Barry Keoghan

He has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, and has been nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Barry Keoghan
Keoghan in 2024
Born	(1992-10-17) 17 October 1992 (age 31) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2011–present
Children	1
Awards	Full list

Keoghan began acting in 2011 and gained recognition in 2017 for his roles in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk and Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. He gained praise for his performances in the Irish crime film Calm with Horses (2019) and in the fantasy film The Green Knight (2021). He expanded to big-budget films with his role as Druig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals (2021). In 2022 he appeared in Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and received nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Keoghan then starred in the psychological drama Saltburn (2023), for which he gained nominations for a Golden Globe and BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

He is also known for his television roles, including in the RTÉ drama Love/Hate (2013), the HBO mini-series Chernobyl (2019), the final season of the Netflix reboot Top Boy (2023), and in the Apple TV+ miniseries Masters of the Air (2024). Keoghan is a brand ambassador for Dior and Barretstown.

Keoghan was born on 17 October 1992, and grew up in Summerhill, Dublin, Ireland. His mother struggled with drug addiction and died when he was 12. With his brother Eric, he spent seven years in foster care, in 13 foster homes, before being raised by their grandmother, aunt, and older sister Gemma.

As a child Keoghan appeared in school plays in the O'Connell School on Dublin's North Richmond Street but was banned for "messing about". He attributes his film education to sneaking into films with friends at Cineworld, Parnell Street, from which he was eventually barred. After appearing in Between the Canals, Keoghan studied acting at The Factory (now Bow Street Academy), a local Dublin drama school. He remembers "not even having €2.20 to get the bus to The Factory" at the time.

Keoghan began his acting career in 2011 when he answered a casting notice in a Sheriff Street shop window for the crime film Between the Canals. He portrayed Aido in a small role in the film, which was released in 2011. At the age of 18, he appeared in the Irish soap opera Fair City.

In 2013 Keoghan appeared as Wayne on Love/Hate. The role earned Keoghan recognition in Ireland, and he went on to feature in '71 in 2014 and Mammal and Trespass Against Us in 2016.

 

Keoghan appeared in two films in 2017. He featured as George Mills in Dunkirk and starred as Martin Lang in The Killing of a Sacred Deer alongside Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. He won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The following year, he appeared in Black '47 as Hobson, an English soldier stationed in Ireland during the Great Famine. He also starred in American Animals the same year. He portrayed Spencer Reinhart in the film, based on a real-life theft of rare books from a university library.

In 2018 The Hollywood Reporter described Keoghan as "the next big thing" for his film work in the previous three years. In 2019 he was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

He appeared in the 2019 mini-series Chernobyl. He starred in an episode of Living With Lucy in September 2019. That same month, his work in Calm With Horses was shown in the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. In July 2018, Keoghan was cast as lead character Yorick Brown in the pilot of Y: The Last Man. He left the main series production in February 2020. Keoghan played Druig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals in November 2021. He also appeared in The Green Knight.

Keoghan appeared in Matt Reeves's film The Batman (2022), credited as "Unseen Arkham Prisoner". Reeves later confirmed that Keoghan was the Joker. On 24 March 2022, three weeks after the film's release, Warner Bros. released a deleted scene featuring Keoghan's Joker and Robert Pattinson's Batman. Keoghan received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination, and won BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the 2022 film The Banshees of Inisherin, written and directed by Martin McDonagh.

In March 2022, Keoghan was announced as the new ambassador for the Barretstown children's charity. He helped open the charity's new Aladina Studio funded by the Spanish Aladina Foundation.

In 2023 Keoghan appeared in Emerald Fennell's psychological thriller Saltburn as Oliver Quick, the lead character, alongside Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Alison Oliver, Richard E. Grant, and Carey Mulligan. Keoghan received critical acclaim for his performance, and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor.

In March 2024, British luxury fashion house Burberry named Keoghan as its brand ambassador.

Keoghan is an amateur boxer. From 2017 to 2020 Keoghan was in a relationship with Killarney native Shona Guerin, whom he had met on Good Friday in a Killarney pub where she was working. The pair appeared on Livin' with Lucy together in 2019 in which Lucy Kennedy stayed with them in their Los Angeles home.

In September 2021 Keoghan began dating Alyson Kierans, a dental nurse and orthodontic therapist. A few months later, on Ireland's Mother's Day, 27 March 2022, he disclosed that the couple were expecting a child together. The birth of their son was announced on 8 August 2022. The family moved to Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland, in November 2022. Keoghan said in a 2024 interview that he and Kierans had split in mid-2023. In late 2023, Keoghan began dating American singer-songwriter, Sabrina Carpenter.

Film

Television

Keoghan has received various accolades, including a BAFTA Film Award and nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.