NOTE: The roles listed for any given actor do not necessarily coincide with roles that actor played while associated with this company. The listed roles reflect the complete extant corpus of that actor's career. Neither does the list necessarily suggest a chronology of performance. Though the listings are accurate, the scholar is nevertheless cautioned to research further.

Begun on 10 March 1583 under Elizabeth I, the Queen's Men cannibalized the leading companies of the day for the best players. The year coincides with the death of Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain, Sussex, (who died about one month later on 16 April) and it has been argued that the company was created (by Francis Walsingham) to end the rivalries amongst Elizabeth's nobles to have their companies perform for the queen in the Christmas season. Evidence indicates that, whether intended or not, Elizabeth's nobles did not compete with their sovereign's company. For more information, see Gurr, Andrew The Shakespearian Playing Companies, Oxford UP, 1996.