Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender is a German and Irish actor, racing driver, and producer. His accolades include winning a Volpi Cup, as well as receiving nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was ranked ninth on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. He gained widespread mainstream success playing Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto in the X-Men film series and David 8 / Walter One in the Alien franchise.

Fassbender was born on 2 April 1977 in Heidelberg, West Germany, to a Northern Irish mother and a German father. When he was two years old, his family moved to Killarney, Ireland, where his parents operated a restaurant. Raised Catholic, he served as an altar boy and spent summer holidays in Germany. After deciding to pursue acting at age 17, he attended the Drama Centre London at 19 before dropping out in 1999 to tour with the Oxford Stage Company in the play Three Sisters. Before securing steady acting work, he worked as a bartender, postman, manual labourer, market researcher, and Dell employee.

Fassbender made his screen debut as Pat Christenson in the 2001 television miniseries Band of Brothers. Early credits included roles in the fantasy drama Hex, a radio serialisation of Dracula, an award-winning Guinness commercial, and the play Allegiance at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He made his feature film debut as Stelios in 300 (2006). His breakthrough came playing Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's drama Hunger (2008), for which he earned a British Independent Film Award.

In 2009, Fassbender appeared in Inglourious Basterds and Fish Tank. He experienced a breakout year in 2011, portraying Magneto in X-Men: First Class, Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method, Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, and Brandon in Shame. His portrayal of a sex addict in Shame earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor alongside BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. He reprised his role as Magneto across multiple X-Men films through 2019 and portrayed the android David 8 in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017).

Fassbender earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (2013). He received a second Academy Award nomination, for Best Actor, for portraying the title role in Steve Jobs (2015). His other projects during this era included lead roles in The Counselor (2013), Frank (2014), Macbeth (2015), Slow West (2015), The Light Between Oceans (2016), Trespass Against Us (2016), Assassin's Creed (2016), and The Snowman (2017).

Following 2019, Fassbender took a four-year acting hiatus to compete in motorsport, eventually driving for Proton Competition in the European Le Mans Series in 2023. He returned to acting with the thrillers The Killer (2023), Next Goal Wins (2023), and Black Bag (2025), as well as the spy series The Agency. He has been married to Swedish actress Alicia Vikander since 2017, and they have two sons.