NORTH-EAST actor Jamie Bell – who won worldwide fame after starring in the film Billy Elliot – has tied the knot with his sweetheart at a secret ceremony, it has been revealed.

Mr Bell, who hails from Billingham, near Stockton, has confirmed he married Evan Rachel Wood at a private ceremony attended by family and friends in California.

The newlyweds met seven years ago while filming a music video for Green Day and have had an on/off relationship.

Evan had a highly-publicised engagement to rock star Marilyn Manson, before she and Jamie rekindled their love in the summer of 2011. The couple, who both have tattoos of each other's initials, are said to have got engaged in January.

The 25-year-old bride wrote on her Twitter page: “Words cannot describe the happiness I am feeling. Overwhelming.”

The acting couple each have four films due out for release next year.

Evan will appear in The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman with Shia LaBeouf, the romance It Is What It Is with Sigourney Weaver. And she is set to play a female truck driver in Michael Polish’s 18 Wheel Butterfly.

Meanwhile, Jamie is to star in Filth with James McAvoy, sci-fi drama Snowpiercer with Tilda Swinton, and Lars von Trier’s drama Nymphomaniac.