CILLIAN MURPHY

Date of Birth: May 25, 1976

Born in Ireland, Cillian Murphy began his career in the theater. He first made his mark in the award-winning stage version of Disco Pigs, a role that he would later recreate for the film version. His debut on film was in a short called Quando in 1997, and the following year he played Pat the Barman in Sweety Barrett (1998). Roles in more films followed, including On The Edge (2001), in which he starred as a suicidal teenager opposite Jonathan Jackson and Stephen Rea. He then made his television debut in the BBC mini-series The Way We Live Now (2001). For his role in Disco Pigs (2001), he was nominated for Best Actor in a Feature Film by the Irish Film & Television Academy.

In 28 Days Later (2003), Murphy played the lead role of Jim, a man who wakes up from a coma in a London hospital to learn that a dangerous virus is sweeping across the world. The film was released worldwide and brought Murphy international attention. He then landed a leading role in The Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) opposite Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth as well as a part in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005), joining an all-star cast. The collaboration went so well that Nolan chose to work with him again in the Batman sequel The Dark Knight (2008) and Inception (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Murphy works onstage when he has the time, appearing in The Shape of Things at Dublin’s Gate Theatre in 2002 and Chekov’s The Seagull at the International Theatre Festival in Edinburgh in August 2003.