The roles that Irish actor Barry Keoghan is most renowned for are The Banshees of Inisherin, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Dunkirk. He overcame a turbulent upbringing that included residing in over a dozen foster homes and his mother’s drug addiction to become an accomplished performer.
His pivotal part in The Banshees of Inisherin got him accolades for both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2023. In addition, Keoghan is starring in Saltburn, which will premiere in January 2024, and the upcoming World War II miniseries Masters of the Air.
Early Life
Born on October 18, 1992, Barry Keoghan grew up in Dublin’s Summerhill district. Keoghan was not close to his father, whose name remains undisclosed. Debbie, his mother, had a heroin addiction.
Five-year-old Barry and his younger brother Eric were placed in foster care due to their mother’s addiction. They eventually moved into a two-bedroom apartment with their grandmother Patricia, aunt Lorraine, and cousin Gemma—whom Barry refers to as his “sister”—after having lived in thirteen different houses, according to The Daily Mail.
Barry lost Debbie when he was just 12 years old. He remembers his mother with fondness, despite her personal troubles. In 2019, he revealed to TV host Lucy Kennedy that, before an audition, he prays to her for luck. “She was 6 [feet tall], long black hair. That’s where I get my good looks, sure,” Keoghan said. “I really do feel it. I believe she’s here with me through this journey, the good times and the bad.”
Keoghan “wasn’t in an academic way” and a bit of a troublemaker, according to a boyhood buddy. He was kicked out of the school play at the O’Connell School in Dublin while he was a student for “messing around.” Additionally, Keoghan entered a nearby theater covertly to view movies; after being discovered, he was barred from the facility.
At first, Keoghan wanted to be an athlete like his second cousin, Irish national soccer player Frank Stapleton. However, boxing ended up becoming his favorite sport. When he was in high school, he started training and sparring in the ring. He did this for ten years before taking a brief hiatus to concentrate on his budding acting career.
Becoming an Actor and First Roles
Keoghan watched old Hollywood movies and got interested in acting while he was living with his grandmother. Actors like James Dean, Paul Newman, and Marlon Brando particularly drew him in.
Keoghan has credited his brother, Eric, for believing in his dream to pursue acting seriously. “Because where I’m from, to do acting is not heard of. Being one of the lads and all, you don’t just go, ‘Oh, I want to be an actor,’” he told The Guardian in 2018. “They’d laugh and joke about it. Not in a mean way, but like taking the piss. But once you get the seal of approval from your brother, you just know.”
While strolling through Dublin with his buddies in his teenage years, Keoghan noticed an ad in a store window seeking actors for a film. The gig brought around 120 euros, or roughly $130. “I was just seeing money and, you know, you get off school and whatever,” Keoghan said. “I was like, ‘I’m good at pretending. I can do that onscreen.’” When Keoghan dialed the number, the writer and director of the suggested movie, Mark O’Connor, answered and stated he was still trying to secure money to produce the picture. Keoghan eventually received a small role in Between the Canals (2011) and continued to call O’Connor for updates.
After this small job, Keoghan attended The Factory, a Dublin acting school that is now called the Bow Street Academy. As a result, he was able to take on the brief but memorable role of Wayne in the Irish crime thriller series Love/Hate (2013), which helped him gain widespread recognition. Keoghan, who is now well-known in his native nation, quickly saw his acting career take off internationally.
Movies
Even though Keoghan was working steadily by 2013, he was frequently portrayed in early roles for films like Trespass Against Us (2016) and 71 (2014) as a timid criminal. Then, in two very different films, Keoghan had his big screen breakthrough in 2017.
He made his film debut in the military epic Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, and Cillian Murphy, playing a young civilian sailor named George. Then, in the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which also starred Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, the budding actor delivered one of his most unsettling performances to date. Keoghan portrayed Martin, a young man who befriends a surgeon and his family while harboring dark, unidentified intentions.
The film was highly controversial; while it was praised by certain critics, it was jeered by the Cannes Film Festival crowd. Keoghan took pride in both the movie and Yorgos Lanthimos, the filmmaker. Some find it appealing, while others don’t. I adore it,” Keoghan said to W Magazine. “I don’t want to be in movies that show and tell, basically, and have their happy endings. I want to be in movies where filmmakers are telling unique stories and stories that are challenging people.” Working alongside Kidman and Farrell, who he described as “like a mother and father” on set, was another pleasure for him. The teenage actor saw Farrell as a buddy and mentor, and the two collaborated once more on The Banshees of Inisherin in 2022.
After those two parts, Keoghan acted in two high-profile comic book films before making appearances in films such as American Animals (2018), Calm with Horses (2019), and The Green Knight (2021). In the 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals, he portrayed Druig. eventually, in the 2022 Batman film, he made a brief cameo as “Unseen Arkham Prisoner,” who was eventually revealed to be the fabled foe The Joker.
Although he had only one short scene in the movie, Keoghan has recently hinted his iteration of the character could have a larger role for sequel The Batman Part II, scheduled for an October 2025 release. “I can’t really say anything about that, my man, but… it would be exciting, wouldn’t it, to see the Joker come to life again,” he told Canadian media outlet Etalk. “My smile says it all, you know what I mean?”
By the early 2020s, Keoghan had made a name for himself as a versatile movie actor, but he didn’t receive many major industry prizes. That all changed with Martin McDonagh’s 2022 black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin, which is about two old friends who fall out. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play the friends.
Dominic, Keoghan’s supporting role, was dubbed the movie’s “MVP” by the New York Times, which also claimed that the actor “steals every scene he’s in.” In addition to winning the title at the BAFTA Awards, Keoghan was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards.
Keoghan also had a successful role in the most recent film. In the 2023 thriller Saltburn, he portrayed the cunning Oliver Quick of Oxford University. He was nominated for another Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama as a result of this performance.
TV Roles
Although Keoghan is most recognized for his film appearances, he has also kept up his television acting career since landing his first role in Love/Hate. In the 2016 miniseries Rebellion, which chronicled the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, he portrayed soldier Cormac McDevitt. Three years later, Keoghan portrayed Pavel in two episodes of the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, which dramatized the story of the cleanup efforts following the historic 1986 nuclear plant disaster.
Keoghan most recently starred in the British criminal drama Top Boy, which debuted in 2023. In the 2024 military miniseries Master of the Air, which is a spiritual follow-up to the 2001 film Band of Brothers and was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, he is also slated to play Lt. Curtis Biddick. The series, which premieres on Apple TV+ on January 26 and stars Austin Butler as well, chronicles the experiences of the US Army Air Forces’ 100th Bomb Group during World War II.
Relationship
Off-screen, Keoghan is married to Alyson Sandro, his former girlfriend, and they have a son named Brando, who was born in August 2022 and is named after one of Keoghan’s all-time favorite performers, Marlon Brando.
In an interview with Esquire from October 2023, Keoghan disclosed that he takes his grandmother’s parenting style as a model for raising Brando. “We all usually have someone we base our father figure on and our lessons,” Keoghan said. “She raised 10. She had a great, what do you call it, attitude about everything. Man or woman, that’s what I base it on. She was my father and mother in one.”
Keoghan has lately been romantically associated with Sabrina Carpenter. Photographers saw Keoghan dining with the American actor and former Disney Channel star in December 2023 in Los Angeles, which led to reports that the two were dating. Neither has acknowledged nor refuted the possible partnership.
Keoghan dated Irish County Kerry native Shóna Guerin from 2017 until 2020 before he became a father. Then, in a London pub in February 2021, Keoghan met Scottish orthodontist Alyson Sandro, with whom he subsequently started dating. That October was their first public appearance together. In July 2023, Keoghan and Sandro parted ways nearly a year after the birth of their kid, and the actor deleted their Instagram page’s photos.
ADHD Diagnosis
Keoghan received an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis in 2020. Although it can also impact adults, neurodevelopmental disorders are typically identified in children. The symptoms include being too active, having problems controlling impulsive behaviors, or having difficulty paying attention, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a 2022 podcast interview, the actor stated that he knew he had ADHD since he was often distracted and found it difficult to focus, even if his condition had gone misdiagnosed when he was younger. He claims he has never finished reading a book. He claims that taking medicine for the illness has significantly improved his condition. “My mind used to be like a traffic jam, crazy, and then with the medication it’s like: One car goes, then another car goes,” he said.