Cowan recently played King Henry VII in Starz's The Spanish Princess and featured in the Hulu miniseries Black Cake.

[2] He later obtained a first class degree in drama at the University of Birmingham, before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, from which he graduated in July 2001.

Cowan has appeared in the films The Golden Compass, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, Love and Other Disasters, and Howl.

He played Stanley Kowalski in the 2009 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Donmar Warehouse, and was a lead in Les Blancs at the National Theatre in 2016.

[citation needed] On 7 August 2011, Elliot swam the 16 miles (26 km) long Lake Zurich Swim race,[4] to raise funds for the Neonatal Unit at Guy's and St. Thomas's in memory of Alfie Blacksell.