
Cillian Murphy
Department: Acting
Biography
Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor. He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early notable film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. Murphy began collaborating with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in 2005, playing Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012) as well as appearing in Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017) and portraying the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the biographical epic Oppenheimer (2023). By the year 2023, Murphy has already worked with Nolan for around 20 years and six films. He also gained prominence for his role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC period drama series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) and for starring in the horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II (2020). In 2011, Murphy won the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Actor and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for the one-man play Misterman. In 2020, The Irish Times named him one of the greatest Irish film actors.
Known For

The Dark Knight
2008

28 Days Later
2002

Batman Begins
2005

The Wind That Shakes the Barley
2006

Sunshine
2007

Breakfast on Pluto
2005

Oppenheimer
2023

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
2026

Cold Mountain
2003

Girl with a Pearl Earring
2003

Watching the Detectives
2007

Peacock
2010

Red Eye
2005

The Trench
1999

The Silent City
2006

Disco Pigs
2001

Inception
2010

Perrier's Bounty
2009

The Edge of Love
2008

Small Things Like These
2024

Sunburn
1999

Intermission
2003

The Dark Knight Rises
2012

In Time
2011

On the Edge
2001

Retreat
2011

The Irish Revolution
2019

Red Lights
2012

Broken
2012

How Harry Became a Tree
2002

Transcendence
2014

Inside Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer
2023

In the Heart of the Sea
2015

Aloft
2014

Steve
2025

Free Fire
2017

Filleann an Feall
2000

A Man of Few Words
2000

Watchmen
2001

TRON: Legacy
2010

At Death's Door
1999

Eviction
1999

Anthropoid
2016

Blood Runs Coal
—

Sweety Barrett
1999

Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth
2015

Dunkirk
2017

Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
2016

The Party
2017

The Delinquent Season
2018

Anna
2019

The Overcoat
2018

Kensuke's Kingdom
2024

A Quiet Place Part II
2021

Waveriders
2008

I'm the Man
2019

Peaky Blinders: A Peek Behind the Curtain
—

Carry On Ken
2006

All of This Unreal Time
2021

Lennon or McCartney
2014

The Silent Man
2018

From the Mountain
2014

Quando
1997

Untitled Damien Chazelle/Prison Movie
—

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2026

Misterman
2011

The Water
2009

Harriet and the matches
—

The Meetings of the water
—

28 Years Later Part 3
—

A Quiet Place Part III
2027

Fight for First: Excel Esports
2021

The Way We Live Now
2001

Peaky Blinders
2013

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
2005

Golden Globe Awards
1944

Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014

Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003

60 Minutes
1968

Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
2014

The Oscars
1953

The Irish Revolution
2019

A World of Calm
2020

The Oscars
1953

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015

The Graham Norton Show
2007

Late Night with Seth Meyers
2014