learn how to pronounce his name here
Ioan Gruffudd is the talented actor best known for playing officer "Harold Lowe" in Titanic and "Mister Fantastic" in the Fantastic Four movies.
The actor, who has also appeared on several TV series, has a strong following. As a Welshman, he also has a very Welsh name, which doesn't quite sound like how it's spelled. Here's how to pronounce the name Ioan Gruffudd.
How do you pronounce Ioan Gruffudd?
Gruffudd is aware that his name isn't all that common outside of Wales and the UK, and he actually discussed how to pronounce it while on Conan O'Brien's talk show years ago.
Conan introduced Gruffudd with the pronunciation of "Yo-an" for Ioan and the conventional surname "Griffith" for Gruffudd. The actor confirmed that this is correct: "Yo-an Griffith."
"It's Welsh for John, really," Gruffudd said of his first name. "Ironically," he continued, "my parents are Griffiths in the traditional English method. They just decided to make my life hell from the day I was born," he laughed. "They gave me the Welsh spelling."
IPA for Welsh confirms that the "I" in "Ioan" is pronounced like the "y" in "you" and the "dd" in "Gruffudd" like the common "th" sound in English.
Ioan Gruffudd iToday
Gruffudd is from Aberdale, Wales, where he was born in 1977. Recently, he acted in the film Ava and has been starring in the title role of the Australian TV series Harrow. He's also attached to the 2022 miniseries titled The Reunion.
The actor was also in the news in 2021 when he split from his longtime wife, the actress and designer Alice Evans. You can click here to see where the other Titanic actors are today.